Community leaders share self-governance successes

By Rick Garrick

SAULT STE. MARIE — At the Anishinabek Nation Governance Summit, Long Lake #58 Ogimaa-Kwe Judy Desmoulin highlighted the more than 12-fold increase in high school graduates since her community began reclaiming control over its education starting some 25 years ago. Ogimaa-Kwe Desmoulin delivered her presentation on the Kinoomaadziwin Education Body on the first day of the Summit, held Feb. 25-27 at the Quattro Hotel and Conference Centre in Sault Ste. Marie.

“We had seven Grade 12 graduates over a 25-year period prior to us taking over, so we are now at 88 Grade 12 graduates over the same period of time basically,” Ogimaa-Kwe Desmoulin says. “Our graduation ceremonies are very special, we really involve the whole community and the Elders and, of course, we incorporate our culture and language in all these things.”

Ogimaa-Kwe Desmoulin says the community also developed a parent curriculum program for their students.

“I strongly believe that we are going to have a healthier generation of children coming up because a lot of these kids have learned the effects of say smoking when you’re pregnant and smoking even after in your house, alcohol consumption, and using different kinds of drugs,” Ogimaa-Kwe Desmoulin says. “All of this is part of the parent curriculum program, so a lot of these mothers refrain from doing these kinds of things now that they’re a little bit older and they’re having children.”

Ogimaa-Kwe Desmoulin says the employment rate has also improved in her community.

“I can honestly say anybody who wants to work or train in our community, they can,” Desmoulin says. “If they want to come out and earn money or train to do something, there is opportunity for all to do that.”

Ogimaa-Kwe Desmoulin says the Anishinabek Nation Education System/Kinoomaadziwin Education Body process had inspired her community to take back their education.

“One of the things that we learned going down this road was why schools were created in the first place, with the general Canadian society — they were created to shape the minds basically of those who live in this country,” Ogimaa-Kwe Desmoulin says. “So, we took that same concept and we made education in the way that we needed to to help our kids become who they really are. So, through this process, we have that local control to do such a thing.”

April Cardinal, social services director with Wahnapitae First Nation and a member of the Koganaawsawin Board of Directors, highlighted how the community developed prevention supports during her presentation on Koganaawsawin on the first day of the Summit.

“We had no prevention supports in Wahnapitae and now we have a team,” Cardinal says. “We had single parents struggling with needing self-care, so we developed a program that allowed them to send their kids to day care, we had a vehicle and we drove their kids to day care. We built a beautiful playground for the kids to play in, we’re currently looking at plans to build a covered ice rink, we have food security programs, we have seasonal clothing supports, we are developing a community self-serve kitchen.”

Cardinal says they have hired a post majority worker for the youth and are currently in the process of building a six-plex apartment building for youth.

“Our youth are going to have their own apartments with their own kitchens, laundry facilities, and a space where we are going to meet with them weekly, [bi-]weekly and teach them how to cook, how to do laundry, how to fill out an application, and just help them along with their journey,” Cardinal says. “Just last month we were approved for a $5.5 million family wellness centre that will house all of our social services staff and some of our health staff.”

Moose Deer Point Gimaa Kwe Rhonda Williams-Lovett highlighted how her community was the first to ratify the Anishinabek Nation Governance Agreement in February 2020 during her presentation on B’Maakonigan on the first day of the Summit.

“As it sits today, we are in the process now of moving forward our citizenship law, E’Dbendaagzijig, and we are doing the consultation process now,” Gimaa Kwe Williams-Lovett says. “We’ve developed a governance department and I’ve had two young ladies take over from me in that department and now they’re moving forward with all of the law consultation.”

Gimaa Kwe Williams-Lovett says they have made great strides with their overall structure over the past couple of years.

“This is a big change for Moose Deer Point,” Gimaa Kwe Williams-Lovett says, noting that they have an overall population of about 600 citizens with about 200 in the community. “How are we going to handle this? How are we going to handle being a self-governing community? We’ve made strides in that area too to become more efficient at what we do. Our laws are going to say how we’re going to proceed, but our policies are there now, our policies are there to make sure that we are prepared to be an accountable government, to be a transparent government, and we’re quite proud of that.”

Livestreams of the three days of the Anishinabek Nation Governance Summit are available on the Anishinabek Nation YouTube page.