Aboriginals unique relationship with the Royals

Their Royal Highnesses Prince Charles and The Duchess of Cornwall Camilla will make Regina their third and final stop on their Royal visit to Canada. 

Prince Charles and Camilla will have a full slate of activities on their schedule for Wednesday including stops at the legislative grounds, The RCMP depot where they will watch a performance from the Regina Symphony Orchestra and a tour of the First Nations University of Canada (FNUC) which is the only Aboriginal University in the country.  

“We were approached by the province wondering if it is possible that FNUC could be a potential stop and so it was followed by a number of visits from these offices to look at the facilities,” said Richard Missens the executive director of community relations for the university. “They took the information back to their groups and thought about the possibilities to stop here and they made it official that the Royals would make a stop at FNUC.” 

During their visit at FNUC Prince Charles and Camilla will get a chance to sit down and talk with a few of the aboriginal youth in the community.  

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“The last part of the tour is a roundtable and it’s set up to meet with our youth and have a discussion on overcoming challenges and finding success and building a future for aboriginal youth in Canada,” added Missens. 

“One of Prince Charles’ purpose for coming to FNUC is to hear from the youth. He wants to hear what the youth have to say about their opportunities and their challenges that they face in life,” said Cadmus Delorme president of the First Nations University student council. “I’m happy that Prince Charles is coming to listen because more people have to listen to the youth and I hope other important people follow his role that if you want to find solutions, start listening to the youth.”  

Aboriginals in Canada have a unique relationship with the royals that not all Canadians have, according to Missens.  

“We have a very historic nation to nation relationship with them they represented Canada as the Crown in negotiating and signing a number of treaties as Canada advanced into the territory of First Nations people in this area, Missens said. “It’s a long standing history since Queen Victoria and our Fist Nation’s leaders here. It’s a tremendous history going back, it’s a very special unique relationship between the First Nations and the Crown that we have.” 

This deep rooted history between aboriginals and the royals is important to First Nation culture but not all aboriginals realized the importance of it. 

“Before I went to FNUC I really did not know what a treaty was,” Delorme said. Once I started going to FNUC that’s when I realized that this treaty was made between the Crown and the First Nations people so that importance just adds to how important it is the royals are coming to FNUC.”  

“If the youth aren’t educated they may not know the importance of royalty and how the connection is to the First Nation but once you get a little more educated on the treaty side you understand this is very important.” 

In 2003 the earl of Wessex opened the new FNUC campus and  in 2005 Queen Elizabeth II laid the cornerstone for Regina’s Fist Nations University using stone taken from the Balmoral Castle grounds.