‘Our time is now – or else!’: Madahbee
By Maurice Switzer
MUNSEE-DELAWARE FN – Grand Council Chief Patrick Madahbee added two words and a sense of urgency to the theme for the 2013 Annual General Assembly of the Anishinabek Nation.
Instead of just “Our time is now” , he suggested to delegates, “maybe it would be more appropriate to have an addition — ‘Our time is now, or else!'”
Faced with “a federal majority government with a racist agenda”, and a provincial government also “chipping away at our fundamental rights” and “salivating” at the prospect of reaping economic windfalls from traditional Anishinabek territories, Madahbee said — aside from war and colonization during the 19th and 18th centuries — there has never been a time requiring more assertive political action by the Anishinabek and other First Nations.
He cited a list of areas where various government levels have been “chipping away” at fundamental Anishinaabe rights.
“Mining, pipelines and nuclear waste is …behind legislation and policies … and it’s no secret that they do not see First Nations as being an important part of the economy.”
First Nations were not considered when the province was identifying zoning regions for potential casinos; Ontario’s Tobacco Act is designed to damage a major revenue generator for First Nations by trying to enforce taxation on-reserve and referring to a legal trade as dealing in contraband.
“In the U.S. they used the cavalry to kill us; governments in Canada killing us with thousands of little cuts to do end runs around our rights,” said the Grand Council Chief.
“Stating we have jurisdiction is not enough; we need to occupy the field. By passing the Chi-Naaknigewin last year we put ourselves in a position to move forward — to implement our own laws. We’ve had inspiration,and perspiration; now it’s time for implementation. We can’t do nothing while government imposes its laws on us.”
Madahbee urged Chiefs to use the templates developed by the Union of Ontario Indians following numerous community engagement sessions to create and implement their own First Nation laws in Matrimonial Real Property and Citizenship to avoid the looming possibility of living under imposed federal legislation.
“We implemented our own custom election code in my community (Aundeck Omni Kaning),” he noted. “We’ve never had a single appeal.” The First Nation also developed and enacted its own MRP law, without any fallout.
If the federal MRP law now approaching enactment becomes reality, he said, “our children will continue to be scooped up.”
Regarding E’Dbendaagzijig — the Anishinaabe Citizenship Law — the Grand Council Chief said the last “status” Indian has been born in the Mississaugas of Scugog.
“The BNA Act talks about ‘Indians and lands reserved for Indians’; what happens to the land when there are no more status Indians?”
Madahbee asked Chiefs around the assembly table: “Do we want to be the generation that talked and talked and talked and talked…? Our job is to clear the path. What we started today — our leaders of the future will finish the job.”