Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Derek Nepinak's making strides to change the way first nations people think in terms of their rights and responsibilities in Canada. That includes concern for a proper understanding of food sovereignty and treaty hunting. Nepinak says it's not about what many think.

"I want to talk about food sovereignty and the Treaty Right to Hunting. You know, there's this idea that everybody holds an individual right to go and knock down animals in the forest. To me, that's not what the Treaty Right to Hunt is. The Treaty Right to Hunt is actually a responsibility to maintain lands where animals can live."

He clarifies the issue.

"And that's more of a conservation discussion. It falls more within the realm of stewardship, because we need the land to feed our families. And that's ultimately, at the end of the day, what the Food Sovereignty discussion is about. And we need to start by recognizing the broader scope of the responsibility; the broader scope of the freedom to go out and to feed your family."

Predicting the way first nations citizens might react, Nepinak explains, "I've brought new ideas forward to think about who we are in the scope of freedom as opposed to the scope of contained rights that are described or predefined by different levels of government. And it's a difficult issue to grab onto, because we've allowed ourselves to be contained within provincial regulations and Canadian legal standards for far too long. We have to take our stewardship responsibilities back as indigenous people. It means we are the power players on the lands that we've always called home. It's not about taking all the wealth of the land. It's actually about preserving it, and to make sure that there's air to breathe and water to drink for generations to come."