Youth Council AGA resolves to cast off parental authority
For a complete list of this year’s resolutions, click here
Growing pains dominated this year’s Annual General Assembly of the Cree Nation Youth Council as members sought to gain more autonomy from the Grand Council of the Crees.
Over three days in late July in Oujé-Bougoumou, the CNYC debated strategy and passed several resolutions with this goal in mind. Chief among them is an effort to finally obtain a voting position for a Youth Council representative, which was mandated during last year’s Youth Council AGA.
According to Youth Council Chief Joshua Iserhoff, an effort to get a resolution to this effect on the agenda of the Grand Council AGA was “shelved.”
In practical terms, the CNYC’s dependence on the Grand Council is handicapping the organization at a time when the youth population is exploding in Eeyou Istchee. For example, Iserhoff said he spent much of the past several months handling communications duties after the communications officer left his job in February and wasn’t replaced until June. Though there many applicants, it is still the Grand Council’s responsibility to fill the position. Iserhoff wants the Youth Council to have the power to hire its own employees.
“I am not sure why this took so long,” said Iserhoff. He is hoping that a special procedure can be created in the future to amend problems like these within the CNYC.
Iserhoff said he would take this and other issues to the Council Board in September. It is at the Council Board meeting that Iserhoff said he is hoping to see some change.
For example, the Youth Council is fighting to abolish sub-section 3.2.7 of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, which terminates a person’s treaty benefits if they continuously live outside of the territory for more than 10 years.
As Iserhoff explains, this is a sensitve topic for youth who had left the territory to pursue an education but had to move back before that education could be completed because of this clause.
After consulting with the Grand Chief, who suggested that this could actually be addressed through the courts, Iserhoff said that the CNYC will indeed continue to champion this cause and will follow up in late September.
“I will present these two items [including the demand for a seat at the GCC] to the Council Board but I have to meet with the Board first to see how they feel about it and will do so as of August 29,” said Iserhoff.
Should he receive positive indication from the Board, Iserhoff said that he would call for a special General Assembly to be held prior to January 2014 to address the 10-year clause and the move for a youth seat at the GCC.
Iserhoff said that a special AGA would cost about $100,000, but added that these urgent issues need to be addressed quickly for his organization to function better and to help Cree youth facing the loss of benefits. “We have emergency funds for special meetings like this,” Iserhoff noted.
In another funding matter, the Youth Council AGA resolved to modify policies governing the organization’s Business Development Fund.
“The Business Development Fund was created a year ago and the Board of Compensation set aside funds for this,” Iserhoff explained. “What we didn’t know was that it wasn’t going to be a yearly fund that we would receive. There had never been talk about us receiving this annually.”
Iserhoff hopes this initiative will receive regular annual funding so that the CNYC can champion youth in business through foundation that would disburse seed money for aspiring entrepreneurs.
In other developments, the Youth Council extended the mandate of Jeremiah Mistacheesick as a Youth Representative to the Regional Suicide Intervention Committee.
According to Iserhoff, Mistacheesick has already been on this Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay (CBHSSJB) committee for the last year so that the youth can share their voice on this important issue.
The CNYC also resolved to support the creation of skate parks in the Cree communities to help promote healthier lifestyles.
“This was for the CNYC to write letters to the Chiefs to state that this is something we would like to see,” explained Isheroff on how the Youth would be championing this cause, similarly to how other campaigns have gone on for children’s playgrounds. Whether they get built or not is up to each community, however.
The assembly adopted another motion mandating the CNYC to support and participate in the creation and production of Cree cartoons that promote Cree culture and traditions.
At the event the Youth also decided to hold a fundraiser to help youth going to school outside of the Cree Nation.
Finally, Whapmagoostui was chosen as the site of the next Youth Council AGA in 2014, which will mark the organization’s 25th anniversary.
To view all the 2013 CNYC Resolutions go to firstnationnews.ca
Actor Adam Beach delivers keynote address
While many notable Crees, including Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come and former Deputy Grand Chief Ashley Iserhoff, addressed the youth at the AGA, Iserhoff said that none of them had a bigger impact than movie superstar Adam Beach.
Iserhoff said Beach was surprisingly humble and endearing. Iserhoff described his talk to the youth and time he spent hanging out with them to be “just phenomenal,” because Beach was so very down-to-earth and very “Native.”
“He wasn’t stuck up and was just kind of like a rez boy, he even brought his puppy, Argen,” said Iserhoff.
Iserhoff said that while palling around with the famous actor and his pup was a good time for all, it was actually Beach’s heartfelt speech about how he came from a family where his parents died young and his siblings suffered from rampant alcoholism while growing up in Winnipeg’s poorest neighbourhoods struck a chord with delegates to the AGA. The lesson that Beach had triumphed in turning his life around made a lasting impression.
“He really had to hustle his way to the top,” said Iserhoff about Beach’s rags-to-riches story.
And, seeing Beach’s success story is something that Iserhoff is hoping all of those present are able to carry with them in the coming months.