Legendary Nisga'a leader leaves legacy of hope

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Less than two months after receiving the Order of Canada, Nisga'a Elder Reverend Canon Rod Robinson, a spiritual, community and political leader who successfully fought for self-government, died Dec. 1 after a lengthy illness.

Nelson Leeson, president of Nisga'a Lisims Government and close friend of the Nisga'a Elder, said that Robinson was a legend in his own time whose life's work left a legacy of hope, belief in humanity and a belief in the Nisga'a people.

"He always told us that we have our own history and that we have our own culture and our language and that we should be very proud and stand up, that we're equal to everybody," said Leeson.

Robinson received the Order of Canada from Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson Oct. 10 at a ceremony in New Aiyansh for his work that led to the historic Nisga'a Final Agreement, described as the first modern day treaty in British Columbia. He was the last living founding member of the 1953 Nisga'a land committee, whose mandate was to resolve the Nisga'a land claim.

Robinson's efforts in the 1960s and 1970s with then Nisga'a Tribal Council president Frank Calder resulted in the breakthrough Supreme Court of Canada decision that unlocked the door for Aboriginal negotiation of land title in Canada. The Calder case inspired other First Nations to question the legitimacy of the Indian Act. From 1981 to 1999, Robinson was executive director of the Nisga'a tribal council, and during the late 1990s, he was heavily involved in negotiations for self-government. On April 13, 2000, the Senate of Canada ratified the Nisga'a Final Agreement and ended the Nisga'a Nation's long battle for land title and self-determination.

"There are a lot of us here who are so thankful for Rod's knowledge and for his ability to pass on his knowledge, and teaching us a lot of things in different situations that helped us enormously as we moved through the process of actually negotiating," said Leeson.

Since the creation of the Nisga'a Lisims Government on May 11, 2000, Robinson served as chair of the Council of Elders until he retired in 2002. Robinson spent half a century working for justice for the Nisga'a people.

"He was a community builder for his own community and always thought of the best interests of the Nation overall. So he was really highly respected as not only a hereditary chief but as a human being and I think those things proceeded him wherever he went," said Leeson.

Reverend Robinson was a deacon of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in New Aiyansh; in 2000 he became Canon of St. Andrews Cathedral in Prince Rupert. For Robinson there was no conflict between the Christian faith and the traditional Nisga'a teachings.

"If he was to do a sermon, he would compare what's in the Bible to what is in our teachings, and those are the kind of things that really drove the point home," Leeson told Raven's Eye. "I think it really helps us understand that basically we're all human beings when you look at it. All the different cultures, different nationalities of people, and when you boil it all down, we're just human beings, and I think that was one of his greatest assets of being able to do that."

Robinson was born in 1931 in the Nisga'a village of Gitlakdamix and graduated from the Alert Bay residential school. He went on to have a long career as a fisherman and logger and in 1972 he became chairman of the International Workers of America Union, Local 171. Robinson's Nisga'a name is Sim'oogit Minee'eskw, and he was the hereditary chief of the Eagle clan.

"We're just getting swamped with calls here from people in government, people in business, people from all walks of life just expressing their condolences and expressing how happy they were to have met such a person and his family, and to me that's really overwhelming. It shows to me that indeed this man did live his life to its fullest," said Leeson.

A memorial service was held Dec. 5 at the New Aiyansh Recreation Centre and a funeral service was held Dec. 6 at Holy Trinity Church. Robinson is survived by his wife Marjorie and 10 children.