Anishinabek Education System defies years of assimilation attempts, Grand Chief says

Twenty years of negotiations over Indigenous education inOntario are coming to a head this fall.

That's when First Nations through north and central Ontarioare voting on the Anishinabek Education System.

If it passes, it will give more than 30 communities in the Anishinabek Nation powers similar to school boards, including developing curriculum and allocating resources.

The initiative is one of the most significant political activities of his long career,said Anishinabek Nation Grand Chief Patrick Madahbee because it has the power to restore language, culture and identity to First Nations children.

"One of our elders said a moose is a moose a duck is a duck and an Anishinabe is an Anishinabe, we can't be anythingelse," Madahbee said.

"All these attempts by various governments over the years to assimilate us and try to make us something we're not have not worked and will never work," he added.

• Anishinabek First Nations ready for vote on historic education reform

A meeting about the Anishinabek Education System takes place tonight in Thunder Bay at the Victoria Inn, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Other meetings are scheduled across northern Ontario with a final ratification vote at the end of November.