Episode 27 Part 1 - Dave Mowat

Join me and Chief Dave Mowat of the Alderville First Nation on June 16 and learn from his "living art" approach to history. Dave shares his thoughts about:
- His great grandfather, a 1908 London Olympian, who inspired Dave's love of history and his "window" into Alderville's broader issues
- The living history of Canada's First Nation people
- Alderville's community response to the Kamloops residential school news
- Being Chief of the Alderville First Nation and connecting people with their past

Chief Mowat has spent over 30 years working in various capacities at the First Nation level, in Winnipeg, Waabaseemoong, Scugog Island and Alderville. As a researcher, writer, youth worker, economic development officer, consultation specialist, Band councilor (2007-15) and as the elected Chief of Alderville First Nation since 2019, Dave has remained committed to the positive advancement of his community.

His passion and focus remain researching and understanding the treaty, military, and settlement history of southern Ontario (Upper Canada). This experience over decades allows him to defend the Mississauga Anishinabeg presence in southern Ontario with confidence and commitment.

Dave is also a long-time blues musician/singer, having taken up the harmonica back in the early 1980s shortly after relocating to north end Winnipeg from southern Ontario. He still plays professionally in Toronto and south-central Ontario.

As a traditional wild rice harvester, he is a staunch defender of this aboriginal right across Alderville’s treaty areas. In the wake of the 2018 Williams Treaties Settlement Agreement Chief Dave Mowat’s main intent was and continues to be securing the settlement for the immediate and long-term viability of Alderville First Nation.

He currently sits on the Queens University Indigenous Elders Advisory Committee, the City of Kingston Sir John A MacDonald History and Legacy Working Group and works with the City of Kingston on the Alderville First Nation commemorative public art project (“Manidoo Ogitigan”) which was approved by City Council in 2017 for installation at Lake Ontario Park. Along with his wife Janet and their granddaughter Brooklyn, Dave lives in the home he built in Alderville (25 years ago), adjacent to his beloved Black Oak Savanna and Tallgrass Prairie, where he and Janet also raised their 3 children.