“The Ardoch Algonguin First Nation is an Anishnabek community that is located in the Madawaska, Mississippi and Rideau watersheds. The Ardoch Algonquin First Nation (AAFNA) is non-status; that is, it is not designated as an Indian Band by the government of Canada. Historically the AAFNA communities’ roots are in the families who wintered where these rivers come close together. Their use and habitation of this location originates in time immemorial. Culturally the AAFNA community is Algonquin and historically their ancestors shared in the summer life of the Ottawa River. They gathered on the Kichi Sìbì trading, guiding and protecting their advantage as the People of the Big River. When settlement began to devour land in Eastern Ontario at the beginning of the nineteenth century other families retreated up river and sought refuge among the Ardoch Algonquins. Mississauga families also came to share in the traditional lifestyle that lingered in the backlands and along the shores of the headwater lakes. By the middle of the nineteenth century Ardoch Algonquin families could no longer safely travel to Kanasatake where they once summered.”
– Bob Lovelace on the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation website
http://www.aafna.ca/history.html
“Omàmìwinini is a term in the language that describes our relationships as human beings within our homeland. It is also the term by which we are known in the spirit world. Many Ardoch Omàmìwinini communities today use Algonquin as a replacement for the original term. I use both interchangeably in the book as a mechanism to reintroduce the term Ardoch Omàmìwinini into our current consciousness.”
– Paula Sherman, in her book, Dishonour of the Crown
http://arbeiterring.com/new/dishonour.html
The Ardoch Omàmìwinini (Algonquin) Working Group of IPSMO is committed to working with the Ardoch Omàmìwinini in culturally appropriate and politically supportive ways. Its current focus is to stand behind the Ardoch Omàmìwinini and their settler allies in their struggle against colonialism and in support of their effort to prevent uranium mining on their homeland.
Contact: ipsmo@riseup.net
Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa 