Long before Europeans set foot in Labrador, our Aboriginal ancestors lived in this land. Labrador was part of them and they were a part of Labrador. Inuit and Indian nations have inhabited Labrador for thousands of years. The bounty of our Creator is especially plentiful here, sustaining and nurturing us through many generations. Inuit peoples and Indian peoples lived here in harmony, sharing and assisting each other in their diverse communities throughout this land of Labrador.

Although Labrador was one of the first places in Canada to be visited by European visitors, their arrival in our land has been recent in comparison with the long presence of our Aboriginal ancestors. Temporary visits by fishermen and other travelers started in the middle centuries of the last millennium. However, long before those early European forays, Inuit and Indian peoples together occupied and used on a regular basis all of Labrador and its bountiful resources.

No established control over Labrador by authorities outside of our own people occurred until the last decades of the 1900s. Until recent memory, our people lived, for the most part, in their traditional ways, in their communities. We knew who our people were. Our way of life sustained us and our sense of identity made us proud.

We are Aboriginal people of Labrador. Descendants of our Aboriginal ancestors, we also recognize and honor our other ancestors. Labrador is our land and it always will be. Our rights are protected and enshrined in the Constitution of Canada. No one can take them from us. Recognition by others shows respect for our Rights. However, our Rights exist regardless of what position any person, organization or level of government may, from time to time, chose to take for their own purposes.

Our traditions resonate with the ways of our elders. Our respect for the environment, the sharing of our harvest, our knowledge of traditional medicines and practices, our care for each other; all these and more can be traced directly to our Aboriginal heritage. This Aboriginality, and our ties to our land and its resources, are core to our existence.

Our people have relied upon the resources of this land from time immemorial. Fish, sea mammals, birds, caribou, forests, minerals and other natural resources now form, and have always formed, an integral part of our way of life. Whether inland, on the coasts or on the seas, our people are in their traditional territory.

No society remains frozen in time. Our Aboriginal societies in Labrador are no different. We have absorbed or integrated knowledge and technologies as they have become available. This is not a repudiation of our Aboriginality but merely a natural extension of it.

Our communities, now as through time immemorial, occupy and use all of Labrador. Each community is linked to each other in kinship and friendship. Membership in a political organization does not determine whether someone is an Aboriginal person. We know who each other are and the Aboriginal people of Labrador are a continuous presence from north to south, east to west.

Over the years, external forces have tried to dictate to us how we are to define ourselves and how we were to organize ourselves. It is not our intent to divide and separate our people and their communities. That is not the Aboriginal way. We endorse a policy of inclusiveness, in the traditional ways.

We are entitled to the respect of government, at all its levels. We are entitled to consultation from government when any action they may take could impair or interfere with our rights. We have a right to involvement in the management, as an equal and full participant, of the natural resources of our lands. We have the right to exercise our communal harvest rights, free from interference by authorities and under our own management regimes. We have the right to full involvement in the economic life of Labrador, knowing that we are the stewards of the natural resources of this land.

The Labrador Metis Nation is governed by an elected Council. The Council is comprised of the four (4) Executive members and sixteen (16) other Councillors. The Council, with the exception of the two Elders are elected by universal suffrage from Metis residing in Labrador.

Membership in the Labrador Metis Nation is granted to people of "Metis" ancestry. "Metis" means an Aboriginal person of Labrador who has lived in Labrador prior to 1940 and their descendants who are recognized by the Association as an Aboriginal person of Labrador.

A person who is admitted to the membership of the Labrador Metis Nation is bound to further to the best of his/her ability the objectives, interests and influences of the Association, and shall observe all the by-laws of the Association.

The objectives for which the Labrador Metis Nation is established (LMN Memorandum of Association):

• To foster and develop participation by the membership of the Association in all of the legal, civil and constitutional rights and liberties enjoyed in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador and in Canada.
• To foster and preserve the traditional culture of the membership, and, to promote pride and self-respect in the Metis heritage among the Metis of Labrador.
• To protect, maintain and develop hunting, fishing, trapping and land rights of the Metis people and their rights to pursue traditional activities.
• To foster and develop members' aspirations and participation through the democratic system with regard to all matters affecting the members.
• To provide guidance and protection for the legal, constitutional and aboriginal rights of the members.
• To assist through research, disseminating information and sponsoring directly or indirectly the development of viable economic projects and programs.
• To foster and develop a spirit of co-operation and goodwill among the various Aboriginal peoples of Labrador and Newfoundland.