KI youth invite Canadians to their community

A group of youth from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation have invited 25 Canadians to spend a week in their homes and experience what life is like in the remote northern First Nation.
“We want them to bring them into our community so that they can experience our living conditions, our way of life and to change stereotypes,” said youth leader Justin Beardy. “It’s a different lifestyle and I don’t think many Canadians really know that. We’re just trying to open up communications between First Nations and Canadians.”
The youth are bringing the guests to KI from June 17-21 in an effort to show Canadians the reality of life in KI, as well as bridge the gaps that exist between First Nations people and non-Aboriginal Canadians.
“We’ll show people our lake — why we love our lake so much,” said youth leader Leona Matthews. “We’ll take them fishing and they can get their own fish. We’ll all have a fish fry.”
Matthews said a tour of the community and information on how climate change is affecting community members would also be on the agenda.
“We’ll be going out with the lands and environment team and they’ll explain a little bit about what they do,” Matthews said. “We just want everybody to experience why we love our land, our people, our waters.”
Matthews said there will be events throughout the whole week.
“We’ll be showing places we go, things we do out on the land,” Matthews said.
The youth are also looking for the visit to create a better and stronger country for all, including future generations of children.
“I really hope they’ll see why we chose to live here, because we love it here,” Matthews said. “We genuinely love it, that’s why we want to be here, that’s why we fight to stay here. We love our land.”
The Cree youth from Quebec who recently walked over 1,600 kilometers from the James Bay coast to Ottawa on the Journey of Niyashuu have been invited to KI as special guests for the week. The KI youth have also extended invitations to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and a host of prominent Canadians including David Suzuki, Rick Mercer and Adam Beach.
Invitations were also sent to Oprah Winfrey, Ellen Degeneris and a number of NHL hockey players.
There are also 16 seats on a charter plane specially set aside for the trip for ordinary Canadians to come to the community and experience living conditions in KI.
The invitation for Canadians to visit KI comes following the successful 3rd World Canada tour, where a group of youth from the community toured around southern Ontario cities and towns including Kingston, Ottawa and Toronto. During the tour the youth met people from all of the communities, and shared their experiences of growing up and living in KI with Canadians from all walks of life.
The tour also presented the film 3rd World Canada, which documents life in KI, with people around Ontario.
The invitation for Canadians to come to KI is another step on the community’s efforts to educate people around the country on the reality of life in a remote First Nation.
As KI deputy chief Darryl Sainawap said following the 3rd World Canada tour, First Nations need the support of all Canadian citizens in addressing “systematic injustice.”
“The film you watched (3rd World Canada), that’s the first step our community took, is to educate the mainstream society on the condition and challenges First Nations people face in our communities,” Sainnawap said following the tour’s stop in Thunder Bay in November 2012.
“That’s the first step. This is where we are today. But a change in social justice cannot happen unless common Canadian citizens, such as you and me, start kicking doors down of systematic injustice that our children face.”