Aboriginal achievers to receive national recognition

Page 6

This year's National Aboriginal Achievement Award winners include a fashion designer, a novelist and two Aboriginal men living and working in Alberta. The 14 recipients of the sixth annual awards, selected from hundreds of nominations, were announced Feb. 8 and will be presented in Regina on March 12.

This year's recipients are Metis human rights activist Dr. Howard Adams, for education; Canada's High Commissioner to South Africa, James Bartleman, for Public Service; pioneer court worker Dorothy Betz, for Community Development; Judge Rose Toodick Boyko, for Law and Justice; surgeon Dr. Edward Cree, for Medicine; Neuropsychiatry researcher Dr. Lillian Eva Dyck, for Science and Technology; Haida fashion designer Dorothy Grant, for Business and Commerce; Inuk judge James Igloliorte, for Law and Justice; Dr. Malcolm King, the first Aboriginal full professor in a medical school, for Medicine; Inuk novelist Mitiarjuk Attasie Nappaaluk, for Heritage and Spirituality; Theresa Stevenson, founder of Regina's hot lunch program for Aboriginal inner-city children, for Community Development; entrepreneur David Tuccaro, for Business and Commerce; Alika LaFontaine, a 16-year-old pre-med student, in the Youth category, and Dr. Allen Sapp for Lifetime Achievement.

Dr. King is a full professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Alberta. He is a leading Canadian research scientist who has focused his career on studying the mechanisms involved in the secretion and clearance of mucus from the lung. These studies are crucial to treating diseases such as cystic fibrosis, chronic bronchitis and asthma.

King has also developed an active research program to examine the respiratory effects of traditional Native herbal treatments. He is the author of more than 125 research papers and has supervised numerous graduate students. Though originally from the Six Nations reserve in Ontario, he has lived in Alberta since 1985.

Mr. Tuccaro is the president and general manager of Neegan Development Corporation and Tuc Contracting. He is also the founder of the Northeastern Aboriginal Business Association, which features 60 member companies with combined revenues of $55 milion.

"When someone says I can't do it, I know for sure I can," Tuccaro said. He's proved it time and again. His business acumen has seen a 490 per cent increase in Tuc Contracting's revenues in just three years.

The National Aboriginal Achievement Awards gala show will be broadcast on CBC on April 13 at 8 p.m, if the CBC strike of technical workers is resolved before showtime.