Ken Watts has been acclaimed to the position of vice-president of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. The next step for him is to go before the NTC delegates at the annual general assembly in September where they will vote on whether to approve that acclamation and formally appoint him to the position.
The job will be vacated by his wife, Priscilla Sabbas-Watts, at that assembly. She will have served three years of a four-year term, resigning to spend more time with the couple’s young family.
Ken Watts told Ha-Shilth-Sa that he is very excited about taking on the role, and admitted that he was more than a little emotional when thinking about his late father George Watts, who was co-founder of the tribal council, and so influential in the Tseshaht nation and Nuu-chah-nulth treaty negotiations over many years.
Ken had sat at the NTC table with his father since he was the age of two. Now at 29 years old, he’s lived the issues that are facing Nuu-chah-nulth nations and grown toward the work at hand.
Watts said it was his time now to bring all that he can offer to the NTC, and to the 14 communities under the tribal council umbrella.
Nuu-chah-nulth have a reputation as being a force to be reckoned with, and he wants to help build on their successes, like the commercial fisheries decision won in the courts in recent years.
Watts said he was inspired by witnessing the achievements of Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo, who was returned to a second term in an election held in Toronto on July 18.
It was after Atleo’s first win in Calgary in 2009 that Watts walked away thinking “I can do anything.” If he wanted to be national chief one day, he could do that, he said. If he wanted to be an MP, or MLA, he could do that too.
And that’s the kind of influence Watts wants to have on communities and individuals as he goes about his work. He wants to be able to empower the people—“lift them up”— to build on their own talents and live up to their own huge potential.
Watts is not starry-eyed when it comes to the challenges, he said.
“Our people are faced with huge obstacles,” Watts explained. There are barriers to their achievement, much of it stemming from the hurt and pain of the residential school legacy. There is much healing to do.
But for now, he’s itching to get started, and he’ll soon be sending out requests to nations to sit with him and get to know him better. He’s happy to visit the communities, or even do video conferencing with groups.
Watts said that he will miss his work as operations manager of the Tseshaht First Nation, but he’s looking forward to the challenges ahead.
Some things about Ken Watts: His traditional name is Wahmeesh and he is from the Tseshaht First Nation. His parents are late George Watts and Matilda Atleo. He and his wife Priscilla Sabbas-Watts have three children.
Watts attainted a Bachelor of Arts in First Nations Studies in 2007 from Malaspina University-College, now Vancouver Island University. After that he worked for the BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres in Victoria as the Youth Conference Coordinator.
He said that one of the most empowering pieces of work he has done to date was to help organize the Provincial Aboriginal Youth Conference, to which almost 1,000 young people attended.
“I came to the realization that youth are not just the leaders of tomorrow, but the leaders of today,” said Watts in his nomination package for the position of NTC vice-president.
During his time at the BCAAFC, he was elected BC Male Youth Representative for the BC Assembly of First Nations National Youth Council, where he worked with National Chief Shawn Atleo. He was also elected by his peers as the Co-Chair of the AFN National Youth Council.
When Priscilla was elected to the position of vice-president of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, the family moved home to Port Alberni where Ken was hired to work for West Coast Aquatic as the Na-a-qu-us supervisor. In this role he visited the 14 Nuu-chah-nulth nations and assisted in the hiring of Marine Planners and Fisheries Managers/Technicians in the communities.
Tseshaht Nation hired him from there as the operations manager to oversee all programs and services that the nation delivers.
