We will no longer accept poverty and hopelessness while resource companies and governments grow fat off our land and territories and resources, if our lands and resources are to be developed it will be done only with our fair share of the royalties, with our ownership of the resources and jobs for our people. It will be done on our terms and our timeline.

Perry Bellegarde

Categorized in : Company News

If you want to change a mind, there's no better way than a dialogue over coffee.

Perry Bellegarde

dialogue coffee mind

The seven sacred teachings: love, respect, courage, honesty, wisdom, humility, truth. These are the seven virtues that lead to a full and healthy life. My mom espoused those teachings. That's how she lived her life. That's how she raised us.

Perry Bellegarde

honesty mom teaching

We focus on bringing back Indigenous languages, ceremonies, cultures, traditions - all that was lost over the past 150 years. This is how we'll generate hope - for all Canadian people.

Perry Bellegarde

focus people past

Education will lead to understanding; understanding will lead to action. Education and understanding are going to be key to moving us forward. That's why I take every opportunity I can to try to educate Canadian people on the impact of intergenerational trauma. To tell them how, until 1951, indigenous people weren't allowed to leave the reserve without a permit. That it was illegal for a lawyer to give us advice. It was illegal for us to sell our wood, our cattle, without a permit. I want the next generation to understand we have endured, we have persevered and we are getting stronger.

Perry Bellegarde

opportunity people moving

Some will say: "Why should we celebrate the birth of colonialism, of oppression, of cultural genocide through Canada 150?" It's 2017. In spite of the genocide we faced via the residential school system, and all we have endured from colonialism and control, from 1876 to this day, we're still here. We need to show the country and the world that we are still here.

Perry Bellegarde

country world school

Indigenous people made huge contributions to this country. The biggest is in sharing the land and resources. People need to see that, understand that. Indigenous people should be viewed as the founding peoples of this land.

Perry Bellegarde

indigenous country people

To be treaty person means coexist in peace and with mutual respect. That's at the core of these treaties. They intended for us to mutually benefit from sharing the land and its resources. To us, this contract and agreement is a sacred covenant whose signing was witnessed by your God, we call him the Creator, and by your angels, we call them ancestors. You can't break that. We didn't just sign it one day. It took months to prepare, to plan, to seek guidance.

Perry Bellegarde

one-day angel mean

In Cree, an oskâpêwis is a servant or a helper, someone who hauls in rocks for sweats, or pipes or medicines. I equate that to leadership. You're a servant or helper of people.

Perry Bellegarde

pipe servant people

My dad died when I was 17. He had heart and other problems. He was a good father, lots of love. But he was affected by it. When he died, mom picked up the reins and raised six boys all on her own.

Perry Bellegarde

dad mom father

Being the only Indian in class, I had to be able to stand up and defend myself and debate the others when they tried to say: "You Indians get everything free." People have stereotypes of Indigenous people. I learned to challenge in a respectful way.

Perry Bellegarde

debate challenges people

Living on reserve we hunted; we fished; we trapped. We lived off the land. If we didn't hunt, we didn't eat. In summer, we hauled water from the slough. In winter, we hauled in snow to heat for water.

Perry Bellegarde

summer winter snow

My mom could have been a CEO of any company. She was very organized, very strict. She showed us the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. There was no alcohol allowed in the house. Three of my brothers are retired RCMP officers. I've got another brother working in child counselling.

Perry Bellegarde

mom brother children

Growing up, the major institutions were school and church. We were taught our culture was no good. We didn't have sundances. The last ones were in the 1940s and '50s. They're starting to come back now. Each reserve is starting to have a Big Lodge and a sundance ceremony. That's what's going to rebuild our people.

Perry Bellegarde

growing-up people school

Canada was founded by two nations: the English and the French. But what about the Mi'kmaq, who opened their doors, who shared their food, their knowledge? What about the military alliances our people formed with European settlers? We are allies of the Crown.

Perry Bellegarde

military people

I went to elementary school in Goodeve, Saskatchewan, a small Ukrainian town. I played a lot of hockey, a lot of ball. Because of that I fit in - everyone wanted me on their team. The guys knew I was a hunter, and they were farmers. They just accepted that. I have lifelong friends from Goodeve.

Perry Bellegarde

hockey team school

We are a nation within a nation.

Perry Bellegarde

Now is the time to take stock of a painful part of our history. Only then can we move past it. Anything less would render generations of courageous struggle and soul-searching a truly lost cause. A lot of Canadians don't seem to want to hear it. All I can say to them is: try to listen. Open your heart, your mind. The Indian Act and residential schools did a number on us, breaking down Indigenous people, then families, communities, nations. We can learn so much from each other. There is so much to be hopeful for.

Perry Bellegarde

struggle heart moving

I experienced racism in different settings: I was followed in stores, in cars. The way you experience racism depends on how you deal with it. My memories of Goodeve are good ones.

Perry Bellegarde

car racism memories

Indigenous languages are Canada's national treasures. They are our identity. We simply have to put greater effort into rejuvenating and revitalizing them. It is key to moving forward.

Perry Bellegarde

effort identity moving

We're totally optimistic and hopeful because the prime minister talked about building on a new relationship.

Perry Bellegarde

world