At the Feb. 8 special membership meeting, a new board was elected and appointed for the Niagara Regional Native Centre.
Newly appointed director Sean Vanderklis is hoping the change brings stability to a beloved organization.
The previous board was left with only four members in late 2022 after the centre’s executive director at the time, Karl Dockstader, was escorted off the Airport Road property by board president Lacey Lewis and treasurer Wanda Griffin. Three fellow members resigned from the board following that incident, leaving the organization with an insufficient number of directors to operate and qualify for provincial funding.
Vanderklis, a journalist and co-host with Dockstader of the radio program One Dish One Mic, tells The Local that the remaining directors resigned on Feb. 8.
“Once they resigned, six new members were elected by our membership,” he says. “And once they were in place, I was appointed to the board. We currently have seven of nine vacancies filled, with two more remaining to be filled. They will probably be appointed at our next meeting.”
Vanderklis feels that the native centre community was very clear and concise that they were under the leadership of the wrong leaders in the old regime.
“They needed to go, unfortunately,” he says. “At the beginning of the meeting it appeared they weren’t going to, though. They seemed to be fighting tooth and nail to hold onto power. But our community broke into song, our women’s hand drum singers sang for a good 15 to 20 minutes, I imagine as a form of healing, of making sure that we were all collectively together.”
The new board is to be led by president Roxanne Buck, who has served in that position a number of times over the centre’s existence. Her mother was one of the founding members of the native centre.
Brian Mac Aulay will serve as vice president.
“He’s part of our Silver Fox group, our older clientele,” says Vanderklis. “He’s been coming to our programs forever, and he brings a lot of historical knowledge, community knowledge that a younger member like me doesn’t have.”
Doug Paget is the new treasurer, and Elaina Jones is the new secretary. Activist Fallon Farinacci and Audrey Clark will join Vanderklis as directors.
“Out of our executives, three or four have past board experience specific to the Niagara Regional Native Centre,” Vanderklis adds.
The dispute that arose following Dockstader’s removal from his position left some rifts in the community that Vanderklis hopes can be healed with the new board.
“Our community is very small, very tight-knit,” he points out. “The people that we were taking issue with are people that I grew up with. (Newly-resigned board member) Bobbi Jones Japp is a childhood friend. I’ve hung out with Wanda Griffin outside of meetings. These are relationships we’ve been developing and fostering for years.”
The fourth member who resigned at last Wednesday’s meeting is Wendy Wilson.
As a community member, Vanderklis is hoping that another open meeting can be held in the near future for all members to voice their concerns.
“Ultimately the goal of this organization is to improve the quality of life for our people,” he insists, “not just right now but for future generations. The legacy needs to continue. Despite any differences some of us may have had, it’s incumbent upon us to have these tough discussions.”
And, he says, he hopes to see those board members who resigned last Wednesday back at the centre.
“Wanda and I might have differences, but she has been one of the most community-focused board members we’ve ever had,” he says. “Some staff members here consider Wanda to be their family. There are members of our community that feel bad about what happened to Wanda and Bobbi.”
The issue, says Vanderklis, is that the old board wasn’t following the proper process when it came to governance.
“I imagine that once some time passes, and some healing has happened, they will want to become more involved than they want to be right now,” he adds.
The native centre typically holds its board meetings the last Tuesday of every month, which would mark Feb. 27 for their next one.
Before that, though, the new board hopes to meet with the provincial funders, with whom they are now in good standing with seven of the nine board positions filled. By-aws require at least five members in place, and until last week’s special meeting the board was one member short.
“Our community is passionate,” Vandrklis says. “Sometimes we have these disagreements that affect governance. Indigenous people historically use a consensus-building model as a method to navigate some of the bigger decisions, not the first-past-the-post model. I hope that we can look at having bylaws in place in the future that better represent our traditional governance structures.”