people have to understand the true meaning of amazing which is a person of mixed identity not just two could be three or four but it's a person of mixed identity they look at their family tree and say oh we've got some ancestry now I may t be who you are don't be us and I think that's what we're trying to say [Music] the 2016 census revealed that in some parts of Eastern Canada the number of people who self-identified as maytee jumped by over one hundred and forty percent the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled on two cases that attempt to determine who is matey but it's a complicated question in 2003 the court ruled that matey hunting rights are equal to the rights of other indigenous peoples but the court needed to identify exactly who would be entitled to those rights so the poly test was created to determine that among other things the test requires an individual to be a member of a current matey community and be able to prove an ancestral connection 13 years later in a different case the court ruled that the federal government not provincial governments are responsible for laws affecting the rights of maytee peoples but the court didn't specifically define who was considered to be matey there is yet to be a court case that affirms the rights of any matey organization other than those that come from the Red River region in Manitoba some say the lack of clarity on who exactly is matey has created a misconception about who is entitled to matey rights being matey means that you are a part of that distinct nation that distinct people I think there's a move away from again from the understanding that were matey because we're mixed if there is someone in Nova Scotia with mixed ancestry who is it for me to say who they are I can say Who I am and I can probably say that they're not us which is where the whole a disagreement comes in you know something I could care less I know what I'm doing in my heart I know what I'm doing is right for my people I'm gonna continue to do it laughs you're hardened I'm here I'm stay the Manitoba matey Federation is recognized by Canada as an official indigenous government it represents up to 35,000 matey people the eastern woodlands / Scotia is not recognised by any government Parker says it represents over 70,000 self-identified matey people what criteria does mnf used to define its membership you have to self-identify which is the fairly easy part of it you have to have a connection to the historic matey nation and you have to be accepted by the contemporary his matey nation you must prove to us that you have native heritage from Nova Scotia from the mig/mag make my people you and it has to be Italy well we don't put the generations as long as you've got a drop of Indian blood in your Union your mateys is there a cut-off point for how many generations no no it's not fair you were who you were at what point would what an applicant get denied membership well if you if you were unable to prove your connection to the historic matey nation then that would be a reason to deny oh if you go too far back I mean we just study actually I don't think this I don't think we've ever denied even I don't know how how I'd go about answering that question but you don't think that you've denied anybody interested I I don't think we but no I don't think so there's a pretty big problem out there with with what they're doing and and again I I'm careful but there's some there's some pretty big issues that they've got they look at their family tree and say oh we've got some ancestry now I'm 80 now I can hunt just like these other people and I'm going to start my own nation if they are able to use that word matey then then I think it calls into question our our own nation had our own people hood I want recognition from my people god I've been in this business service since 1973 I should know something but the further further ahead I walk the further I go back two steps ahead and three steps back himself and it's pissing me off I want people to understand that we are different from the from the norm yet we are the same okay we're only different because of our culture we can't practice our culture because we've been put into the white man's culture they would never let us that's our culture I'm only a simple woman I said that's all I am I don't know how to go about all this to develop a community I don't know if we'd be accepted but to heck with that if we develop our community that's it I'm not saying that we don't need to have a conversation with those people who are who live in Quebec and New Brunswick and Nova Scotia I'm saying we don't I don't think we need to be scared of that conversation but we just we need to be able to say what we say and and I think the facts speak for themselves more than anything you