b'COMMUNITY & LEADERSHIPpeople are excited for whats to come. IHow have you used the mediame the opportunity to give voice to dont know if thats an accomplishment,to further your goals? some prominent issues that may not be but it certainly feels like an accomplish- Recently I was part of a panel in the Cityspecific to Fort William First Nation, but ment to have that positive feedback.of Thunder Bay. It was hosted by thethe Indigenous community nationally, What do you hope toThunder Bay Public Library, and it waslike the refusal to search the landfill site accomplish during your rolearound community safety in Thunderin Winnipeg for Missing and Murdered asChief? Bay. Im not from Thunder BayIm inIndigenous Women and Girls. As the I would like to have a very stablea neighbouring communitybut it didleader of a First Nation, it is important foundation of policies, laws and a planallow me to bring voice to some of theto me to bring a voice to the safety to address some of the mental healththings that I felt were important. Forofwomen. and addiction issues. One thing that isexample, it gave me the opportunity important to me is reaching as manyto voice that they are on Fort WilliamIf youre familiar [with] Thunder Bay, youths as I can in my capacity [and]First Nation territory. It also allowedyoull note there have been a lot of sharing opportunities that come to me as a Chief. Because of our proximity to Thunder Bay, Im called on to do a lot of different [and] unique thingsfor example, throwing the first pitch at the Womens World baseball champion-ship tournament that happens here. I was asked to come, as were other dignitaries in Thunder Bay, for the first pitch of the game. Rather than do that myself, I asked one of our young members to join me and throw the first pitch. She landed an amazing pitch over home plate, and I just think, what an exhilarating experience that must be for a youngperson.I really want to make Every Child Matters very real for the young people in our community. One thing I remember growing up is how many things were not accessible to me. For example, going to different powwows across Northwestern Ontario was out of reach to me because I didnt have regalia. I do have a dream to make sure that every young person in this community has the opportunity for that, because not all of us have an auntie or a mom, or an uncle or dad that knows how to that knows how to make regalia. Not everybody can afford it. So how can we make sure that every young person has that opportunity, so they can have that connection to such an important event in this community that happens every year? That is something that I really want to do, and I have had a couple of people reach out to say that there are organizations [who] want to financially contribute to this. Not all the pieces are in place yet, but its some-thing that will at least get started during my term inoffice.INDIGENOUS INNOVATORS, ICONS & INFLUENCERS |ISSUE 1, 2023 29'