Onerahtókha Karlie Marquis says cultural teachings and formal studies prepared her for her new role.
Kahnawake is one of the eight communities that make up the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Nation | Photo: The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake
Ready to make a difference
In her new role, Marquis will assume responsibility for the administration and day-to-day operations of the council’s programs and employees.
Marquis first started working for the MCK as a student. Over the next few years, she progressed from financial clerk to financial analyst, financial manager and, eventually, business development manager. In the process, she built relationships with people from the council’s 15 departments, including Environmental Protection, Justice Services and Recreation.
“Everything has a budget and financial implications,” Marquis says. “The finance world really opened up every aspect of the organization for me.”
Marquis is hoping that her new mandate will give her the chance to address certain issues. For instance, in her early 20s, she analyzed the community’s educational statistics for a class project and saw that the graduation rate was going down.
“I also noticed that [youth] sports didn’t have as many fans in the arena and it was harder to find coaches to volunteer,” she says. “Those sorts of things bothered me. When this job popped up, I realized I had the opportunity to bring those issues out and try to turn them around.”
There are several reasons why Marquis feels ready to take on her new responsibilities. First, she points to her upbringing. Between learning from her family and attending elementary school on the territory, she absorbed the values of her culture.
“We are Onkwehón:we [Indigenous] people who are here to take care of each other. Our Mohawk values are a really good foundation for making sound, smart, collective decisions.”
Marquis enrolled in the Department of Finance with the goal of serving the ancestral Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) territory and its 8,000 residents.
