Aboriginal Lands and Resources: An Assessment of the Royal Commission\u27s Recommendations

The Aboriginal peoples have been living on the land in what is now Canada and deriving their livelihood from its natural resources for thousands of years. Elder Alex Stead, at a public hearing held by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) in Winnipeg on April 22, 1992, put it this way: We are so close to the land. This is my body when you see this mother earth, because I live by it. Without that water, we dry up, we die. Without food from the animals, we die, because we got to live on that. That\u27s why I call that spirit, and that\u27s why we communicate with spirits. We thank them every day that we are alive (RCAP Report, vol.2, Pt. 2,435-36)