NWT’s Yakeleya Newmark joins new National Council for Reconciliation

Mahalia Yakeleya Newmark has been appointed to the National Council for Reconciliation’s inaugural board of directors.

The council is a newly created, independent and Indigenous-led not-for-profit whose purpose is to advance reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada.

Its first board of directors was named this week. Yakeleya Newmark is among nine people appointed.

The board is tasked with overseeing the council’s work to “monitor and evaluate reconciliation efforts” and develop a multi-year national action plan, the federal government stated, while producing annual reports on the country’s progress toward reconciliation.

Yakeleya Newmark is Shúhtagot’ı̨nę and Métis and works as a policy analyst in Yellowknife. She recently served as a special advisor to the NWT’s minister of housing and the status of women

She told Cabin Radio she feels honoured to be part of the inaugural board. She said many of her own family members went to residential schools in the territory.

“It is hard to describe what this means to me personally without thinking about all of those close to me who attended residential school: my mother attended residential school at Grollier Hall in Inuvik, my aunties and my uncles. My great-grandmothers attended residential school in Fort Providence,” she said.

“Even my older brother attended residential school. So when we talk about the residential school legacy, we are really talking about a recent experience, a recent trauma that so many people and communities in the North experienced.”

Only two years ago, Yakeleya Newmark said, she realized hers was the first generation of the family not to go to residential school.

“I am the first to be parented at home, loved, cared for [and] hugged,” she said.

“My mom survived residential school so I could be here. This is not lost on me. So I have a responsibility to be the best daughter I can be, the best mother I can be and the best relative I can be, and contribute to strong and healthy communities.”

In her new role, Yakeleya Newmark said she will ensure northern perspectives are brought forward and reflected within the multi-year action plan and other activities.

She stressed the work of reconciliation cannot be done alone.

“We have to do this with our friends, family and our colleagues. If we think this is just the work of the board, we are mistaken. This is all of our work as Canadians,” she said.

“Yes, the work can be hard, but it is also rewarding and there are places of joy. I am looking forward to working with all people to do this.

“I always go back to the words of Elder Annie Goose in Ulukhaktok, who said in a meeting one time, ‘If we work together, we can achieve anything.'”

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 2015 final report had demanded the creation of a National Council for Reconciliation among its calls to action.

The federal government announced $126.5 million to establish the council. Of that, $125 million was set aside for an endowment fund. The remaining amount is intended to cover operations for the first year.

Charlene Bearhead, Édith Cloutier, Mike DeGagné, Jonathan Dewar, Peter Dinsdale, Joseph Murdoch-Flowers, Belinda Webb and Julie Ann Wriston are the other members of the inaugural board.

Ottawa said four more positions will remain open until nominated by the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Métis National Council, and the Native Women’s Association of Canada

This board is expected to serve a term of 18 months, after which a new board of directors will be elected for a four-year term.