The eagle staff has been passed from one council and chief to the next, during a long-awaited inauguration ceremony that was at times cheerful and mournful.
Chief Joanne P. Sandy will begin her two-year term as head of Beausoleil First Nation, after she and five other members of council were sworn into office during the outdoor event held at the Shorefront Pavilion on Christian Island.
The inauguration comes after the 2018-2020 term of BFN Chief Guy Monague and council, whose leadership was extended by two six-month extensions into 2021 due to COVID-19 regulations.
Monague gave opening remarks to the crowd of roughly two hundred residents that showed up on the warm, fair-weathered day.
His speech reflected the past three years of office, touching on the time he’d spent as a councillor in the 1990s, and noting how much the First Nation community had grown since then.
“Just because I’m done,” Monague advised, “my responsibility carries on. The same as yours. That responsibility is supporting this council.
“My choice and responsibility is to provide support to the next council in any way I can. I’m not going to stand on the sidelines and look at every mistake they make; I’m going to come up to them and say, ‘Do you need help with this?’”
After passing the eagle staff to councillor Murray Sandy to signify the transfer of responsibility, Rev. Robert Hockley was called upon to administer the oath of office to the incoming chief and council. As the new chief, Joanne Sandy was the first to be signed into power.
Chief Sandy won the 2021 election on May 22 for both the positions of chief and as one of six members of council, handily garnering 33% more votes than her closest opponents for the top role.
During her first speech as chief, Sandy kept her thanks to a brief and terse itinerary, making sure that every person, team and group were thanked in short order one after another.
“The position of being chief and councillor is a very humbling experience,” Sandy began, “and I can say that as someone who was a councillor for nine years. Four terms.”
Adding to her speech, Sandy mentioned projects that would demand patience of the residents over the course of the term: the new ferry with its new dock; the road project in the process of being tendered; a new police station and construction for new housing.
Her focused political demeanour at the podium contrasted with her off-camera self, a kindly woman who was playing rock-paper-scissors with a youngster not half an hour earlier.
The day’s commencement began with a smudge and prayer by Trish Monague and Rev. Robert Hockley, after which the master of ceremonies Joseph Stup led an emotional moment of silence to honour the 215 residential school children discovered in Kamloops, BC last week.
Stup took an additional five minutes to read off every known member of Beausoleil First Nation who also attended residential schools, with the crowd listening intently to the dozens of remembered family and friends listed.
Once sworn in, members of council were invited up to give speeches.
Tanya Roote-Jamieson announced that the new council were “going to be a great team.”
Noting that the province rescinded the stay-at-home order regarding the pandemic, Jane Copegog said, “There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Today, life is getting back to normal.”
Whitney Walsh thanked family, staff and organizers; both Murray Sandy and Trevor Reid declined to give a speech.
