Elders Simon Sakakeep and Charlie Bighead recently got together via teleconference to speak about the origins of Wasaya Airways. Sakakeep, the first chief of Kingfisher Lake, recalls Albert Mamakwa asking him if they could come up with a business idea to provide future employment for community members as the commercial fishery was closing in the late 1970s-early 1980s.

A day before Tom Morris was set to leave on a three-day business trip this spring, he sat back in the Wasaya Airways LP boardroom and reflected on Wasaya’s first 20 years in business. “Our biggest achievement is we have been able to survive for 20 years as a First Nation business,” said the president and chief executive officer of Wasaya Airways LP. “Last year we made $60 million-plus.”

Welcome aboard Wasaya Airways. In 1989, for the benefit of their communities and in accordance to the general consensus of their band members, eight First Nation communities of northwestern Ontario signed a deal.