I’ve just done something I never thought I would do: I voted for the first time in the Canadian federal election. Many people I know will ask why I went against my beliefs and the teachings of the Two Row Wampum belt: “In our canoe we have all our laws, culture, and beliefs and in your vessel you shall have all your laws, culture, and beliefs, traveling side by side through life as equals never enforcing or interfering in each others affairs as long as the sun shall shine the grass shall grow and the rivers shall flow this will be everlasting.”

But since this belt was made, the government of Canada and the Crown has not lived up to it or other treaties they have made with the First Nations people of Canada. This is why I voted. Who I voted for is no secret. After months of listening to election promises and looking at past track records of the candidates, and after the press conference the NDP had on the Enoch reserve that was broadcasted live on APTN, I VOTED NDP with great hope that all Tom Monclair’s promises to First Nations and to our environment are true.

With so many first-time indigenous voters, I hope 2015 will bring a change for the good. I hope more treaties will be honored and the quality of life on reservations across Canada, particularly those that have third-world conditions, will improve. Most of all I hope our Mother Earth is able to recover from the destruction wreaked on her and that she is able to sustain our future generations.