December 11, 1934 - April 8, 2025
Ian MacKenzie, born in Toronto on December 11, 1934, died peacefully in the arms of his family on April 8, 2025, in Powell River, BC. He is survived by his wife Paula, children John, Andrew, Douglas, T-Jay, Tori, Samantha and seven grandchildren. He was an adopted member of the Haida and Nisga'a Nations.
Ian, a Dalhousie University graduate, received his divinity degree at King's College, his master's at Union Theological Seminary in New York, and an honourary doctorate from Vancouver School of Theology.
His ministry as Anglican priest and archdeacon spanned seven decades, shaped entirely by Indigenous justice activism. In the 1960s, after helping organize the Trinity College Conference on the Canadian Indian, he was elected president of the Ontario Indian Eskimo Association. He helped found the Indian Ecumenical Movement which laid the groundwork for National Indigenous Peoples Day. Later he worked for the Dene in the Northwest Territories and helped those forming the Council of the Haida Nation. He was a voting member of the Nisga'a Tribal Council for 21 years during their treaty negotiations. More recently he was active in the Friends of Louis Riel.
In educational endeavors, Ian was a founding director of Rochdale College and the Anishnabe Institute in Toronto, founding director of the Indigenous Studies Centre at Vancouver School of Theology and founding president of Wilp Wilxo'oskwhl Nisga'a, the Nisga'a Nation university college.
Jim Fulton, former Skeena riding MP and executive director of the Suzuki Foundation wrote this to Ian: "There are few individuals who have worked so hard with such focus to support the title and rights of Canada's First Nations. You have poured your life, energy and spirit into the greater cause of justice on Earth."
Services honoring Ian are pending. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Wilp Wilxo'oskwhl Nisga'a Institute, the Alzheimer Society of BC or a charity of your choice.