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Slowly, the joyous faces of a pair of young Innu girls come into view, bathed in the glow of headlamps, as they delight in a night-fishing expedition with their families.

"This COP is all about halting and reversing biodiversity loss," said Valérie Courtois of the Innu community of Mashteutiatsh and director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative.

Shaking hands with Innu women while visiting central Labrador, Canada, in 1997.

They are a band of mostly pine, birch and spruce trees that stretches across Alaska, Canada, northern Scandinavia and Siberia, and is home to hundreds of Indigenous communities like the Innu and Cree.

She began her Friday news conference by offering condolences to the loved ones of Raphaël André, a 51-year-old homeless Innu man whose body was found in a portable toilet Jan. 17, a stone’s throw from a Montreal shelter he often frequented that was forced to halt overnight services because of an outbreak.