Organizations pay tribute to Garnet Angeconeb

Tim Brody - Editor

Local and regional organizations are paying tribute to Garnet Angeconeb, who passed away on July 25. He was 68 years old.
The Sioux Lookout resident and Lac Seul First Nation band member is being remembered as a bridge builder, advocate, and leader.
“I will very much miss speaking with Garnet at the many events we attended together,” stated Grand Council Treaty #3 (Grand Chief) Ogichidaa Francis Kavanaugh. “He always had great stories and great insights that in many ways helped me in my duties as Grand Chief. I offer my heartfelt condolences to Garnet’s family and the community of Lac Seul on their loss.”
Grand Council Treaty #3 shared in a July 30 media release, “It is with great remorse that Grand Council Treaty #3 learns of the passing of Garnet Angeconeb of Lac Seul First Nation. Garnet was a regular attendee of many Grand Council Treaty #3 events and could regularly be found speaking with community leadership, staff, and government about his work. Over the years he worked with people from across Canada to share his own healing journey and to inform the public about the history of Residential Schools.” 
Angeconeb was a survivor of Pelican Indian Residential School.
He was invited as a Member of the Order of Canada on November 30, 2015, “For his contributions to his community, for fostering relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, and for helping to promote the Anishenabek culture.”
Lac Seul First Nation Chief Clifford Bull shared news of Angeconeb’s passing during the recent Treaty Days in Kejick Bay, Lac Seul First Nation. A moment of silence was observed in Angeconeb’s honour.
On July 29, Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Executive Council members Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler and Deputy Grand Chiefs Anna Betty Achneepineskum, Bobby Narcisse, and Victor Linklater expressed heartfelt condolences following Angeconeb’s passing, 
“Garnet was an inspiring leader and a great friend who dedicated much of his life to helping Indian Residential School Survivors on their path to healing. Since this sad news, our thoughts and prayers have been with his family and friends. May the Creator guide him on his Spirit Journey.
“Garnet refused to be silent at a time when the horrors of the Residential School system were not widely acknowledged. He was pivotal in the movement to secure compensation for IRS Survivors and the historic apology from the Government of Canada in 2008.
“Helping Survivors find their paths to healing and fostering understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities was his life’s work and passion, and his dedication to reconciliation is recognized across Turtle Island.
“Garnet showed us how to turn anger into a voice for justice. His legacy is a roadmap to guide us towards reconciliation.”
NAN further shared of Angeconeb’s life, “Originally from Lac Seul First Nation, he left his family and community at age seven to attend Pelican Falls Indian Residential School from 1963 to 1969. He completed secondary school in Sioux Lookout and graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1982 with a diploma in journalism.
“Angeconeb promoted traditional language and culture in a variety of roles with Wawatay Native Communications Society. He developed Wawatay Radio Network coverage for northern and remote First Nations and was a founding editor of Wawatay News. He also worked for CBC Radio Bay and served as executive director of the Independent First Nations Alliance.
“In 1985, he became the first Indigenous person to be elected councillor in the Town of Sioux Lookout. He helped found the Sioux Lookout Anti-Racism Committee and served on the Aboriginal Healing Foundation’s board of directors for many years. He received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Award in 2002 and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award in 2012 for his community contributions.”
In a July 26 post on Facebook, Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority shared, “Garnet was a leader in community-building, reconciliation efforts, and has made significant contributions to “fostering relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, and for helping to promote the Anishinabek culture” according to the note on Garnet’s investiture to the Order of Canada. 
“Garnet served on Sioux Lookout Municipal Council, and on a variety of Municipal Committees, most recently on the Truth & Reconciliation Committee. 
“Let us take a moment to honour Garnet’s memory and the positive impact he had on our lives, and to our community. Garnet will be dearly missed but forever remembered in our hearts and his spirit will live on in those he taught. SLFNHA is offering condolences to his family and all those who remember him.”
Sioux Lookout Mayor Doug Lawrance shared, “I first met Garnet in the mid-1980’s while     undertaking a project for Wawatay, where Garnet was working at that time. But it was after I was elected Mayor in 2014 that I came to know Garnet.  He was both a colleague and a mentor for me. 
“As Councillor (Joyce) Timpson has said, Garnet served as ‘a bridge between two cultural groups’ in Sioux Lookout. The work he did facilitated good relationships between the Municipality itself and Indigenous people and organizations, but it also fostered good relationships in the general population of Sioux Lookout - all while advocating for his people.
“Garnet was a leader who helped us to see the truth in a way that helped all of us along the on-going journey of reconciliation.
“As well as being the first Indigenous member of Council, elected in the 1980’s, Garnet was a founding member of the Sioux Lookout Ant-Racism Committee in the early 1990’s. Garnet’s guiding hand was behind the creation of the Sioux Lookout Friendship Accord and several years later the Municipal Truth and Reconciliation Committee.
“The historian Kenneth Clark said that “it is a lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilization. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs.”  
“Garnet faced many hardships that would lead many – perhaps most - of us to cynicism and disillusionment.  
“But Garnet was a leader who had the confidence to tell the truth, who wanted to create pathways to reconciliation, and ultimately to help build us up as a community.  
“Garnet was resilience personified. He will be missed and he will be remembered.”