Chief Reg Niganobe nominated for the Premier’s Award
By Rick Garrick
MISSISAUGA FIRST NATION—Mississauga #8 Chief Reginald Niganobe credits his role in the development of his community’s new constitution for his nomination for the Premier’s Awards. The annual awards were launched in 1992 and are administered by Colleges Ontario.
“[The development of the constitution] was a long process, about 20 years in the making,” says the St. Lawrence College Social Service Worker graduate. “In the end it was almost a year-long endeavour to reach out to the community because we’re around 360 on the reserve, but we’re over 900 off the reserve. We needed a 30 per cent threshold to have the vote count, so it was quite an endeavour to get in touch with everybody and get them all informed on what it meant and what it is all about.”
About 91 per cent of the Mississauga community members who voted cast a ballot in favour of the new constitution.
“We needed a 25 per cent threshold for votes on the constitution and we easily achieved that,” Niganobe says. “Our voting turnout was actually well over the limit.”
Mississauga is just the third First Nation community in Ontario to ratify their own community-created constitution. Niganobe says the community is now working on the law development process through the new constitution.
“Right now we are working on how we are going to create our laws, formalize our laws, and enforce our laws,” Niganobe says. “That is our main focus right now.”
Niganobe is also the youngest Chief in his band’s history.
“It was pretty much guided by the community and Elders within the community,” Niganobe says. “I had started off as a councillor for our First Nation in a by-election. I was councillor for about a year-and-a-half, and at the end of that term they indicated to me that I should run for Chief.”
Niganobe says his community has also been working to realign with the five other Mississauga communities in Ontario: Alderville, Curve Lake, Mississaugas of Scugog, Hiawatha, and New Credit.
“We’re trying to foster that relationship with the other Mississaugas,” Niganobe says. “Right now we have been working with them in realigning and coming back together as Mississaugas because we haven’t been Mississaugas together since the formation of the Indian Act, when we weren’t allowed to leave this area anymore.”
Niganobe was nominated for the Recent Graduate category of the Premier’s Awards, which also includes Business, Creative Arts and Design, Community Services, Health Sciences, and Technology categories. The 2016 awards gala is scheduled for November 21, at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel.
“I’m quite honoured,” Niganobe says. “I wasn’t expecting it at all.”
Niganobe began his post-secondary education after taking on a position as a traditional mentor at the local high school.
“Part of that requirement was to go back to school,” Niganobe says. “Any further education that you don’t already have is good, so I did that and this is how I ended up in this nomination for this award.”
Recent Premier’s Award recipients include former Fort William Chief Georjann Morriseau, a Confederation College Aboriginal Law and Advocacy graduate who was recognized in 2014.