Swearing In Ceremony 2025
The OCN Arbour Site was the location of the Swearing In Ceremony of 2025. The newly elected Chief & Council had taken an oath of service with ministers and traditional knowledge keepers during the early afternoon of October 9th.
Prior to the ceremony, newly elected Chief of Opaskwayak Cree Nation Michael G. Constant shared the most common issue with community members during his campaign, “Safety was number one in every house that I went into because of [gang] activity, because of the [drug] trafficking in our community. That means bringing in more First Nations police, training our security, and supporting the Warriors Society. Those are kinds of things we need to improve on and bring in more people to make our community feel safe.”
Chief Michael Constant was asked about what he plans to accomplish during his term, he replied with this, “A lot of things including investment in this community – investing to our people. To give them the resources – the tools they need whether if it’s training, education, renovations, ceremonies, or all of these things that we need as a community to improve the way of life.”
When it comes to representing Opaskwayak Cree Nation outside the community, Chief Constant answered, “I know OCN has always been integral part of the government whether it be municipal, provincial, or federal. Opaskwayak has always been a leader in economics, in land, in resources, and I know the relationship we built over the years is going to be maintained and always at the top level.”
The housing crisis still looms over Opaskwayak and the newly elected Chief had this to say, “The banks are talking with Opaskwayak right now, I know we’re going to more investments into our community – there’s over-crowding, there’s molding, the elders need their units renovated, and stuff like that, so we’re going to invest our resources into infrastructure.”
The Government Services branch had organized the ceremony and Executive Director of Government Services Diane Pelly shared insight about hosting the event,
“Government Services was tasked to coordinate and have the honour of hosting the Swearing In Ceremony for our new Chief & Council. Government Services has been working hard at making sure that it’s a very successful, very honourable, and traditional event. So I’m looking forward to today’s ceremony because it’s capturing a lot of our traditional ceremonial practices and also bringing in the contemporary oath of service.”
Gifts were also presented for Chief & Council at the ceremony sourced by artisans. Diane explained more,
“So we were able to contract out local artisans in creating star blankets as gifts for our Chief & Council – honouring them for the work ahead over the next two years. We also have some other special gifts that they’re gonna be receiving, such as medallions that were handcrafted by local artisans, and also ribbon shirts and skirts that they don’t know they’re receiving yet! So, we’re very excited for the day and we’re looking forward to the community showing up, and having both schools present to witness the ceremony of acknowledging our leadership in a good way.”
“What’s also unique,” Diane continued, “this year, we’re having former Chief Maureen Brown symbolically pass the eagle staff to the new leaders.”
A steak dinner was also the center of the menu after the ceremony. Diane explained that Government Services did a barter trade with local farmers – allowing them to use OCN owned lands for hay and alfalfa in exchange for beef. Traditional dishes were also available, such as moose meat/stew, pickerel, ducks and geese, including a kids’ menu. The feast was served at the OCN Veteran’s Hall.
