The Innu Nation says it has made the “difficult decision” to cancel an exhibit scheduled to open this coming weekend to mark National Indigenous Peoples Day.

In a release issued yesterday, the Innu Nation says the decision follows the direction conveyed by The Rooms that the provincial government “requires the exhibit to present a version of Innu history that is inconsistent” with the archaeological consensus and the Innu Nation’s own understanding of its history.

The Innu Nation says “Innu Tools for Survival” was developed through collaboration with the Innu Nation, the Canadian Museum of History and The Rooms, and was intended to “celebrate the continuity of Innu culture over thousands of years” by showcasing the “ingenuity, resilience and survival of the Innu people.”

However this week they were informed that they would not be allowed to present what they say is the accepted academic consensus of the Innu timeline in Labrador, and would be “required to support the province’s own controversial theory of Innu history.”

Innu Nation Grand Chief Simon Pokue says that position “amounts to the erasure of Innu history.” The Innu Nation says it is not aware of “any working archaeologists outside the provincial government” that support what it calls the “fringe theory” being put forward by the province.

VOCM News has reached out to the provincial government for response.

This can only happen in Newfoundland and Labrador, the last colony of Great Britain to join Canada in 1949. I am so deflated and angered with the continued behaviour of the government, especially with new government of @TonyWakehamNL. @PremierofNL . pic.twitter.com/YKeXXWeA2V

— Peter Penashue (@PeterPenashue) June 18, 2026