The Assembly of First Nations has invited premiers and Prime Minister Mark Carney to a daylong ceremony ahead of their October meeting.
The premiers, Carney and First Nations representatives are set to meet in Ottawa on Oct. 26 — the first such gathering in decades — just as tensions are rising over the federal and provincial governments’ major projects agenda.
National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said First Nations leaders want to bring their own cultural practices to that meeting and she hopes all premiers accept the invitation.
“We’re taught as First Nations people that ceremony and prayers change things,” Woodhouse Nepinak told The Canadian Press.
“One of the most important things for our people is to remember that we’re not just here as humans, but there’s Creator looking over all of us and that we need to work together and remember that there’s someone else in charge — not just governments and people and First Nations, but somebody bigger than all of us.”
The AFN is still working with elders across the country to decide what the ceremony day will look like, and to determine who will be representing First Nations at the meeting.
Woodhouse Nepinak said the AFN is also working to secure a youth delegation to attend the meeting.
The First Nations-First Ministers meeting was promised by Carney earlier this year.
Woodhouse Nepinak and her predecessors have for years been calling for First Nations representation at meetings between the prime minister and the premiers. Those calls got louder last year when the federal and provincial governments started discussing among themselves ways to fast-track major infrastructure projects.
Woodhouse Nepinak has said the meeting will be a “big test” of Canada’s ability to reconcile economic growth with First Nations rights.
The AFN is a national advocacy body that takes its direction from some 630 First Nations chiefs through special and annual general assemblies. It is not a rights-holding institution but it represents rights-holding chiefs.
Carney and his cabinet met with First Nations chiefs last July in Gatineau, Que. It was a tightly controlled meeting and chiefs were asked to send their questions about the major project agenda in advance.
Media were barred access to the meeting site, and First Nations leaders were made to speak about what was happening in the room outside in the summer heat — including Woodhouse Nepinak.
The AFN advocated for the entire meeting to be made public, and Woodhouse Nepinak later apologized for having to hold a press conference outside of the meeting location.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2026.
By Alessia Passafiume | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.