KIIWETINOONG — Viewing the James Bay Treaty was an “emotional” experience for Sol Mamakwa, MPP for Kiiwetinoong.
The New Democrat’s riding is mostly within the territory of the treaty, also known as Treaty 9, and the land includes his home First Nation.
He recently visited the Archives of Ontario in North York and saw the 1905 treaty up-close there.
“It was a very interesting visit,” Mamakwa said in an interview Friday.
“When I saw the signatures from KI (Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, or Big Trout Lake), North Caribou and Fort Severn … I felt something, it just felt emotional.”
Mamakwa shared the experience this week with photos on social media.
“As a rights-holder, it was a powerful experience to physically hold this history in my hands. So much stems from these documents,” he wrote on Facebook. “It is a reminder of the good faith of my ancestors and how our elders honoured treaties as sacred agreements.
“The Treaty No. 9 documents are undeniable proof that no matter how much the government tries to evade their responsibilities to First Nations in Ontario, they are accountable to us as rights-holders, first and foremost. Our rights to treaty are inalienable. When they are threatened by legislation, the people will stand up to protect these rights.”
Mamakwa told Newswatch it was nice to see representation of regional First Nations on the historical document, but then “the name that you see on there is Duncan Campbell Scott.”
Scott, a celebrated poet and powerful civil servant, was a driving force behind Indigenous residential schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“His oft-quoted goal to ‘get rid of the Indian problem’ became, for many, characteristic of the federal government’s treatment of Indigenous peoples,” according to The Canadian Encyclopedia.
