Andre Bear and Cheyenne Fineday picture in Niagara Falls, ON. Photo courtesy Mervin Brass.
The newest members of the Assembly of First Nations National Youth Council’s executive wasted no time making themselves heard at the AFN Annual General Assembly.
On the weekend, Canoe Lake First Nation’ Andre Bear was elected as the co-chair of the AFN National Youth Council and Witchekan Lake First Nation’s Cheyenne Fineday was elected to the executive. Fineday and Bear are no strangers to representing Aboriginal youth, having both acted as youth representatives with Saskatchewan’s Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations.
On Tuesday, Bear spoke in both English and Cree to delegates at the AFN Annual General Assembly in Niagara Falls, ON. He said he was “humbled, honoured and proud” to take on the role of co-chair, and wants to advocate for mental health and wellness for First Nations people. For Bear, a group of Attawapiskat residents who walked 800 kilometres to the Assembly have been a powerful reminder of what the Youth Council is representing.
The walkers from Attawapiskat arrived in Niagara Falls. Photo courtesy Andre Bear, Facebook.
“It was amazingly inspiring to witness their sacrifice and their suffering for the young people, for a lot of the young people across Turtle Island with the suicide pandemics,” he said over the phone after giving his speech.
“It brings us back, makes us think about our own communities, because sometimes within elected positions people can forget about those extremely important and vital things.”
Listening to grassroots voices is important to Bear, who is just getting his feet wet with this larger role.
“I thought about saying it up there, oh I’m not a politician, like, we’re mere advocates but I don’t know how AFN would take that so I’m just getting used to things for now,” he said.
Fineday was similarly impacted by the Attawapiskat group, so much so that she and her fellow executive member gave their speaking minutes on Monday afternoon so that the Attawapiskat group could address the Assembly. Fineday said the new executive is an ambitious group.
“The AFN Youth Council, within the years it really died down. Recently, we met in Ottawa with the Minister of Health and that was the first time the AFN Youth Council have met in about four years so they are just starting to get back on their feet. So Andre and I, our vision was to bring strength to the youth council,” she said.
Fineday said it’s important to keep her culture in mind as she takes on this new role. In fact, she campaigned on preserving culture and languages.
“Throughout our travels, meeting with our young people, the main thing that they want is more inclusion with our elders and they want access to learning their language and to learning their culture. And growing up, that was the environment I was raised in,” she said.
She admits that being on the executive is really busy and so far they’ve been in non-stop meetings since arriving in Ontario on the weekend.