Conference highlights wisdom and inspiration

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Dreamcatcher Aboriginal Youth Conference 2001 caused excitement within Grant MacEwan College's walls Oct. 12 through 14. Youth from across the country were entertained, educated and illuminated for three days, which seemed just too short.

The Child and Youth Care program of the college hosted the conference. This year's theme was Responsibility: Self, Family, Community.

The conference opening evening featured many energetic performances of hoop dancing (Dallas Arcand), breakdancing (Redd Nation), the chicken dance (Mark McKennitt and Travis Dugas) and jingle dance (White Buffalo Dancers). A few songs included an emotional rendition of My Friend, Wilburn's Song by Clinton Soto, whose tears flowed while he sang.

Just a month after the terrorist attack in the United States, a blanket dance gathered almost $800 in donations for the Red Cross U.S. Relief Fund.

"There is fear on Mother Earth today . . . many people are crying today of what happened in the United States . . . . Let's stay together for the people there and for ourselves and our families," said Elder Joe P. Cardinal, 80, from Saddle Lake First Nation.

Cardinal led one of the Words of the Elders workshops, where he talked about the importance of strength of mind, goal setting and achieving, education, respect in relationships, and gifts of sharing and love.

"Our big family is our centre of the universe because that's what we're busy with every day," he said.

He told about his lonesome, hungry years in a residential school, and about his military years in Europe during the war. "People always remember about their mother in the last moment of their lives," Cardinal said.

The importance of relationship to, and respect for mother was mentioned in another workshop: Regenerating Our Roles.

Melody Lepine talked about relationship to Mother Earth. She said the sacred responsibility and primary role of First Nations people is to be caretakers of the earth. "When we begin to separate ourselves from the earth, we lose the relationship and balance," she said.

Lepine highlighted environmental problems like diminishing quality and quantity of water, global warming, deforestation, endangered species, pollutants and commercial exploitation of the traditional knowledge of precious resources.

Lepine is from Fort Chipewyan. She is attending the University of Alberta working on a combined degree in environmental conservation sciences and Native studies.

Her co-presenter of this workshop, Kuni Albert, said First Nations people are getting educated and need to utilize their traditional ecological knowledge.

"Ask grandmas about the bush, plants, mushrooms. We might need to go back one day and have to use them to sustain ourselves," she said.

"We are keepers of the land and should teach it to future generations."

Albert is originally from Saskatchewan. She now resides in Calgary, working for Golder Associates Ltd., an environmental company resolving environmental issues through pure tech/science solutions. She has an environmental technology diploma and is planning to obtain an environmental law degree.

Other programming at the conference included life skills and self-esteem workshops, education planning workshops, health issues and spiritual workshops. Cultural craft activities such as beading, and friendship bracelet, dreamcatcher and bone choker making, birch bark biting and framing were very popular and pure fun.