A group of five women from the Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC), the social justice arm of the Quakers, returned to Ottawa from a memorable visit to Eeyou Istchee full of gratitude for Cree hospitality and inspiration for their work in advancing Indigenous rights.
The trip was organized by CFSC general secretary Jennifer Preston, who spent part of her childhood in Waskaganish and has long known Donald Nicholls, the Cree Nation Government’s director of justice and correctional services, through their mutual work at the United Nations.
“My team was thrilled to go up to Eeyou Istchee,” said Preston. “Since the 1970s, the Quakers have been doing a lot of work on Indigenous rights and the Crees were always one of our big partners in the international work developing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
Preston has spent much of her career focused on the development and implementation of UNDRIP and has published extensively on the subject, including co-editing a book with Paul Joffe, who was the CNG’s legal counsel for decades.
Arising in England in the 1650s, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) believes in non-violence and equality for all. Many early Quakers were imprisoned as heretics, making justice reform a longstanding organizational priority, alongside peace and Indigenous rights. The church has promoted movements ranging from abolishing slavery to endorsing gay marriage.
Nicholls was described as “the consummate host,” introducing the group to several program administrators, and organizing excursions on the land and water. A moose stew and his brother Will’s bannock pizza were big hits, while his mother Dorothy shared stories of her education journey and advocacy for women’s rights.
The trip was partly motivated by CFSC Transformative Justice Coordinator Karen Ridd’s interest in the Cree approach to justice. Government Relations Representative Sandra Wiens, who advocates legislation for a guaranteed basic income, was similarly interested in the economic security program for Cree hunters.
“Another team member said it’s not in my portfolio, but it sounds way too interesting,” Preston said. “Then we recently hired a new Indigenous rights staff person, so she wanted to join as well.”
The visit began with a tour of the Cree Justice Department’s “tiny home” transitional housing project. Established in the four largest Cree communities, this initiative features 10 small houses equipped with essential amenities arranged in a circle, with a larger communal building for meetings and workshops.
“I loved how it’s so thoughtfully constructed so you have community present, but each person has their own space,” said Ridd. “People are often released from incarceration institutionalized, with a bus ticket and no place to go. Helping people reintegrate into the community is so crucial and it’s where the ball gets dropped so often.”
The group appreciated the CNG emphasis on prevention, from land-based programming to the YES (Youth Enrichment Services) and SNAP (Stop Now and Plan) programs in schools. The Taapwaauchaayimiisu (Believe in Yourself) program offers tutoring, cultural activities and life skills workshops to at-risk youth.
Visits to the Cree Justice head office in Mistissini and the courthouse in Waswanipi revealed how cases can be diverted from the provincial legal system to community-led alternatives. Ridd liked that the healing circles and other preventative resources are open to all community members.
“We need to articulate to wider audiences the options that exist outside of a colonial approach to harm and wrongdoing,” asserted Ridd. “It’s great to have these examples in which the mainstream justice system is being altered, disrupted, overthrown. We felt so welcomed and are walking away with lots of inspiration.”
On their second day, tallyman Robert Jimiken shared memories of an era when family members traded fur and pelts with the Hudson’s Bay Company. Wiens was interested in how the economic security program enables hunters to continue a traditional way of life.
Picking blueberries and Labrador tea provided a greater appreciation for Eeyou Istchee along with some edible souvenirs for the ride home. A Wolastoqey woman, Indigenous rights coordinator Sarah Bear said First Nations can learn from one another while still respecting their distinctive knowledge and practices.
“Being welcomed onto the lands and waters of another Indigenous nation felt like an expression of self-determination rooted in relationships between peoples and in respect for place,” said Bear. “Those experiences reflected generations of Cree relationships with the lands, waters and other beings of Eeyou Istchee.”
Preston was delighted to find relics of her childhood home during a visit to Ouje-Bougoumou’s Aanischaaukamikw Cree Cultural Institute. Her father, the late anthropologist Richard Preston, moved to Waskaganish in 1961, living with the Cree people for over 40 years. He worked with the Grand Council as a consultant prior to the signing of the JBNQA in 1975.
“My father gave everything Cree-related to the Institute when they were opening,” Preston explained. “There’s a photo beside a miniature version of a tent made by John Blackned with my dad – I was shocked. John was a profound influence on my father.”
Preston said her father kept a photograph taken with Blackned above his desk throughout his career. Her mother became very close to Gertie Diamond, who lived with the family for two years to help with interpretation as her father wrote his PhD. While she hasn’t visited Waskaganish since her mother’s funeral, Preston said that ties with the Diamond family remain.
She always thought of Diamond’s son, Grand Chief Paul John Murdoch, as a cousin. Before her father’s passing last year at age 93, Preston asked him if it would be possible to get some moccasins for his last journey. Murdoch delivered the gift personally and spoke with him in Cree.
“That was really important for my dad because he was working with and for the Crees his entire adult life,” shared Preston. “It was such a beautiful gift he gave for all of us. It was moving to see strong communities with positive nation-building work all around – this is self-determination in action.”