OUR MISSION

The Sou'West Nova Métis Council was created and exists to foster, promote, and preserve our Métis identity and heritage. We will strive to provide education, training, business opportunities, and leadership in self-governance so that our people can reach their full potential and realize economic, cultural, social, and spiritual wellness.

OUR VALUES

The values of the Sou'West Nova Métis Council are as the traditional values of our ancestors, with the belief that the whole community is more important than an individual or group of individuals.

OUR VISION

As Aboriginal people of Canada, recognized under section 35 of the Constitution of Canada, we share a unique role with our First Nation and Inuit relations. It will be our goal to become self-governing as laid out in the final report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Once again, for our ancestors, our families and our future generations, we shall become known as "the people who own themselves".

OUR PEOPLE

The membership of the Sou'West Nova Métis Council is comprised of Métis or non-status aboriginals of predominantly Mi'kmaq, Wampanoag, Nehantic, and Narragansetts ancestry.

OUR IDEALOGY

There are two major aboriginal beliefs through which we understand and interpret the reason for our existence in this great universe.

1 - We believe that we are responsible for the well-being of the next seven generations and that the decisions made today will impact seven generations into the future. Therefore, all decisions and actions must be made with the utmost care and consideration for the future of our children and their children after them.

2 - We are not the owners of our children, but merely the custodians of them until the Creator calls for them. They are on loan to us for safe-keeping and as we believe in this, we must equip them with the best possible tools to lead them and our communities into the next seven generations into the future.

Our children are the KEY TO THE FUTURE and the leaders of tomorrow and our future must not and cannot be governed according to the measure of dollars.

Education for the youth who are our future shall and should never be delayed or forgotten. We must begin by utilizing the holistic traditional approach of the four directions of empowerment:

• Mental Health by education and respect
• Physical Health by therapy and sharing that knowledge
• Emotional Health by caring, counseling, and psychological training
• Spiritual Health by hope and sharing these beliefs in positive role models

This will ensure a positive effect in this shared universe for a better and brighter future for ourselves and others. We must begin by positive healing for the youth and the community by  allowing them to have the necessary tools and vehicles to safely and smoothly succeed in their chosen goals and aspirations in life for a better, greater, holistic lifestyle.