Matthew Wapachee said he was proud of his daughter Louise when she was elected the newchief of Ouje-Bougoumou. Louise Wapachee is walking a new path in Cree leadership roles.She is only the second woman to be elected as a chief since Indian Affairs imposed theBand Council system on the Eastern James Bay Crees.
Wapachee is also a young 31 -year-old single parent of two children, a 10- year-oldnamed Catherine and Matthew, who is 9. These are not the usual traits one has seen inCree leaders in the past. She has already seen that some Crees have a problem with womendaring to run and attain positions like chief.
In the interview I found her to harbour no ill-will towards anyone but rather had adesire to bring people together to solve problems. She also wanted everyone in hercommunity to get together to decide what they wanted out of the community. While I wasinterviewing her another woman from another Cree community came up to congratulate her onher victory. I would like to add my congratulations as well.
The new Ouje-Bougoumou Band Council is: Chief Louise Wapachee and councilors Sam R. Bosum, Wally Wapachee, Janie Wapachee, Reggie Neeposh, Rosie B. Rabbitskin and Jerry Bosum.
The Nation: How did you feel when you were elected chief?
Louise Wapachee: I was very happy and excited.
I heard you were a little tearful?
Yeah. It was very emotional. I felt very good.
So you’re looking at the Initial mandates, the way Ouje-Bougoumou started.You would like that to continue?
Yes, I feel we sort of lost that cooperation between the Elders, the youth and the rest of the community members, and I would like to restore that relationship back to where it was. It wasn’t just that. I found that our major issues in the community were social issues and I think this is another way of getting people involved and dealing with them.
I understand you had a lot of support from the youth In your community?
Yes, I believe so. I had some help during my campaign from them.
What were some of your platforms?
One of the things I really wanted to do for our community was to have another community workshop. I can’t say these are the main issues that I’d like to deal with. But first of all I would like to have another community-planning workshop because when we first started out in our planning to build a community that’s what we did.
We all sat down, everyone from the youth up to the Elders, and we decided what we wanted to see in our community. I think this would be an appropriate thing to do again The construction is mostly finished and it’s a new direction. We are about to embark on a new phase of Ouje-Bougoumou’s community. I think now we have to look at building the Ouje-Bougoumou people. It’s going to be a big task for all of us to work at.
One of your other Ideas was that the youth were going to other communities for sports. I heard you wanted the kids In the community to be able to participate In the community Itself?
Yes, that’s true. There is another issue, though, that I feel is important. I would like to talk about. It concerns our administrative office. It’s not a big thing, it’s not a major issue, but I feel it’s an essential issue. I think leaders and service providers of the community are important key players in getting programs and services like sports and other activities. They are also people who set up conditions to create jobs. They’re the ones who go after the monies from the outside like government funding.
I believe that revisiting our administrative offices is a very important thing because that’s a major resource place for our community members, any Cree Nation community member. So I would like to do that.
In what way would you do that? Would you make It more open or user-friendly?
Yes, user-friendly and open. It seemed that people were going
in their own directions. They had their own missions, their own thing they wanted to setup. But I think if we have this workshop these service providers would be able to focus on the community’s directions from the community-planning workshop. If you have this type of workshop you find out what are the needs of the children, Elders, youth and adults are. So then these service providers who are actually carrying out these duties will have direction and they’ll move ahead with success and confidence.
I know with your new Band Council you’ll have to replace six positions within the administration Itself. Tbu’ve lost some who’ve become Band Councilors and your director of operations will be leaving. Is that going to slow you down a bit?
I don’t think so. A lot of the people who are in the Band Council and who are not leaving are actually very capable of taking over. I don’t feel like I’m going to lose anyone because people like Reggie (Neeposh) or Rosie (B. Rabbitskin) will be Band Councilors. Which is very fortunate for us because they are very aware of the issues that need to be dealt with.
How about employment? Where do you see It going In Ou|e-Bougoumou?
I’d like to see more sustainable programs developed. This would create longterm employment. We used to have a lot of capital, as well as community action and access programs. That’s sort of died. Construction has slowed down too. This is why I say the service providers and administrators have to look at new types of funding and directions. Once again we come back to a community-planning workshop. Paughter]…
Given your relatively young age compared to a lot of the other chiefs, how much experience do you bring to the job as chief?
I’ve worked for the band’s local construction company. I worked as a treasurer for Eenou Eeyouch, so I sat in on every council and board meeting. I was aware of what was happening in our community. I also live in the community from day to day so I saw what kinds of needs there were.
There haven’t been that many women In leadership roles except for Violet Pachanos, the Deputy Grand Chief. Do you feel you are providing a positive role model
not only for the youth but also for women?
Yes, I believe that. I believe that almost any woman or youth could do the job. It’s a matter of believing in yourself and applying yourself to what you want to achieve. I believe that women should take on more leadership roles in the Cree communities.
Now I understand, though, that there Is a petition In Ouje-Bougoumou that throws Into question that a woman can be a chief or Is as capable of handling the job as well as a man. What do you say to that?
I think any person, whether a youth, women or anyone else is capable of being a chief. Being able to handle the job isn’t just because you’re a man or old or whatever. I’ve proved myself in the past when I worked for Ennouch Eeyou company. I did that kind of work where I was given difficult work and I had to put my foot down to be able to do it. After people tended to respected that, especially when you’ve stood your ground as an equal. That’s why I believe women can do it, we’re firm too! Paughter]… Women are as competent as men are and we have to realize that we are the same. We are equal.
Do you have any message for the Cree youth?
I would just like to say, especially for the youth in our community, I would like to see a lot of youth going out to school and finishing up. I would like them to come back and contribute to their community too. I would like to say that I believe they can do it.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Yes, first of all I would like to thank God. Then I would like to thank all those people who voted for me. I’d like to thank them for their trust in me. I’d like to thank everyone who helped and supported me, especially the youth. I’d like to thank my parents and family as well as the Elders.
I would like to say that those people who I ran against, Joseph, Kenny and Freddy, I would like to recognize them. I want to say that I know they had a lot of good things in their hearts to help the community. I would like to open the door for them to be able to give advice and support. I would like to extend this to all the councilors who were nominated but didn’t get in.
And finally I would like to thank my children. If it weren’t for them, my daughterespecially, I wouldn’t have run.
