He may be best known these days for his work as the voice and arm behind his puppet Chief, but Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) grand chief candidate Ken Bighetty has years of experience as a councillor in his home community and believes that the biggest issue for First Nations is their youth.
Bighetty was a council member in Mathias Colomb Cree Nation for eight years, and also spent five years as the First Nation’s healthcare co-ordinator. He says that engaging the youth in Pukatawagan had positive impacts for them and the community as a whole.
“I did a junior chief and council in Pukatawagan and I had 140 junior councillors,” Bighetty said. “The crime rate went from 77 young offenders to 19 in a year-and-a-half. I want to work with young people and have an MKO junior chief and council that works in the north in reserves. If I had 140 in Pukatawagan and I times that by 26, that’s over 3,400 junior councillors. It’s a positive youth gang.”
Young people in First Nations need to feel like they are part of something bigger, Bighetty says, and to have positive activities to channel their energy into.
“A lot of young people are also seeking their identity,” he says. “Who am I? What am I? I want to learn my culture.”
If those opportunities to explore their identity aren’t provided, their resources may go towards harmful activities.
“I did an analysis in my community where there’s 1,200 that receive welfare aged 18 to 25,” Bighetty says. “That’s $380,000 walking around on welfare day. Times that by 26 you’re looking at $9.4 million walking around. The level of alcohol, violence and drugs stems from that.”
The MKO grand chief should be someone who’s visible in the community, approachable and based in the north where the people the organization represents are, says Bighetty, a single parent who lives in Thompson.
“My issues are in Thompson and the surrounding area and communities so that’s where I want to be based,” he says.
His leadership style isn’t confrontational but based on building bridges of communication.
Bighetty is also a big believer in analyzing data to measure the effectiveness of initiatives.
“I’m the candidate for what people need now,” he says.