Grand Chief Attends Historic Meeting of Onkwehon:we Women Leaders in Ottawa
Written by Paul Graif on 10 November 2021
An historic meeting held at Rideau Hall in Ottawa yesterday as four Onkwehon:we women leaders gathered at the Governor General’s residence. Governor General Mary Simon welcomed, Mandy Gull Masty, the Grand Chief of the Grand Council of the Crees, Roseanne Archibald, the Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer, the Grand Chief of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake. Sky-Deer first proposed the meeting after all four attained their posts in July.
“Elated for sure and inspiring and motivational,” is how Sky-Deer described the meeting. “Of course it was just an introductory meeting but in the time that she allotted us, I believe that we were there for an hour and 15 minutes, it was at her home in Rideau Hall. A number of topics came up, obviously reconciliation, healing, identity, language, culture and relationships.”
Sky-Deer told K1037 News that she presented Simon with a Two Row Wampum in order to make her feel more at home at Rideau Hall.
“For the Governor General to be involved in this and kind of leading the charge and being that inspiration and beacon of light for other Indigenous women about the potential and the possibilities, being at the post that she’s in, so when we left there feeling motivated and inspired.”
Sky-Deer says she and AFN National Chief Archibald went for lunch afterwards and continued the dialogue.
