Christi Belcourt wants name removed from Mtis Nation of Ontario registry

Up North7:11Renowned Indigenous artist Christi Belcourt leaving Mtis Nation of Ontario

Her father was one of the founding members of the Mtis Nation of Ontario. But now Mtis artist Christi Belcourt says she wants her name removed from the group's registry, because of its support of pipelines and mining companies.

An internationally known Mtis artist from northern Ontario wants her and her daughter's names removed from the Mtis Nation of Ontario registry.

ChristiBelcourt is from Espanola and her artwork can be found in some of Canada's most prestigious galleries. In a letter to the Mtis Nation of Ontario this week, Belcourt said she disagrees with the group's decision to sign deals with Energy East, Nuclear Waste Management Organization and other mining agreements.

"We need to, as Indigenous people, hold true to our values and our ways of our ancestors, which are ways of the land, ways of the water" she told CBC News.

"We need to be able to live with integrity, as our ancestors have always done, which is to walk in balance with the earth, and to walk softly."

Belcourt said it's not a decision she made lightly, as her father Tony was one of the people who started the Mtis Nation of Ontario.

There are 155 First Nations who have signed the Energy East deal, along with the Mtis Nation, but Belcourt says they're doing so out of poverty and desperation.