'We owe it to our ancestors': Indigenous leaders in Manitoba seek relationship change with new monarch

Manitoba Indigenous groups are hoping to use the upcoming coronation of King Charles III as a chance for a reset of relationships between First Nations and the Crown.

A group of Indigenous representatives of Manitoba, including Grand Chief Garrison Settee with Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), are in London for the coronation. They are all part of a delegation of Canadian Indigenous leaders looking for an audience with the new monarch.

On Thursday, a special engagement at Buckingham Palace with Indigenous leaders took place. Governor General Mary Simon helped facilitate the meeting.

“Our ancestors signed treaties with the Crown,” Settee said. “We owe it to our ancestors and we are here representing our ancestors who had faith and hope and promise in these treaties, and we’re here to represent that.

“I believe that we need to continue to advocate for treaty implementation in Canada.”

Settee says the delegation has come to remind King Charles III of his treaty relationship with Canada’s Indigenous people.

“We have (been) forced to try to function as Indigenous people, and hear of proposals and programs that do not come near, whereas the treaties would have provided what is needed in terms of sustainability and also the economic development of our nations and sovereignty,” he said.

Settee said he would like to see the King take concrete steps, such as making a new proclamation that would reaffirm the recognition of Indigenous nationhood.

“Those treaties have been put aside and allowed our Indigenous people to be on the margins of poverty, and marginalized Canadian society,” he said. “We should be thriving. When that the royal proclamation was introduced, it was supposed to be on a nation-to-nation basis. But we found ourselves to be wards of the state. And it's been a very troublesome relationship and our relationship with the Crown has been very complex.

“At the same time, it's a relationship that still has promise for our people to continue to be able to assert their sovereignty, because when we came to the Crown, we were sovereign nations, and that can never be dismissed.”

The coronation of King Charles III officially takes place on May 6.