To: All Kettle & Stony Point Community Members,

The community constitution development committee (CCDC) is nearing completion of a  “draft” community constitution. However, the area of citizens and elections of leadership need work and your input is necessary. The membership and election sub-committee’s will be coming to you for participation in the very near future. Please make your voice heard.

Our endeavor is to present the “draft” to you during an upcoming community meeting in March. We will ask for your input on whether the reformed governance system is acceptable or will need modification.

CCDC engaged in numerous consultation sessions in the past and received a lot of good information. In the mission to reclaim the original name of Kettle Point, CCDC identifies two names:                  

1.            “Kikonong”: meaning, Place of Kettles.

2.            “Wiikwedong”: meaning, By the Bay.

As a community desiring to reclaim our Anishnabe identity, we need to come to consensus (collective agreement) on one of the above two names.  Please provide your choice of name, what it means to you, and why you choose that name.

CCDC is asking for information from community members/language keepers to provide another name for the word constitution. We’ve considered “Bimaadisiwin”. However, we would like you to share your knowledge with your community. We need language that describes the life of our people in our territory, or how we conduct ourselves in our territory.

Please email, visit, call, or hand-in written submissions to the Kettle & Stony Point First Nation Admin. Office. CCDC will accept submissions till February 28, 2007. This will allow time to include in the “draft” document for review at the upcoming community meeting in March.

Inclosing, I would like to share with you a question I was asked by a young person, fluent in the language, and a resident of Aamjiwnaang. His lineage stems from our community and I was quite honored to meet him.

He asked me if our community in the language would be, “Kikonong miin waa Aashodenong”. I’m not a fluent speaker, so I asked him what that would mean? He shared miin waa means “together”.

Maybe that is something, we as a community can consider. Please let me know your thoughts.

Miigwech!

Nicole Shawnoo, Constitution Coordinator

Kettle & Stony Point First Nation