“The world has to know, George Mackenzie is the new kid in a block.”
– Dene National Chief George Mackenzie
After three rounds of voting, George Mackenzie of Behchokǫ̀ was elected Dene National Chief Thursday night in Dettah.
He won over five other hopefuls, after an intense day with a morning all-candidates’ forum, followed by voting process from noon to almost 10 p.m.
“I see a good picture. To me, there is hope … for our young generations’ future. Our young generations will be a proud nation, 50 or 100 years from now.
“They will work hard on their land. They will share whatever they have on the land. Our young generations, will be educated. They will have the best education.”
Throughout the campaign, and reflected in his acceptance speech, former educator Mackenzie emphasized the importance of substantive education opportunities for Indigenous youth.
George Mackenzie reacts as he’s announced as the new Dene National Chief. (James O’Connor)
He cited his responsibility to represent 26 communities in the NWT and work with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
“I won’t have all the answers, but the answers surround the table here the answers are with people at home. We will do it together. We will honour and respect our elders (and ask them) to work with us. We need a good team, an advisory team,” stated Mackenzie.
“Remember where we come from, remember who we are, remember who we are as Dene people, we can work with anybody.
Mackenzie is a former vice-principal at Chief Jimmy Bruneau Regional High School, president of Tlicho Investment corporation, and served two terms grand chief of Tlicho Government.
Every chair in the 400-person Chief Drygeese Conference Centre was taken throughout the three-day 54th Dene National Assembly, which began Wednesday and wraps up today after what is expected to be a lengthy debate on various resolutions.
There could be a few empty chairs today, as the Assembly was originally scheduled to end last night, but was pushed back out of consideration for two community funerals.
Several delegates have plane flights heading home, on what was to have been a travel today.
Mackenzie’s competitors were Gerry Cheezie, April Martel, Gerald Antoine (incumbent), Paulie Chinna and Norman Yak’eula.
During the morning forum, questions then came from the five Dene regions (Gwich’in, Sahtu, Dehcho, Akaitcho, Tlicho) with the following themes:
- Finishing Akaitcho and Dehcho land claims negotiations.
- First Nations sovereignty.
- Providing support for healthy families.
- Water quantity and quality.
- Fighting the illegal drug trade.
In his emotional good-bye speech, Chief Antoine didn’t mince words.
“Things are not working out how they’re supposed to. Strangers forced their way on our shores and forced their culture on us. We need our own way of doing things. We have help one another. We have to let them now this is our land, not their land.”
You can listen live on CKLB over the air or streaming via our Facebook page, called The Voice of Denendeh.
