One year ago today, we lost a giant. Our Chancellor Emeritus, Murray Sinclair Mazina Gheezik-iban, began his journey to the spirit world in the early hours of November 4th, 2024. We are so grateful for his life, for his legacy of great change in the hearts and minds of Canadians, his passion for truth everywhere, including Queen’s.
Our community benefitted from his guidance and his wisdom as he set a course for a new relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples here on campus, in Canada and around the world. His son Niigaan has said that his dad was “a first in every room he walked into”: the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba, the first Indigenous person appointed to the Court of King's Bench in that province, the first Indigenous senator from Manitoba and indeed, the first Indigenous chancellor of Ӱֱ.
We’ve just passed Hallowe’en. He loved Hallowe’en and used to go trick-or- treating with his dearly beloved granddaughter Sarah. He would dress up as the ogre Shrek, and he was also a bumblebee. I love to imagine him flying around the streets in his yellow and black striped bee suit, delighting all who saw him. He loved fun. He loved children. And so much of his work was for children whose childhoods were stolen by residential school.
Murray-iban (iban means ancestor) was my cousin and dear friend. And he told me if I ever needed his advice in this chancellorial role, to just put him on speed dial and call anytime. Now if only I had the number...
Fortunately, to hear his voice, we can turn to his memoir Who We Are: Four Questions for a Life and a Nation. With great humility, surprising humour an