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Indigenous Nation: Huron Wyandot
Nation State:
Canada
Language(s):
Wyandot /
English
UN Region:
Western Europe and Other States
KONRAD SIOUI is a hereditary
chief of the Bear Clan of the Huron-Wyandot Nation, has been Chief and
acted as Grand Chief of the Council of his Nation, and was elected three
consecutive times Regional Chief of the First Nations, of Quebec and
Labrador. During that time, he represented the region on the Executive
Council of the Assembly of First Nations and acted on numerous occasions
as Grand Chief under the leadership of George Erasmus.
Konrad is a nationalist and activist, a master administrator, and
philosophically a believer and supporter of the political defense and
protection of the rights of indigenous peoples as put forth by Rigoberta
Menchu Turn. He was the official and national spokesperson on
constitutional reform issues between 1984 and 1994. He won a landmark,
unanimous decision at the Supreme Court of Canada in the spring of 1991
against Quebec and Canada known as the Sioui Decision. This ruling
acknowledged that treaties entered into between the Crown and First
Nations are international agreements entered into between sovereign
nations. Mr. Sioui is also recognized by Elijah Harper as one of the main
figures, along with Phil Fontaine, who actively fought against the Meach
Lake Accord.
At the international level, Chief Sioui has represented the Assembly of
First Nations in Geneva from 1985 to 1992. He has addressed the United
Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples on numerous occasions on
issues such as treaty rights, human rights, the rights of children and the
elderly, land rights and development. He has also addressed the U.N.
Commission on Human Rights about the urgent necessity to modify the U.N.
Charter to allow access for indigenous peoples of the world.
Chief Sioui is a dedicated humanitarian, a diplomat and a skilled
negotiator. He is a stead fast man of principle who pursues a simple and
traditional lifestyle with his wife Linda Rock of the Innu Nation, and his
four children on the Huron Reserve at Wendake, Quebec.
Source: Accessed April 25, 2007
Dialogue between:
Antonio Espinoza Huayllas, Aymara, Bolivia
and
Konrad Sioui, Huron Wyandot, Canada
Recorded during the Earth Summit and Global Forum in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil in June, 1992 this dialogue was the result of Antonio and Konrad
meeting each other in a taxi cab en route to a hotel where videotaping
with Konrad was to take place. By the end of the taxi ride, they
discovered they had a lot to share. A spontaneous moment was captured
between two strangers, intimately sharing their values, suffering, and
aspirations.
Full Transcript
Additional links for Konrad Sioui on this site:
Greeting from Konrad Sioui
Audio excerpt in Wyandot and English
In this excerpt from the Dialogue between Konrad and Antonio Espinoza
Huayllas, Konrad talks about his experience in a nun’s school as a child
and the impact on him of the history they were teaching - Audio in
English
Statement during the raising of the Indigenous flag of the Americas at
the Earth Summit, Rio, 1992 - Video in English
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