[Title: The views expressed by Treaties Recognition Week video participants are solely their own
and are not intended to reflect the position of Ontario, nor do they constitute any admission
or limit Ontario's rights in any way.
The Government of Ontario disclaims all responsibility for any errors, omissions, and inaccuracies
in these videos.]
[Title: Treaties Recognition Week]
[Title: Bentley Cheechoo, Knowledge Keeper, Treaty 9] Bentley Cheechoo >> I'm from the Constance Lake First Nation - what they call the Knowledge
Keeper in the community.
Being a Grand Chief, you're looking at the whole nation - 49 communities in Treaty 9.
The treaty is about two-thirds of the province of Ontario in size.
Treaty means to me is, it's an agreement, an understanding reached between
two parties.
How two groups of people are going to coexist.
And there's oral history along with treaty, not just what's written on paper.
So, a lot of things were said, but never captured in the treaty.
But there’s a difference between what is written and what people thought was the intent.
At the age of nine I started to hear the elders talking about it, I started asking a lot of
questions and a couple of the Elders were saying, "Well, how are the young people gonna
know if we're not gonna teach them?"
I started asking questions about our history.
I started asking, "Well, what happened?”
Well, we were taught that a lot of things happened without our knowledge.
Even the Elders I knew didn't know a lot of stuff that went on.
One of the biggest things that I learned was that I started realizing how really poor our
people were.
And I started to understand why the residential school was a part of the education process
of our young people.
I know the things that I saw...
And my own research starts to tell me that this was what happened.
As a matter of fact, I stayed away from doing any kind of research for about three years.
You know, because it angered me.
Every time I picked it up it angered me.
And I didn't want to be angry, I wanted to learn from it.
And later on, I started thinking about it, how do I pass that information on to our young
people - Aboriginal kids.
How do you do that?
Because they need to know what's going on.
And then later on, I started looking at, how do I pass that information onto non-native
children, so they too will have an understanding?
I didn't want it to be them and us, you know, "You're on this side, or you're on that side."
I didn't want that, I wanted it so everybody's at the same table.
I put a lot of emphasis on education.
I spent a long time on education, because, other than being a residential school survivor,
I believe that was what got me where I was.
Education was always looked on as a treaty right - to have that to be funded by the government.
I've fought very hard for available funding for education for native children, and I still
do today.
I am still a very strong advocate on that.
Our world view is like this, “We're going to do this here, and we're all going to benefit.”
Because we all have that sacred responsibility of protecting the water that we drink, and
the environment that we have, the trees.
And you gotta bring positive energy to the table to say, "Okay, we have a difference
of opinion."
And you say, "Okay, well, what's best for everybody?"
But I can see a lot of changes, a lot of changes in my time.
And if I can help young people believe that, understand that, both native and non-native
young people sitting down talking about treaty and talking about it from a perspective of
moving forward.
You know, truth and reconciliation gives you a path to go somewhere.
Unless you stay on that path, you're never going to get where you want to go.
[Title: The views expressed by Treaties Recognition Week video participants are solely their own and are not intended to reflect the position of Ontario, nor do they constitute any admission or limit Ontario's rights in any way. The Government of Ontario disclaims all responsibility for any errors, omissions, and inaccuracies in these videos.]
[Title: Ontario.ca/treaties]
[Title: “Breakwall” Performed by Ansley Simpson, Gizhiiwe Records, 2017]
[Title: Archival photographs provided by Library Archives Canada]
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