KI teach ancestors’ perspective of treaty signing

When Kitchenumaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) hosted 43 average Canadians in their community, it gave them an opportunity to teach them about their treaty relationship.
This included a reenactment of the 1929 treaty signing but with a twist.
As the visitors and some local community members gathered at the memorial commemorating the location of the Treaty 9 signing site, Chief Donny Morris addressed everyone in Ojicree.
He then presented a “treaty” written in syllabics.
Two visitors, representing the Ontario and Canada government commissioners respectfully, could only try to understand the words spoken by Morris and written on the treaty.
“What did he say?” one asked after a statement by Morris.
The treaty was presented and placed on the memorial. Morris held out a pen.
“Write,” he said in Ojicree, though the “commissioners” still could not understand. But they interpreted his gesture and both signed. One signed with an ‘X.’
Morris spoke again in Ojicree before speaking in English again.
“This is how it was for our ancestors,” he said.
The treaty was read aloud in Ojicree before Sam McKay translated it for everyone.
Loosely, it was translated as: “You agree to give us your riches and resources so that it may benefit our community.”
The treaty signing reenactment was not something planned from the beginning of the five-day event. According to McKay, it was only planned earlier that day.
“The point of this impromptu re-enactment was to convey to our visitors the real environment in which our ancestors were in at the time of the signing here in KI back in 1929,” he said.
The KI leadership also highlighted a quote on the memorial, which was taken from the treaty:
“As long as the sun shines, rivers flow, and the grass grows.”
They explained the horizontal colours on their community flag is taken from this quote: yellow on top representing the sun, blue in the middle representing the water, and green at the bottom representing the grass.
While the reenactment might be sobering and enlightening for some, it was done with an air of levity and humour.
After the treaty was translated, a community member remarked, “Now give us your bank accounts.” Visitors and locals laughed alike.