This week on Unreserved, how First Nations are taking land back and taking charge of their future through urban reserves.
Naawi-Oodena means “centre of the heart and community” in the Anishinaabe language. It's the name given to what will be Canada's newest urban reserve. The site is in southwest Winnipeg and is about 65 hectares... or 80 Canadian football fields. Chief Dennis Meeches has been part of efforts to reclaim this land for Treaty One from day one.
Ginger Gosnell-Myers says urban reserves are a win-win for First Nations and municipalities. Gosnell-Myers is a fellow at Simon Fraser University who studies urban Indigenous planning, policy, and decolonization. She gives us the 101 about urban reserves, including details about the one planned by the Squamish Nation in Vancouver.
Muskeg Lake Cree Nation is where it all began in 1988. Leaders of the Saskatchewan reserve set out – and succeeded – in creating the first commercial urban reserve in Canada. Barrett Greyeyes and former chief Harry Lafond say it has improved the prospects of their nation and was their home all along.
