YOUTH PROFILE
R
amon Mahegkan Kataquapit, 
a 24-year-old Mushkego Cree 
youth council member from 
the Attawapiskat First Nation 
and part of the Eagle Clan, believes his 
journey into advocacy began the moment 
he took his first breath. As the founder 
of the Okinawak Youth-led Movement, 
Kataquapit has spent years fighting for a 
platform where Indigenous youth can use 
their voices to bypass traditional bureau-
cratic organizations like the Assembly of 
First Nations (AFN). For Kataquapit, his 
advocacy work alongside the Nishnawbe 
Aski Nation (NAN) and the Chiefs of 
Ontario (COO) is deeply intertwined 
with his struggle for true identity and 
cultural survival.
“When I really think about it, I’d 
say it started from birth,” Kataquapit 
says, when asked about what inspired 
him to get into advocacy at a young 
age. “Being born in this world as an 
Indigenous person is inherently political 
because you’re adding strain to a system 
that already can’t support you on top of 
being labelled as so many different things 
within Canada.” 
Growing up, Ramon constantly 
heard non-Indigenous folk describe 
what they believed Indigenous people 
to be – while also witnessing the real 
challenges communities face, including 
drug epidemics, suicide crises, widespread 
addiction and deep poverty. Kataquapit 
notes that overcoming these systemic 
barriers required a painful journey of 
self-discovery. “I had to go through 
this loss of identity,” he explains. “I had 
to go through addiction. I had to go 
through poverty in order for me to really 
find a way I could start building as an 
Indigenous person with what we lost, 
which was our culture, our identity and 
how we viewed ourselves in this  
modern world.”
His entry into advocacy was a journey 
deeply inspired by his late grandfather, 
a survivor of the notorious St. Anne’s 
Indian Residential School in Fort 
Albany. Despite the trauma he faced, 
his grandfather showed Kataquapit 
unconditional acceptance during his 
darkest moments. When his grandfather 
passed away from COVID-19, 
Kataquapit found himself standing by 
the Attawapiskat River processing his 
grief. “When I was looking at that river 
go by, I just kept thinking, I want to do 
something for my moshom [grandfather] 
for him helping me be put onto a better 
path,” Kataquapit recalls. “I’m going to 
try to get clean water for my community. 
That’s how I’m going to pay my 
moshom back for him showing me this 
acceptance.” This personal healing ripple 
effect quickly turned into fighting  
against unregulated mining, the  
impacts of Bill 5 and Bill C-5, and 
government oppression.
Kataquapit’s work emphasizes the 
critical importance of youth involvement 
in policy and decision-making spaces. “It 
is our future and our present,” he asserts. 
“In traditional governance, everyone 
had a seat at the table. [Our traditional 
governance system] is not quite what 
a democracy looks like today. It’s very 
holistic because it’s the people that make 
the Chief powerful, not the other way 
around. And a part of the people is  
the youth.” 
He explains that the higher the level 
of engagement within council becomes, 
the more it feels like his role is limited 
to appearing at Chiefs’ assemblies rather 
than being included in the actual decision 
making process. Kataquapit strives to 
build a platform based on creating a space 
where youth can feel welcome to express 
their concerns from the very root. He 
asserts that modern youth can break out 
of the limited mindsets inherited from 
the residential school era. “We are living 
in a time of the Seventh Fire prophecy, 
and this is a prophecy that says that one 
Issue 1 2026 – Chiefs of Ontario Advocate magazine 
30  l
BY TYLER SHINGOOSE
Youth Profile:  
Ramon Kataquapit
Photo credit: COO.

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