It is an honour for me to be able to congratulate all the Cree graduates this year. You have come a long way to achieve the completion of your high school years and you owe the academic success to hard work and determination. Former graduates of your community had to plan for their careers and future. Now your time has come to seriously consider your career and what role you want to play in your community, or for that matter in society as a whole.
It is one thing to dream high and lofty dreams but quite another to make those dreams come true. It requires serious contemplation to begin any journey and graduates taking that journey are on a long process. For achievement of one’s goals is dependent on one’s drive, persistence and one’s extra effort. The real joy in achieving one’s goals comes in the struggle not the victory. Some of you play hockey well. Some of you excel in music. All of you are scholars, after all, you have graduated and many of you will go into higher studies. Some of you are preparing to learn specialized trades that suit your aptitudes and skills. Yet one thing will shape your future more than any of these things, such as your skills or talents.
But what is it, that one of you will make it and another one doesn’t? For some there is failure. What you set out to do, you didn’t. For some it is the hollowness of success. Life at the top of the ladder can be lonely. Sometimes a dream-come-true world has come true and it’s less than you hoped for. Regret and apathy becomes a major pastime. It can get even worse. Regret can lead to rebellion. Rebellion against authority. Rebellion against what ties you down: your job, your chief and council, your girlfriend/boyfriend, your friends and worse still… your family.
The journey of your life can be dangerous. The pitfalls are many and one is wise to be prepared. The oldest book, the Bible, gives us plenty of advice: “Whoever tries to keep his life safe will lose it and the man who is prepared to lose his life will preserve it” (Luke 17:33). There are two ways to view life: Protect it or pursue it. The wisest are not the ones with the most years in their lives but the most life in their years. Their is a rawness and wonder to life. Pursue it. Fight for it. Don’t listen to the whines of those who have settled for a second-rate life and want you to do the same so they won’t feel guilty. Your goal isn’t to live long: It’s to live.
The oldest book gives us options: On one side there is the voice of safety. You can build a fire in your tent, stay inside and stay warm and dry and safe. You can’t get hurt if you never get out, right? You can’t get criticized for what you don’t try, right? You can’t fail if you don’t take a stand, right? You can’t lose your balance if you never climb, right? So don’t try it. Take the safe route.
Or you can hear the voice of adventure, the journey (God’s adventure). Instead of building a fire in your tent, build a fire in your heart. Follow God’s adventure, God’s impulses. Finish your education, move overseas, volunteer to help, run for office, make a difference. Sure it isn’t safe, but what is?
By way of helping you plan your future, allow me to briefly explain some developments that affect our lives. The James Bay project, intensive forestry and mining operations as well as modern technology have brought about great changes and have directly or indirectly affected every aspect of our lives and altered the lifestyles of our people.
Let me be blunt and let me deal first with the difficulties and challenges. We have all heard of racism and anti-native sentiment. These things, too, are part of our heritage. In the case of the Crees, we are victims, for example, of environmental racism. We identify ourselves in our relationship with the land, as hunters, fishermen and trappers. We are Eenouch, the people of the land. This is who and what we are. And yet the trees on our land are being clearcut to benefit others in the south. The rivers on our land are being diverted to benefit others in the south. The minerals under our land are being exploited to benefit others in the south.
The impacts on the animals, on the land and on us are for the Crees to bear. The impacts are far away for the people who benefit, out of sight and out of mind. We who are harmed are the native people. They who benefit are not. This is environmental racism.
Many of you have been down south and will go again, some to study further, other for sports or cultural exchange. At one time or another you will experience hostility or hatred from others because you are a native person or will see this happening to other native people. This is our burden. But it is a burden that we must bear without hating back.
This brings me back to my point about youth and education. If we are to survive as a people and have the right to make choices about who and what we are as a Cree Nation, it will take the strength, imagination and energy of your generation to bring this about. Your education to this point has begun to equip you with the tools the Cree people will need. But there is more. You must also be educated in the Cree ways. Know the land, spend time on the land with your parents and grandparents, for this too is education.
Our diplomas and degrees equip us for many important things. But I am a hunter as well as a political leader in a suit and tie. If I and you forget these things, we are on the way to no longer being Crees.
There are many things I must ask each of you to dedicate yourselves to doing: Know the land and the Cree way of living on the land, know our history and culture but also know what is happening to us now. Learn about the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement and the benefits and injustices it contains; so the benefits can be implemented for the good of our people and so that the injustices can be ended!
Learn about Quebec and Canada, because when in the past we did not fully understand the others’ societies on this continent they were able to take advantage of us. You are a generation to which this will not happen. Learn about aboriginal peoples, about our rights and how each and everyone of us must dedicate ourselves to the protection and improvement of the Cree way of life. What is rightfully ours—full benefit to the resources of the land—is sometimes denied and taken from us. What is rightfully ours—programs and services that others who live in Canada and Quebec receive—is being withheld from us.
Graduates, your governments have laid foundations to build, challenge, protect and improve the general well-being of the human race. The task and opportunity is yours—accept the challenge that awaits. And graduates should you establish a relationship with your community and understand the contemporary issues around you, you will have a greater chance of becoming useful and productive members in your communities. It is my hope that you will decide to continue your studies to higher learning.
Matthew Coon Come Grand Chief
Grand Council of the Crees (of Quebec)
The Grand Chief gave a version of this speech in Mistissini, which has seen the first seven students graduating from a school system based entirely in that community. The Grand Chief regrets that he was unable to attend all graduation ceremonies. Congrats to all students from The Nation.
