NATIONAL INDIAN BROTHERHOOD/Fraternité Des Indiens Du Canada

NATIONAL INDIAN BROTHERHOOD/Fraternité Des Indiens Du Canada

NATIONAL INDIAN BROTHERHOOD/Fraternité des Indiens du Canada

ASSEMBLY OF FIRST NATIONS/

ASSEMBLÉE DES PREMIÈRES NATIONS

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH / BIOGRAPHIE

This is a brief biography of/Ceci est une brève biographie de: NAME/NOM

______Matthew Coon Come______

Matthew Coon Come was first elected as Grand Chief of the Grand Council of the Crees and Chairman of the Cree Regional Authority in 1987. He is now known throughout Canada and internationally for his efforts to end the federal policy of extinguishment of aboriginal rights. Treaty termination, and denial of aboriginal peoples’ human right of self-determination.

Re-elected by the James Bay Cree People through four successive terms a Grand Chief; Matthew never avoids an opportunity to defend the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples. Under his leadership, the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee) stayed at the centre of the every major political issue that concerns aboriginal peoples in Canada.

In recognition of his leadership – marshalling “local, national and international environmental, human rights and tribal communities to create a strong coalition” to stop a massive hydro-electric project on his people’s land – Matthew Coon Come was awarded the Goldman Prize, the “Nobel Prize of Environmental Awards” (1994). In 1998, Trent University granted him the degree of “Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa” in further recognition of the significance of his work. He also received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 1995.

Matthew insists that the James Bay Crees be clearly heard during all Constitutional processes, and has gathered nation-wide, even international support for the right of aboriginal peoples in Quebec to choose their own political future if Quebec tries to take aboriginal peoples and lands out of Canada. While the rights of all of the aboriginal peoples in Quebec were endangered by the 1995 Quebec Referendum, he asserted the Crees’ of Eeyou Istchee right of self-determination through their own historic Special Referendum.

He has ensured that the Grand Council of the Crees held its standing as a world class organisation known for its effective, persistent, and knowledgeable advocacy of crucial issues that concern aboriginal peoples – issues that others were too often reluctant to broach.

Perhaps more than any others aboriginal leader, Matthew has been the voice that has been heard throughout Canada. He has met with the Prime Minister, provincial premiers and foreign leaders, and has spoken out to the Assembly of First Nations on the danger posed to all aboriginal and Treaty rights across this country by federal policy.

Under his direction the Grand Council intervened during the Supreme Court Reference on Quebec Succession, and argued successfully before the court that the rights of the aboriginal peoples may not ignored. He has effectively called upon the courts, the United Nations and the international media to help defend aboriginal rights. His name is attached to two of the largest Treaty rights and Treaty implementation cases currently before Canadian courts, and he was instrumental in several well known court cases and international initiatives launched by the Crees where judgements have significantly advanced aboriginal rights in Canada.

Matthew is perhaps best known for his international work to protect the traditional way of life of aboriginal peoples. He brought this issue to the Earth Summit in Rio and formed a coalition with other indigenous peoples and environmental organisations to defend the indigenous peoples’ traditional use of the land. In addition to the Goldman Prize, he was also recipient of the Equinox Environmental Award and the Conde Naste Environmental Award.

Born in 1956 on his parent’s Mistissini trapline, he was soon recognised by the elders as a natural leader. He was asked to be co-ordinator for all the inland Cree communities for the negotiations with Canada that enabled the James Bay Crees to escape the Indian Act and gain the first ever-aboriginal self-government legislation in Canada.

Matthew served two terms as Chief of the Mistissini First Nation. By the time he left to work with his father on his trapline, his community had a new arena, an adult education centre, a bank, new administrative offices, new health facilities, and major improvements to its housing and community infrastructure.

He went on to become Executive Director of the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee). He was directly involved in the Grand Council’s successful effort to gain consultative status at the United Nations, and supported the Grand Council’s use of its international status to bring issues vital to all of the world’s indigenous peoples before the international community.

Matthew has been a Director of Aircreebec; Creeco (Cree Regional Economic Enterprises Company); the Cree Construction Company; Servinor; the James Bay Cree Cultural Education Centre; the Cree Board of Health and Social Service; the Centre for Indigenous Environment Resources; and the Cree School Board.

He was Chairman of the James Bay Eeyou Corporation, managing over one hundred million dollars in assets. He was also Chairman of James Bay Native Development Cooperation, which under his leadership assisted in starting up fifty-four businesses within the Cree communities. In 1995 he became a founding director of the First Nations Bank of Canada.

Matthew has studied law, political science, economics and native studies at Trent and McGill Universities.

He married Maryann Matoush in 1976; they have three daughters and two sons.