For the first time in more than 160 years, a Canadian Indigenous delegation had an audience with a sitting monarch.
A delegation from the Mississauga Nation — including Chief R. Stacey Laforme of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and Chief Robert Chiblow of the Mississauga First Nation — met with King Charles III during a garden party at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh on July 4.
The delegation was the first to meet with the King at the party and spoke with him for approximately 15 minutes about the Treaty of Niagara and wildfires in Canada, among other things.
Waterdown history teacher, author and historian Nathan Tidridge said the delegation was a reactivation of the tradition of the Mississaugas sending nation-to-nation delegations to the British Isles throughout the 19th century that was ended by Canada, Confederation and the Indian Act. He said the trip was “an assertion of sovereignty and an assertion of nationhood.”
“It was the Mississauga Nation asserting a treaty right — that they are in a relationship with the King and with the Crown,” he said. “This was a right of theirs to see the King and talk to him and have a relationship — it was an assertion of that right.
“Traditionally, that right has been hindered or interrupted — but here it was on full display.”
The eight-day diplomatic mission was organized by Tidridge and included visits to St. James’s Palace, the Isle of Man, the Corporation of the City of London, the House of Lords, Goodenough College and the National Liberal Club.
The delegation included Laforme representing the Mississaugas of the Credit, Chief Bob Chiblow for Mississauga First Nation, Professor Chadwick Cowie representing Hiawatha First Nation and Coun. Steven Toms for Curve Lake First Nation. The delegation also included patron Veronica Low of the Stephen Low Foundation, which funded the trip, Rev. Canon Paul Wright of HM Chapel Royal, St. James’s Palace and Tidridge.
Tidridge said the delegation grew out of a visit in 2022 by members of the National Liberal Club, who took part in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Treaty Forest planting at Waterdown’s Joe Sams Leisure Park. He added because the Mississaugas created a Chapel Royal with Queen Elizabeth II in 2017, that facilitated the meeting with King Charles III.
During the meeting, Tidridge was focused on properly introducing everyone and explaining the Convenant Chain Wampum Belt — the Treaty of Niagara Belt — worn by Laforme. The belt, which goes back 250 years, represents the foundational relationship between the Mississaugas and the Crown.
Laforme said the meeting with the King was “nice” and allowed him to reinforce the importance of the Treaty of Niagara — but said the real value of the trip was in building relationships to do more in the future.
“I think that we’re going to be able to build a relationship with the monarch now,” he said.
Laforme added he expects the King will travel to Canada and have an audience with the Mississaugas at Massey College. In the longer term, he would like to see the Mississauga Nation have a diplomat stationed in the U.K.
“The idea is interesting and I think it has potential — obviously there will be a number of hurdles to get through with Canada.”
Meanwhile, Chiblow said the trip strengthened ties between the Mississauga nations in Canada, as the delegation went over as a group.
“I think it’s good, because we went without asking Canada to be an intervener — we went on a Mississauga Nation diplomatic mission — so I think it’s significant that way.
“It was a great stepping-stone to maybe something more.”
For Cowie, a professor at the University of Toronto and a member of the Hiawatha First Nation, the delegation was a “once-in-a-lifetime experience,” with a new monarch on the throne, and a way to recentre and restart the nation-to-nation relationship with the Mississauga Nation and the Crown.
He said the Treaty of Niagara is “so important” in understanding what the nation-to-nation relationship is supposed to be as it was the start of friendly relations between the Mississaugas and the British. He added the fact that the Mississaugas were the first delegates the King met with is something he looks at with cautious optimism.
“The fact that he made it clear this was a delegation from another nation and we were the first people he shook hands with and talked to, that to me showed respect and a change in how things had been done by the Crown over the last 150 years.
“Hopefully, it’s just the first of many and a chance for more understanding as we go forward, for all of us.”
