The Chief Elder’s Speech To The First Trainers Of The Nishiiyuu Way At Gatineau, Quebec
Including a short biographical sketch – Watch This Life Changing Video or Read Transcript Below
Transcript of Message from Chief Elder Robbie Matthew:
“I could write my own story, I did that, I put it on tape what happened before I was elected Chief of Chisasibi. Something happened there on the Island.
So I wanted to put everything on tape and I think I got 10 tapes of this story that I am about to tell you.
This is a true story that doesn’t come from this earth; it comes from the Great Spirit.
One day, there were a group of Elders that were gathering in a house, I didn’t even notice this, myself.
And then there was a guy there, and he came into my home and he said, “You are wanted. The Elders want to see you, we would like you to come.”
Okay I said, I am willing.
When you are called by an Elder, you respect that Elder, that moment. You can be sure there is something for you. Why they want you to sit with them.
So it happened many years ago, we were still on the Island of Fort George. As I entered the room there were Elders sitting in a circle. And they told me to come and sit down with us. “There is something we have to share with you”.
And this Elder spoke to me. There was only one Elder who spoke to me. I guess they had made these arrangements what was going to take place. And sure enough the Elder spoke to me and he said, “I am very honored that you had the time to come and sit with us…because this message is very important. It doesn’t come from this (pointing to earth) but from the Great Spirit. ”
Of course I couldn’t understand it at that time.
So he spoke to me and says, “I’m telling you what is going to take place in the future of our people. You are chosen to lead the people of Chisasibi. Just like our ancestors knew everything, you are chosen. And I want to relay this message to you. It might not happen tomorrow. It might not happen in ten years but it is going to happen gradually. Believe it. Believe me when I try to put these words across to you because we have a message for you from the Great Spirit.”
Just like David in the Old Testament, he was anointed before he was made the King. Right? This is the same thing that happened to me with Elders.
And he told me, “You must prepare yourself, find the ways of our Elders, our ancestors. Walk the path what the Nishiiyuu had blazed the trail for our young generation. You are chosen.”
After that, after that conversation, I wondered and I couldn’t say anything. Wondering where did that information come from?
These Elders to me, they were prophets chosen by the Great Spirit to tell the future of our generation; where to go. And it happened at that time… I was still young and having married. And every day I use to wonder.
And he said to me, “Okay, that was the message we wanted to share with you. From now on you will find…search diligently for the truth – where does this thing come from?”
Of course, I didn’t know nothing about all these conversations with these Elders.
And then one day I searched for the message. And this is the same thing that God works through the prophets at the time. This is the same thing that happened on the Island of Fort George.
Elders were the ones that carried the message for the Great Spirit, to relay the message. Even in the Old Testament, God even sent these prophets to the Kings and Queens to correct them. It was from God.
And I could remember now where these Elders, where their message came from, it came from the Great Spirit.
What you see here, and my brother (Tulshi Sen), is chosen from the Great Spirit to carry the message, the message of truth, not for his own people, but other people. This is what happened a long time ago. So this is the message that I get. That’s to know to tell you where this message came to him, to carry the message to everyone that understands this message.
So in the years after that, so they let me go and said to me, “Do you have anything to say?”
“No”, I said. I couldn’t. I couldn’t find the words. “No, I said, “I don’t have anything, I don’t understand, but in later years I will try to understand”. For I didn’t even know the message came from the Great Spirit.
So in the years nothing happened. But I was told to be patient. Wait, the time will come that you will be the one that will lead the people of Chisasibi. So anyway, I waited and waited. And Prayed.
I was told before that to prepare myself. What’s going to happen to you. And the years went on and we were preparing for the location from the Island to the place that is now Chisasibi. I kept thinking and thinking. And I said to myself, I know now where the message comes from.
They were prophets chosen to tell me what is going to happen. And from then on I studied and wanted to understand more about what this Elder, the prophet, had told me.
So when we started to relocate to what is now Chisasibi, things happened. I was asked… there were some of these Elders who were still active and living, and were out on the land, and they told me, “Now is the time, the time has come for you, you will be an elected chief by the Elders.”
So I couldn’t say “yes” the first time they asked me. “I am not ready yet, I am not ready. I am searching for something”.
Just like Solomon in the Old Testament. He asked God, he didn’t have the knowledge and the wisdom to take the children and guide… I did that, I was at that time and I searched and searched – and there it was in the Bible.
Solomon prayed to God to give him wisdom, to lead his people the way they were supposed to be lead. And I found the answer right there. So I was prepared now.
The first time they asked me I was so scared, I couldn’t say anything. “No, I said, I am not prepared until I find the answer that I am searching for”
And I found that and ever since I found that, I was strong again. I never regret that and next time they asked me, a year after, I said, yes I have found the answer, I will say yes.
And this is how I tried to put on tape. But the tapes are there in my home. I kept them under my table. Searching and searching, the Nishiiyuu Way could be published and could help our young people, our young generation.
When I tell you this, it’s the truth. I was alone. One thing they made a mistake, was they didn’t invite my wife to hear what is going to take place both in our lives.
So it happened at the time in Chisasibi, I felt no fear; I knew where this message came from. I was prepared now.
This is the same thing that will happen to you. The message that we hear is the truth. We were there once but we walked away from that, the truth.
This is a strong message for you to hear.
I really didn’t know how to write a book but I put it on tape. I put it on tape that one day somebody could help me with that. I wanted to write a story about the river, we use to call it Chisasibi. I was brought up in that river. I knew the places…where to cross when it is frozen and where to cross when the ice was getting thin in the spring.
All these things, I was connected. I wanted to write a book about a boy growing up in that Chisasibi, what he learned from that river. The river of life is gone in Chisasibi, the river is no more. It is not the same river that we use to see. Growing up, it is a different water that comes through the turbines. I think there are seven turbines up river.
We knew, we understood, that the river and water touches like steel, everything, it is not the same texture anymore.
So it happened. I was elected Chief, maybe one year or so.
It didn’t matter myself, it’s the message…where it came from. I feel sorry for our Elders that tried to take us home again. But the message didn’t go to our people.
And when I was alone at home with my wife. The phone rang maybe around 11 o’clock at night. They had held a meeting there and I was not invited as a Chief to listen. So the phone rang at home and I took it.
“Hello” he says. “Hello”, I said. “Good Evening”.
“You are wanted at the meeting tonight. Would you like to come over because you are no longer a Chief”.
Just like that. Little did they know where this message came from.
So after that, I went to the meeting and I guess I resigned my position and there was a new Chief at that moment.
Of course I felt limp. I couldn’t stand. It was not for me. I feel sorry, what these Elders was telling us, it was the way which we should approach, the Nishiiyuu Way. And therefore I left the office and out on the land again, with Nishiiyuu.
That made me strong again.
So I went through this dream that was broken. The message. That made me stronger than ever. It made me stand on my two feet. That nothing can make me, or if the wind blew in the side of you, you can stand everything. Firm, whatever comes to you.
I went through that. My children, they feel the pressure, especially my late wife.
“Don’t worry”, I said. “There is a lot of gifts out there. We will be blessed because we didn’t make a mistake”. We were there, everything was blessed, we were blessed with everything we need out on the land.
And later on in years, my children got married. My oldest daughter got married. We were on the land at that time before we could hear the message.
Through my experience, my hunting experience and looking at everything, the trees and everything. It was in the fall that I happened to see these eagles flying side by side going south.
And I remember them and I thought there must be a message. That they wanted to tell me something. So when I went back to Chisasibi again my daughter comes to us and tells her Mom that she is going to have a baby. Of course there were twins…that were the first twins we had among our children. And that means these eagles flying side by side told me the story of what is going to take place. That you are going to have Grandchildren coming in as twins. So it happened.
Just like the message that this Elder gave me. It happened. And the message from the eagles happened. Exactly.
Ever since, I have four Grandchildren in the family. I was blessed like that. I knew I was blessed. And I even have great Grandchildren as twins.
See if you know the answers to everything that happens to us, the time will reveal itself at a later date. Even these birds that fly side by side – they have sent the message to me.
And I told my late wife. “You know I saw these eagles flying side by side today out there on the land, there must be a message for us.”
So I’m telling you this, whatever you had, whatever you heard from my Brother (Tulshi Sen), he is also a Prophet for the Great Spirit. You must, sometimes, you use to wonder as I listen. My heart listens and my spirit tells me that it is the truth. We all need this, to start all over again. Which means you must be born again.
So anyway, that’s the way we are supposed to be. Nobody is going to tell us what to do. We are so much in control from the governments we don’t know where to go from there on.
We are in control. I wanted to share this with you. I still have those tapes. Exactly what happened. So if anybody wants to…we have this session when people went to court.
We have to find the truth or take the truth or to show what happened. This is what we call exhibit. Whatever happens in our life we have our exhibit. Our identity is the exhibit.
For all the other people to understand who we are. Right?
I don’t know if you understand what I am saying. Please try to understand this.
So back in time when I was out of the Office a phone call was made to my home by the lawyers that I use to work with at that time. And he says to me, “I hear you are no longer a Chief in Chisasibi”.
I said, “yes that is right, that is exactly what happened.”
“Why” he says.
“I don’t know”. I don’t want to say anything about the people of Chisasibi. They were once my people. I wanted to take them where they belong; to take them home again.
“You know”, he says, “Why don’t you take your people to court?”
There you go again, White Man’s way.
“And you would win in the court and you would have lots of money”.
“No”, I said, “I don’t know what money will do for me. I will go out on the land and what the land has to offer me I will accept it…and for my children – I have been there before”.
See what happens. If you go the Nishiiyuu way you will understand more what I am talking about here. There is no control, no laws to break when you are out there. Just be yourself.
And he says I would have beat Chisasibi if I had gone to court with that case and you would have lots of money. No, I didn’t want to do this to my own people. No. That was God’s will that I was there for a short period of time and I respect these people.
I still work for them. As I am sitting here I am still working for them. I haven’t left them. I am still with them in their hearts and many Elders have mentioned that, “What happened, what happened?”
I couldn’t tell them nothing. I don’t know.
So anyway, try to understand my Brother here.
You know it is an important message … that some people will listen to other people. There is a tribe out there somewhere. That’s what is says, they will listen to you when you talk. They need that. A nation will rise and what needs to be done, to heal the world has to come from a nation that understands more about life.
The life is like a treasure given to us and we are supposed to tend that, take care of that. Not to let anything happen to us.
That’s the way of this life, I understand a little bit about. What was given to us was free. You are breathing here as we sit around here now. Who gave us that breath? It is not the government. The government was not here, we were here before. He was our Government (pointing skyward).
We listen to him, our Nishiiyuu, listen to the One Spirit.
So anyway, I am sorry to hold this and I want to thank you and young people listen to your Elders, whether they are a woman or a man because he is the messenger. Just like what happened in that story of my life.
I respected them so much. I didn’t even say a word, I wanted to listen, get everything.
Try to understand and put it in your heart where nobody can take it away from you. That is how life is precious.
Well anyway, I wanted to share this. I did that myself. I wanted to make people understand where do we come from, what was offered – everything was offered free to us from the Great Spirit. How we should look after our life, our children – everything was there for us. And no one in his right mind will think that our ways are no longer needed.
No. We want this life to start again.
I want to thank you. I have kept these tapes for so many years now and when my late wife was still around we kept listening to them. But in order to write a book I wanted to place every Elder that was there in that book. A picture of him, a picture of her that was there present.
It is a book that has to be written. It is about Nishiiyuu and the Great Spirit. I keep them as a treasure for young people to hear and understand what we did when we elected a person. What was the method that was used and for us it was always the Elders that took the first stand.
Well anyway, thank you for listening.”