A coffee with … Mandy Gull-Masty | A “political nerd” at the head of the Cree nation

(Val-d’Or) It’s as if the glass ceiling had suddenly fallen.

Last year, Mary Simon became the first Indigenous woman to serve as Governor General of Canada.

Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer was elected Kahnawake’s first great female chef.

RoseAnne Archibald became the first woman elected chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

And last summer, Mandy Gull-Masty won an election that put her on top of the entire Cree Nation, yet another first for a woman.

We are fortunate to have her in front of us to ask her the question. What is going on ?

“I guess it’s the year of women! she says, smiling. I don’t know where it came from and why it is happening now, but I’m really excited to see it. “

This “year of women” was also experienced during the last municipal elections, when mayors were elected to head several large cities in Quebec. As if the evolution of mentalities took place in parallel among Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals …

Mandy Gull-Masty receives us in a Cree government office in Val-d’Or. We would have loved to meet her at her home in Waswanipi, a community located between Chibougamau and Lebel-sur-Quévillon. But isolation rules due to COVID-19 prevented us from doing so.

The important thing, anyway, is to talk to him. Because Mandy Gull-Masty has things to say. While Minnie, her tiny Chinese Crested Dog, stands on her lap, she generously answers our questions. We quickly understand that this woman did not come to the head of this nation of 19,000 people by chance.

Eeyou Istchee, the Cree territory, has nine communities scattered over an immense space. Waswanipi is the southernmost of the lot. Mandy Gull-Masty was born there in 1980, five years after the signing of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement.

This agreement with the Government of Quebec grants broad autonomy to the Cree and Inuit communities. It recognizes their ancestral and territorial rights and includes significant financial compensation. In exchange, it allows the Quebec government to continue developing the territory’s resources, particularly hydroelectricity.

“I was a direct witness to the implementation of this convention. I saw the communities grow, I saw the services arrive, ”says Mandy Gull-Masty.

At the time, her mother was secretary to the band council. Mandy Gull-Masty goes there after school and sees the political leaders parade.

“They were real celebrities! she says. They were successful in their role, they determined the future of the Cree nation. For me, politics was so interesting. “

She becomes what she calls a “political nerd”.

“I wanted to understand how governments work, how public policies impact people,” she says.

Another major event defines its course. Mandy Gull-Masty becomes a mother when she is only 14 years old.

To pursue post-secondary studies, the Crees must go into exile from their community (a reality that could change, as the nation is working to create a first CEGEP in Cree territory).

The young Mandy headed for Montreal, where she obtained a degree in social sciences from Dawson College and two bachelor’s degrees from Concordia University. This stay in Montreal is not his first foray out of Eeyou Istchee. As a child, she lived in Ottawa for a few years, and says she learned French “in the streets of Chibougamau”.

The traditional Cree way of life is passed down from his grandparents.

“I spent time with them in the wild,” she says. I understand the importance of a trap line. “

Mandy Gull-Masty was first elected in 2014 as Deputy Chief of Waswanipi. In 2017, she took on the same function for the entire Cree nation. She won the title of great head of the nation last July at the end of a campaign led in particular on the theme of the environment.

Mandy Gull-Masty says she is proud to have contributed to the fact that 20% of the Cree territory is now protected, a figure that she now wants to increase to 30% despite the mining boom sweeping the region.

“I think one of the great pride of my career will be to look back and say: I have been involved in the conservation of Eeyou Istchee,” she says.

Another of its priorities is the preservation of the traditional way of life and the Cree language. A language that she herself would like to speak better, her own mother having abandoned it a bit after staying in one of the infamous residential schools for Aboriginal people.

“We still have seniors who have lived full time in nature. I want to make sure that their traditional knowledge is passed on to the younger generations, ”she says.

At the head of a population half of which is under 18, she also wants to promote entrepreneurship.

“When I go to classes, I love it when the kids say ‘I want to be a teacher, a nurse, a doctor, a lawyer’. But whoever says to me ‘I don’t know what I want to do’ always catches my interest. Maybe he’s the one who will create something new, ”she says.

It is impossible not to address the theme of reconciliation.

She describes the Minister of Native Affairs, Ian Lafrenière, as “enthusiastic”, and recalls that the Cree Nation and the Government of Quebec have a long history of collaboration. This does not prevent her from saying that she is “hurt” by the refusal of the Legault government to recognize systemic racism, a position that she considers “extremely difficult to understand”.

Mandy Gull-Masty ends by thanking us warmly for requesting an interview with her. But she invites non-Aboriginals to learn about the reality of Aboriginals not only through the newspapers… but directly from them.

“If you want to know more about the Aboriginals, go to them,” she says.

The message is launched.