IN MEMORIAM: GOYCE KAKEGAMIC (1948-2021)

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Goyce Kakegamic (January 10th, 1948 - December 2nd, 2021)
/One of the founders of the Triple K Cooperative in 1973/ -

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"Family Unity" - Serigraph, 19"x25", © 1981 Goyce Kakegamic
/Click on image to Enlarge/
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“Those Hands:” the Legacy of Goyce Kakegamic

Goyce Kakegamic (1948-2021)

It is with deep sadness that the family of Goyce Kakegamic, age 73, sorrowfully announce his unexpected passing at his home on December 2, 2021 after a brief illness.

Goyce squeezed so much work, love and service to his family, friends and community before he was called home. When Goyce was young, his father took him hunting. As they walked down a trail, Goyce’s rifle misfired. Some fathers would have been angry. Others might have been disappointed. His father sat him down on a tree stump, took the rifle away and said, “Son, your hands were made for different work.” His father was right.

Goyce used those hands to improve life for all people in the North. He used those hands for building schools and educational opportunities for Indigenous youth in the north. Those hands built bridges between friends and foes and Indigenous and Non-Indigenous peoples alike. Those hands reached out to bring leaders, great and small, and grassroots people together to create a medical school to serve Northern Ontario. Those hands were created for building a better place to live. Those hands created paintings and sculpture. And, those hands always were ready to pray.

Goyce was an original member of the Woodlands School of Art made famous by his brother-in-law Norval Morrisseau. He could have spent his entire life telling the stories of his people with his paint brush. That would have been more than enough legacy for most people. However, Goyce believed it was not enough to pursue his own dreams, he worked so children and youth could pursue their dreams too. He believed education was the key for social progress. He became a teacher. He soon was principal and education director of the Keewaywin First Nation Elementary School.

He would play a leadership role in every major Indigenous educational initiative, elementary, secondary, and post-secondary, over the last half century.

Goyce had no interest in attaining political power for himself. Although he was never a Chief, Goyce was pressed by the Elders to become a Deputy Grand Chief with Nishnawbe Aski. He was elected and reelected many times. He held the education and justice portfolios, but he also was handed many challenges which others did not want to face. One of his proudest achievements was the appointment of women to the NAN Chiefs’ Assembly.

Deputy Grand Chief Goyce played an instrumental role in bringing a medical school to the North and specifically an equal campus to Thunder Bay. He travelled to countless First Nations and Indigenous organizations to gather letters of support and band council resolutions for the lobbying effort. He reached out to the Metis Nation of Ontario which provided the school with a petition with almost one thousand names in support of the medical school. Goyce remembered the contribution of the Metis and insisted that the MNO have a voting representative on the Founding Board of NOSM along with each of the three Political Territorial Organizations (NAN, Treaty Three and Robinson Superior).

Goyce was not afraid to reach out beyond his base of support. After the Ontario Government announced that NOSM would be situated in Sudbury, Goyce saw this decision as a defeat for the Northwest and he would not stand for it. His vision was for an equal campus in Thunder Bay and Sudbury. He believed such a model would best serve all the people, Indigenous and Non-Indigenous, First Nations and Metis in the North. He turned his energy to organize a gathering of Northwestern Ontario leaders at the Valhalla Inn to show the Ontario Government this decision could not stand. Goyce reached out to municipal leaders, Chiefs, educational organizations, physicians, nurses’ unions, and Churches. Everyone was welcome. To invite municipal leaders, he put down his phone and got himself an invitation to speak at a meeting of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association. He rallied the mayors and reeves to the need of a dual campus. There was tension in the room as he began his speech. But as usual, Goyce returned with a support resolution and a commitment from nearly all the mayors to attend his meeting at the Valhalla Inn. His actions to bring people together was not always appreciated by his own people or the president’s office at the university until of course the Ontario Government reversed its decision.

There are many photos taken during the historic development of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. Few of these photos include Goyce. One photo seldom seen is one of Goyce and the Ontario Premier. With a mandate from NAN, Goyce convened a meeting where the Grand Chiefs of all of the PTOs in the North briefed the Premier on the positive impacts that a new medical school in the North would have on determinants of Indigenous Health. You won’t read about this meeting in any history books or in the recent narrative on the early years of NOSM but it happened just the same. Goyce, however, never cared about having testimonials, or chairs, or lecture halls named in his honour. For him, it was the work that mattered. It was service that mattered. It was creating opportunities for others that mattered.

Some men work their entire lives for the corner office or struggle to attain wealth and power. Others work to have the most “toys” in their garage before they pass. Goyce was different. His family is his legacy. His wife, Lucy and their children, are a model for everything that a strong and loving family should be. Each one continues to serve the community working in counseling and education. Goyce is survived and loved by his wife Lucy and his daughter AnnaFern, and his sons Jonathon (Rhonda), Kevin (Janey), and Mark (Danielle) and his grandchildren, Jeremy (28), Robyn (26), Amy (15), Hannah (14), Ace (11) Sarah and Matthew (10).

Goyce is also survived by his living Sisters and Brothers, Skip, Maudie Meekis, Mary Solomon, and Howard.

His legacy also lives on with those Indigenous students who are pursuing their high school diplomas at the Keewaytinook Internet High School, Pelican Falls and Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School. He worked so hard all of his life in order that they would have the opportunity to get a good education, the foundation, he believed, for a happy, safe and productive life.

Goyce’s legacy also lives on in the hands of the medical students, residents and doctors who graduated from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, many of whom will never be taught about the person largely responsible for their opportunities to study medicine in the Northwest. For Goyce, their opportunity to become physicians to serve their communities was all that mattered.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations in his memory to the Goyce Kakegamic Memorial Bursary, a partnership with Oshki-Pimache-O-Win: The WenJack Education Institute and the Kakegamic family.

Goyce’s funeral took place at New Hope Fellowship, 532 Edward Street North, at 10:00 am on Tuesday, December 14, 2021. Burial followed at Riverside Cemetery where his sister, the late Ann Skead and his brother-in-law, Tom Beardy were laid to rest. Ken Funk officiated. The service was limited to family and invited guests with double vaccinations being a requirement and the wearing of masks.

Special thanks to family and friends who have supported the family during this difficult time.

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Source (Text): Published by The Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal on Dec. 11, 2021 /Used without permission/
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* The print in this post: "Family Unity" - Serigraph AP IX/IX, 19"x25", © 1981 Goyce Kakegamic