Standing on the Precipice of Uncertainty

By Stephen Penner, 1st year MDP student

Hold back from the LG2 Dam in Radison, Quebec

After 15 weeks of consultations with over 300 different members of the Eeyou Istchee from Chiefs to small entrepreneurs the facilitation team are to wade through the data, consult with our Director and respectfully and honestly give voice to the people in terms of the creation of the framework for a trade and commerce agreement.

Carrying the academic and experiential learnings that I have been honoured to have received is a critical part of the process. Along with these lessons it is also central to hold the principle accountability back to the people of the Cree Nation, who have entrusted us with this critical job.  To facilitate agency and respect the sacredness of story telling is the third pillar I have carried on my journey.  All of these weave their way through the long hours of trying to sort the responses and write a cohesive and coherent interim report.

These last few weeks have been tinged with a sense of loss, of leaving new friends too early, departing from a magnificent and sacred territory too soon and of trying to fill the upcoming void that will be missing the laughter and story telling that I have barely begun to scratch but have come accustomed too.  Like a tattoo, some things do not have to take a long time too mark you forever.

Old Northwest Warehouse in Fort St. George, former home to the Chisasibi Cree Nation before Hydro Electric Development

The report is very near completion.  I have a sense of anxiety that in order to deliver on the promises that we have started with this engagement, it will take structural change within the Cree Nation Government. As a facilitation team we had the privilege to hear the lived experiences and to have listened to voices of the people of Eeyou Istchee who were asking for a tool facilitate letting them live “Miyo pimatisiwin.”   With economic leakage of dollars south at upwards of 70% these voices seem to be reaching a unified call for change and asking for a way to reverse this trend.  As the leader of one of the largest Cree entities said “Our world demands jobs for our people.”

We were not doing a research project but actively engaging key community stakeholders and providing a platform with which they can shape policy.  Consultations felt like holding onto a treasured object- one that offers the possibility of turning wishes into actions.  The report once it is filed will have a life of its own.  It is my hope is that through the act of broad community consultation, the report, will ignite the fires of change and illuminate the way towards a brighter future for all of Eeyou Istchee.

Chinscumdin,

Stephen

Facilitation Team members playing pool (and eating wings!) at the Retro Daez Café in Chisasibi. A business that received funding from the Department of Commerce and Industry 

Urban Living While Dreaming of a Stronger Cree Nation: Working to Establish a Framework for the Establishment of Trade and Commerce Agreement

By Stephen Penner, 1st year MDP student

James Bay at 9:30pm. Photo courtesy of Irene Neeposh

Watchya, Kwey and Boozooh from Montreal…

Coming from the west where the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA) and Les Paix des Braves Agreement are often pointed to as models of modern treaties, I assumed that consultations on a trade and commerce agreement would be a straightforward project. 

What I have found half way through my placement, 41 plane legs travelled, over 17K in travel- air and car, meetings with five of the nine Quebec Cree communities from the Chiefs and councils to economic development corporations, from small groups of local entrepreneurs to large all community assemblies to regional economic development entities, is that undertaking a project like this is vastly more complex and multilayered than I ever imagined.  

The scope and scale of the consultations is as large and as the vast Eeyou Istchee (the traditional territory and homeland of the Crees of northern Quebec) and as complex as the difference between the nine communities that make up the people of this amazing territory.

The necessary process of community consultation, engagement and information gathering is wonderfully challenging. I am only support and if not for the clear vision of the director and team here it would be uncertain if this massive undertaking would be possible.

Flowers on an Island in the middle of James Bay. Photo courtesy of Irene Neeposh

I am sure of a couple of things and one is that the development of a plan to diversify the economy is a truly necessary venture.  The structure was called for under the JBNQA and the power was transferred under Les Paix des Braves but an implementation system was never fully developed and developing that system is the ultimate goal.  Travelling on the dirt roads that lead out of paved communities to a highway that bisects Cree Territory I have seen the Jamiesens or non-Cree at work in Cree Communities and witnessed the various forms of leakage out of the places that project money is supposed to support.  

Souvenirs, including buckshot discovered while eating a delicious goose

Back in the office in a beautiful building in Old Montreal all the trappings of modern society surround me. However, my heart seems to long for my trips North- for the frigid James Bay, where we were surrounded by ice on the 29th of June.  While in the city I miss the sense of peace that I experience while in community- the transformative power of refocusing that occurs after being in an Elders Camp where smoking duck, eating rabbit stew and sipping a cup of Labrador tea is enjoyed slowly.  There is the beauty of a quiet conversation over a feast of Nisk or Goose and boiled bannock or being a part of an assembly of Youth discussing how to better their futures. The marriage that the Cree of Eeyou Ischtee have manage to make between all the worlds that they now live in is something incredible.  

Halfway through and I am trying to drink all my experiences in order to remember each of them as precisely as possible.

Nii,

Stephen

Journey into Cree Culture

By Manna Sainju, 1st Year MDP student

I arrived at Blue Quills First Nations College (BQFNC or the College) on a clear Wednesday afternoon in May. As I entered the gate of the College, I felt mixed emotions of how I would be spending my summer at what used to be a former residential school for First Nations children up until 1971. Just the past semester, I had learnt about the brutal history and heart wrenching stories of survivors of residential schools. But, as I was taken around to be introduced to the staff and faculty of the college, I felt a great sense of hope, calmness and peace. As the Cultural Camp was just around the corner, everyone was busy with its preparation. The College hosts the annual Cultural Camp each spring where the college students and local community members participate in a series of cultural practices. I realized I was very lucky to be able to witness such a ceremony, and hoped I would take back a learning that had been passed down from the ancestors of this land. 

 

Tipis at Blue Quills Cultural Camp grounds

And indeed, it was a unique experiential learning for me as I participated in the Pipe Ceremonies, Chicken Dance Ceremonies and learnt from the Elders. I got a glimpse of the Cree worldview which looks at the entire existence as an unbroken whole. The Cree cultural practices respect the interconnectedness of all the elements in nature and seek for its people to live in harmony.   

The experience of being a part of the Camp will always remain with me. It has brought me closer to my spiritual aspect which I think is the goal of all traditional practices. And, in a way the indigenous practices work at the heart of it and creates a magical experience.  

The Cultural Camp was a perfect beginning for my field placement. I felt a sense of belonging and even greater will to learn and contribute. The College currently has numerous projects that continue to make it a leading post-secondary institution on Indigenous education. As a part of my field placement, I have been working on developing a workshop curriculum for the Indigenous Knowledge Mentorship Program and also developing a program that focuses on promoting trade and volunteerism between First Nations and Indigenous groups around the world.