Kahnawake Governance Report Released

Gerald  Taiaiake Alfred was on Tetawathartha, the Party line talk show today where he presented the first report from the Kahnawake Governance Project.

Alfred is hopeful that the upcoming MCK (Mohawk Council of Kahnawake) elections will be the last elections of their kind:

“This snapshot of where the community is today, to update the mandate from 1979, which was a long time ago. One of the objectives was, what do people think now, is it still the same, do people have different ideas and so we dis all that work. Then I, along with all my team and the advisory council, came up with some recommendations based on what we heard from the people about things that could be done next. So, the candidates will, as of today, have that in front of them and be able to think about it and hopefully respond in a positive way to what the people have said on this.”

As for the timing of the project, 1 month prior to elections. Coincidental?

“Oh, most definitely, this phase of the project was designed actually to be timed this way, to coincide with the MCK election, to remind the people that this was a project that was sponsored by the MCK, it functioned independently, at arms length, but it was initially chartered and put forward as a project by the MCK in order to find out what the community is thinking these days in terms of transition to traditional government, the role of the MCK in traditional government and basically the future of governance in Kahnawàke.”

Alfred wants the community to understand the governance project is a community initiative to bring back “true government” and not an MCK-led project. He understands why people may be hesitant, given that the governance project was formed to work at arms-length from MCK to fulfil the Council’s mandate of returning to traditional governance. Presentation of the community engagement report is today, Thursday, at 5pm at the Golden Age Club.