Most Indigenous people in Canada weren’t allowed to vote in provincial and federal elections until 1960, a little over 60 years ago. While many now exercise that right, others choose not to take part in what they consider colonial systems.
Andrea Landry is an instructor at First Nations University of Canada, freelance writer, life skills coach and mother to two daughters. She is Anishinaabe from Pawgwasheeng (Pays Plat First Nation) in Ontario, but currently resides on Treaty 6 territory in Poundmaker Cree Nation.
Landry wrote an article for This Magazine in 2019 entitled “Why I don’t vote in colonial politics.” She said she maintains that position today.
“I know a lot of Indigenous peoples have a similar stance, in that we are of our own sovereign nations and it really doesn’t make any sense to vote in provincial or national elections,” Landry said.
“The colonial state of Canada and even the province of Saskatchewan has really placed within our peoples that we are of these colonial systems, when in actuality we’re not.”
Sask. NDP incumbent Betty Nippi-Albright, who represents Saskatoon Centre, is encouraging Indigenous people to exercise their right to vote in the upcoming provincial election.
Landry said she understands why many people feel it’s important to vote, as provincial and federal governments play a large role in things like funding for Indigenous communities, but said that shouldn’t be necessary.
“When we originally signed treaty with the Crown, it was to ensure that we’re supposed to receive that kind of support because they are living on our lands and territories, regardless of if we’re a part of their governments and their political systems.”
Landry said Canada has made Indigenous people rely on these systems.
“Today’s candidates can say that they’re pro-reconciliation. They’re pro-Indigenous peoples,” she said. “They say, ‘If you vote for us, you know, this is all the things you’re going to receive,’ and you look four years down the line and nothing’s changed or things have gotten even worse.”
She pointed to First Nations communities lacking clean drinking water and housing.
“All these things that have been going on for generations, since the colonizers came to our lands.”
Landry said she would like to see Indigenous communities work on healing their own families, and dealing with grief or trauma within their own systems.
“We can support ourselves in our own ways with our own systems. That’s what our people originally wanted when they signed the treaty. It was for us to continue to live under our own governance systems, under our own social systems, under our own family systems,” she said.
Cadmus Delorme, the former chief of Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan, said it’s important for First Nations people to vote in the upcoming elections, although he understands those who choose not to.
Delorme was chief from 2016 to 2022. During that time Cowessess made sure its members had rides into local municipalities to vote in the provincial and federal elections, he said. Cowessess is 140 kilometres east of Regina.
During Delorme’s second term, he worked with Elections Saskatchewan to get voting polls in the community.
“This is the second, third generation that are able to vote, so it’s their right if they want to vote or not,” Delorme said. “I would explain the impact made in voting as, if you look at a receipt when you pay something off the reserve and it says PST on that, you’re paying PST. So when elections come up, you have a say in our taxation.”
Delorme said voting plays a role in trying to nudge politicians to align with Indigenous values.
“I would just encourage them to exercise your right, because our grandparents were not even given that opportunity. So let’s utilize every power we have today,” Delorme said.
Access to voting
Chief Matthew Todd Peigan is working to make sure Pasqua First Nation is one of the communities exercising its rights by having voting polls available on the reserve.
Peigan also said it’s time for the premier — whoever is elected — to sit down with the First Nations and make a plan for how to deal with resources going forward.
“There has been no collaboration with the current governing bodies as a party in terms of how we’re going to address industry and the extraction of minerals,” Peigan said.
In an email, an Elections Saskatchewan spokesperson said working with Indigenous voters and communities has been a priority for chief electoral officer Michael Boda since he was appointed in 2012.
Boda spends time every spring and summer visiting First Nations communities to better understand local issues and opportunities, the spokesperson said.
For provincial elections, Elections Saskatchewan contacts the leadership of every First Nation in the province well in advance of the event and works to arrange in-person voting opportunities.
Posters and informational material were shared with all First Nations in the province in mid-September to increase awareness of voting and the election.
The spokesperson said Elections Saskatchewan’s primary goal is to remove barriers to voting for all people, including Indigenous people. This includes having convenient voting locations, ensuring everyone knows what ID they need to vote, and making people comfortable with the process of voting.
“During Voting Week for the upcoming election, we will have 17 early voting locations on First Nation reserve land and 87 last day voting stations. Our goal is that every worker in these locations comes from the First Nation community,” the statement said.
