A Cree from Grand Rapids, Man., by the late 1960s, Ovide Mercredi had begun his role as a political advocate for First Nations Peoples. A graduate of the University of Manitoba faculty of law (1977), he is well-recognized on the national stage as a lawyer, a negotiator and an activist who believes in Mahatma Gandhi’s approach to political activism.
He served two terms (1991-1997) as the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), becoming the longest-serving national chief. Actively involved with the constitutional law and Aboriginal constitutional reform issues, in 1992 he led the First Nations delegation during the constitutional discussions that resulted in the Charlottetown Accord which recognized a legal duty to honour treaties and Aboriginal self-government as a distinct third order of government.
Prior to his election as national chief, Mercredi served as AFN vice-chief for the Manitoba region and was an active member of the AFN national executive committee. In 1989, he represented the AFN in Geneva, seeking improvements to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. He also acted as AFN spokesperson and representative at the United Nations Indigenous Peoples Working Group.
He has served as commissioner of the Manitoba Human Rights Commission. He was also a member of the Alcoholism Foundation of Manitoba and the Senate ad hoc Committee on Native Studies. He has spoken in India, Australia, Great Britain, Scotland and Germany, and has lectured at various American universities. He published a collection of his speeches in his book In the Rapids – Navigating the Future of First Nations. Mercredi is currently a professor of native studies at the University of Sudbury.
Other awards and honours include an honourary doctorate in civil law from Bishop’s University in Quebec (1994); the Thakore Foundation Award in recognition of his work toward the accomplishment of justice and self-government for First Nations Peoples in Canada (1993); an honourary doctorate in civil law from St. Mary’s University in Halifax (1992) and a nomination by the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation for World Peace for the Gandhi Prize.
