Anishinabek Nation Governance Summit explores the next steps as a Nation in Anishinaabe Governance

By  Rick Garrick

SAULT STE. MARIE — Getzidjig Advisory Council Getzit Mishoomis James Mishquart shared a song, Looking for the Good Life, to finish off the learning at the Anishinabek Nation Governance Summit’s Establishing Next Steps as a Nation session. Led by Patrick Wedaseh Madahbee, Anishinabek Nation Commissioner on Governance, the Establishing Next Steps as a Nation session took place on the third day of the Summit, held Feb. 25-27 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

“It comes from around the Treaty #3 area but we use it — Mino-bimaadiziwin, Mino meaning good, bimaadiziwin, life — in that word bimaadiziwin is the word odis, that’s your umbilical cord, your belly button, that’s the continuation of a good life from one generation to the next, from our caregivers, our mothers, and our grandmothers,” Mishoomis Mishquart says. “You know, when I end all the time I tell people when I get ready to leave, I tell them … you look after yourselves, each and everyone of us here are number one, we’re no good to anybody if we’re not good to ourselves. Self-care is so important, realize that when you need to look after number one, if you can do that, you can help everybody and anybody, your family, your co-workers, the people we serve.”

Mishoomis Mishquart, an Elder from Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek, also raised the importance of the clan teachings during the Establishing Next Steps as a Nation session.

“When you talk about the clans, up in Superior area, two land clans couldn’t marry, two water clans couldn’t marry,” Mishquart says. “It had to be a water clan and a land clan to be allowed to get together.”

Deb McGregor, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Indigenous Ways of Climate and Water Sustainability for Planetary Health and Well-being and professor Faculty of Science and Faculty of Arts at the University of Calgary and a Whitefish River citizen, says one of the issues with implementing self-governance is that Anishinabek Nations leaders and citizens only know what it’s like to be under the Indian Act.

“In terms of trying to implement Anishinaabe governance, we have to understand the resistance to this not just with leadership but also citizens because I think (for) a lot of them, it’s really unknown,” McGregor says. “I think Patrick (Madahbee), you’ve said this a number of times, it’s a state of mind when for 150-plus years, all our citizens know and we know is the Indian Act. People don’t remember what it was like to not be under the Indian Act to know [what)] Anishinaabe governance looked like, but we do know that because we learned that yesterday. We need to start teaching it and we need to be comfortable with it not going well and then learning, getting the correction from Chop (Waindubence) to learn that we use our tools and ceremonies and knowledge and language to do better.”

McGregor adds that communications is important for getting information about governance out to citizens.

“You have to think through how you communicate with people differently, so probably young people aren’t going to read a 200-page report or anything like that — they’re on their phones a lot so that’s where they’re going to read there or watch short videos,” McGregor says. “I think in terms of communication, you strategize around how you might reach older folks, how we might want to use language in some of the communications so people are learning. Maybe communication is even things like learning circles in the communities, so just being really creative in terms of how to communicate with different [groups].”

Serpent River Councillor John (Jack) Trudeau says one of the things they are doing in Serpent River is reviewing all of the governance systems.

“So that kind of comes in good timing because we need some ideas on how to best govern our community,” Trudeau says. “What I’ve learned obviously is our Turtle clan system, that needs to be looked at as a viable way to govern ourselves. It would be so good to have our community come to our meetings and get the information they need, have an opportunity to ask questions about our community or input given to our leadership. What I’ve learned is the idea of getting a Talking Stick so that there is a way to best bring out in a good way, so everybody has a chance, one person speaks, we all listen, and then that gives that person the empowerment to say, ‘My ideas have value and I would like to just say what I feel.’ And there’s where we get our true information of what our community needs and their fears.”

Livestreams of the three days of the Anishinabek Nation Governance Summit are posted at the Anishinabek Nation YouTube page.