Anishinabek Nation Governance Summit explores the next steps as a Nation in Anishinaabe Governance – Anishinabek News
March 10, 2025
SAULT STE. MARIE — Getzidjig Advisory Council Getzit Mishoomis James Mishquart shared a song, Looking for the Good Life, to finish off the learning at the Anishinabek Nation Governance Summit’s Establishing Next Steps as a Nation session. Led by Patrick Wedaseh Madahbee, Anishinabek Nation Commissioner on Governance, the Establishing Next Steps as a Nation session took place on the third day of the Summit, held Feb. 25-27 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.
“It comes from around the Treaty #3 area but we use it — Mino-bimaadiziwin, Mino meaning good, bimaadiziwin, life — in that word bimaadiziwin is the word odis, that’s your umbilical cord, your belly button, that’s the continuation of a good life from one generation to the next, from our caregivers, our mothers, and our grandmothers,” Mishoomis Mishquart says. “You know, when I end all the time I tell people when I get ready to leave, I tell them … you look after yourselves, each and everyone of us here are number one, we’re no good to anybody if we’re not good to ourselves. Self-care is so important, realize that when you need to look after number one, if you can do that, you can help everybody and anybody, your family, your co-workers, the people we serve.”
Mishoomis Mishquart, an Elder from Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek, also raised the importance of the clan teachings during the Establishing Next Steps as a Nation session.
