Open letter from Memengweshii Council

June 23, 2015

Editor’s Note: The Anishinabek News apologizes for publishing the pieces at the end of May, 2015 which questioned the integrity of the Memengweshii Council. The articles were promptly taken down on June 1st.

June 22, 2015

It’s Time to Act on a New Partnership – A Dedication to our Children and their Children

We are the members of a newly established council called the Memengweshii Council. Inspired by ancestral Algonquin-Anishinabe practices, the Council is a non-political group made up of Algonquin-Anishinabekwe from various Algonquin and other First Nations communities who believe in the importance of sustainability. Our mandate is to ensure the integrity and appropriateness of the Zibi development on issues of Algonquin and First Nations culture, heritage and socio-economics.

Perhaps you have heard about this project already. A company in Ottawa called Windmill Developments will be building the world’s most environmentally and socially sustainable mixed-use community on a 37-acre property on the Chaudière and Albert Islands in Ottawa, and along the riverbanks in Gatineau. Located in the heart of Algonquin-Anishinabe territory, this former industrial site is highly contaminated, fully paved-over and has been restricted to the public for approximately 200 years.

At first glance, it may be easy to see the same old story, to criticize this project as a condo development by greedy developers at the expense of First Nations People. But to do so is to miss an opportunity for our people to rise above and advance.

Windmill has offered a hand in friendship to our People. Never before has a private developer been as inclusive, collaborative and respectful in its Ginondiwin of the Algonquin-Anishinabe in this part of Canada, and perhaps in all the country.

As members of the Memengweshii Council, we accept this hand in friendship and offer our support to Windmill Developments because we believe that together, we are creating a new model for how First Nations and non First Nations can relate positively and constructively.

The Memengweshii Council does not speak for the Nation, and we have never claimed to do so. But every individual in our community has a responsibility to take the steps that will advance our People. It is our profound belief that Zibi represents a landmark opportunity to create a new model of collaboration with the original people that will result in a long awaited and desired change.

To seize the opportunity before us, we must see this One Planet Living condominium development as the source for building a new relationship with First Nations. It is the only option that can deliver true and lasting benefits to current and future generations.

Already, Windmill has delivered benefits to our community by partnering with Decontie Construction from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg. Decontie will act as a general contractor for the Zibi project, with the specific responsibility of recruiting and employing a strong Algonquin-Anishinabe labour force to help with remediation and construction work. As part of this arrangement, Windmill has committed to assisting with the training, mentoring and certification of Algonquin workers over the 15-year construction span of this $1.2 billion redevelopment project.

The partnership model between Windmill and Decontie is unprecedented in this part of Canada. Because of Zibi, a strong cohort of Algonquin-Anishinabe will come out of the project with the ability to get work when and where they choose.

For the land and water, Windmill is investing $125 million to clean up the Zibi site and restore the contaminated soil, renaturalize the riverbanks to protect the river, and work with its neighbours to open up access to Chaudière Falls. It will also use green energy to become a zero-emission community, a first in Canada.

For the people and community, Windmill will formally and publically recognize that the project site is on unceded Algonquin territory — also precedent-setting in the region. Windmill wishes to ensure that a strong Algonquin-Anishinabe presence is weaved into the tapestry of Zibi. Through economic development, jobs, training, youth mentorships, art, culture and heritage, Zibi will result in a meaningful and authentic showing of the Algonquin Nation in the heart of Canada’s Capital, a presence which is currently sadly invisible.

It’s one of the reasons we selected the name Memengweshii, or ‘butterfly’, for our council. The metaphor of the butterfly applies both to this land (which will go from contaminated, paved over and fenced-off to renaturalized, colourful and vibrant), and to the relationship between cultures (from ignorance, mistrust and disrespect, evolving to friendship and mutual benefit)

It is no coincidence that the Memengweshii Council is made up of women. We are mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunts. We believe it is vital to the wellness and development of our children (and their children) that they can see and experience a positive model of First Nations and non First Nations working in friendship, as opposed to in isolation or in conflict. So few positive examples of this exist for our children to model and live by, and this is our chance to create one.

So many are needed to help foster the conditions where friendships bloom and conflict evolves to collaboration. We must forge a path that rises above the social environment of lateral violence that exists within the communities of our people.

We hope that our Nation will come as one and become a story that our youth will tell about how our generation chose to finally accept that we’re all linked to each other, and linked to nature itself.

The time is now for the lateral violence to end, and for a positive transformation to begin: Memengweshii.

Meegwetch,

The Memengweshii Council

Brenda Odjick Angela Dawn Bercier-Daniels Josée Bourgeois Wanda Thusky

Chair Member Member Non-Voting Member

—More information on Zibi and the possibility of a new relationship between First Nations and non-First Nations can be found at www.zibi-i-site.ca—