The Aboriginal Newspaper of Alberta
Native Communications students from Grant MacEwan Community College will travel to Europe this month. The students' trip has been sponsored by Aboriginal support groups based in Germany and Austria. The students will speak at workshops, lecture at universities and high schools, and participate in media interviews. They have been brushing up on their culture in anticipation of some tough questions from knowledgeable audiences. Margaret Deranger, Caleb Hughes, Erik Christophersen, Elaine Ross and were selected to accompany instructor Byron Christopher on the two-week trip. In addition to speaking engagements, the students will be on a fact-finding mission to discover why some Europeans are so interested in Native culture. The students are pursuing further education or employment in the communication field after graduation. The group will raise money selling an authentic Cree tipi in Europe. Christopher said the tipi is expected to fetch a handsome figure among the European Native enthusiasts.
A limited number of scholarships are now available for Native writers and journalists to attend a unique three-day workshop in Waterton Lakes National Park. The workshop, geared toward writers who cover nature, outdoor recreation and environmental topics is being held Sept. 25 to the 27. Guest speakers include Canadian Geographic magazine editor Rick Boychuk, writers Candace Savage, Bruce Masterman, Wayne Norstrom and Shirley Bruised Head and many other writers, editors and publishers. Workshop and field trip topics include improving writing and presentation, self-publishing, use of the Internet, Native perceptions of landscape and more. The scholarships are available through Indian Affairs Canada, but applications must be made through the writer's tribal office and the workshop sponsors. For more information contact Viewpoints Communications 1-403-626-3658.
The League of Canadian Poets announced its shortlist for the 1997 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, and Métis poet Marilyn Dumont from northeastern Alberta is among eight writers nominated. The award is for the best first book of poetry by a Canadian published in 1996. The Lampert award is given in memory of Gerald Lampert, an arts administrator who organized authors' tours and took particular interest in new writers. The award carries a prize of $1,000. It is given out annually. Deadline for entries for the next award is Dec. 31.
The federal government will spend $2 million over the next two years to provide Aboriginal youth living on reserves and in Inuit communities with work experience and skills development in housing related fields. This initiative is expected to employ 100 youths annually. "This program is an investment in the future for our Aboriginal youth," said Diane Marleau, Minister responsible for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. "CMHC will work in partnership with sponsor organizations to develop housing employment projects to meet specific community needs. It will provide youth, ages 17 to 29, with the valuable work experience and skills development needed for construction, renovation, maintenance or property management jobs," added Marleau.
The Métis Nation of Alberta is once again hosting the Provincial Métis Youth Role Model Search to be held in conjunction with the MNAA's 69th annual Assembly in Drayton Valley. This year's theme will be Investing in Youth - Builders of Our Future. Twelve role models (six females, six males) are chosen from every corner of Alberta and will compete in the provincial event. They will undergo three days of intensive training which will consist of public speaking, personal development, Métis history-current affairs and there will also be a workshop on leadership skills. As Zone role models, their duties will include traveling to schools within their region. The purpose of the visits are:
· to provide a positive image for other Métis youth in Alberta.
· to promote self pride through a better understand of Métis culture and heritage.
· to encourage stay in school attitudes among Aboriginal youth.
· To advocate a drug and alcohol free lifestyle.
The Métis Nation is currently fundraising to support this project. Contact Trevor Gladue at 1-403-849-4654 for more information.
Oki. The month of May I was busy, busy and more busy. I put myself in charge of the Powwow Calendar. I had forgotten, I had made some friends with some of the powwow committee members. After introducing myself, they would say, "Well, it's been a long time since we've spoken." Wow, to think after all these years, I'm remembered! I makes me feel glad because I was not talking to myself when I used to write for Windspeaker. I don't mind writing for Alberta Sweetgrass, BUT I keep reminding you people that this column is your column. Come on and write or phone and tell me what's up!
Victoria Day weekend, a friend of mine took the plunge. Marriage. Marianne Wolfleg is now Marianne Black. Throughout the ceremony, tears would well up in my eyes thinking back to the old times. We met in junior high, grade eight to be exact. I can tell you stories, but I don't want to embarrass her or myself.
I knew in my heart the person she was that she would find a good man in Jason (groom).
On their day, it was very, very windy and cold. I had to laugh at her daughter Lianna, who is about three years old. She looked at me and made a face as if to scare me and said "twister."
Congratulations, my friend, you had made me cry so much I must get you back, but you'll have to wait awhile before I go down the aisle.
I received a letter from teacher, Marion Dick from Driftpile, Alberta. She sent some letters that her grade 2 class wrote to the Creator. Here they are:
Thank you for not putting tornadoes down here. Are the angels your friend? Circle yes or no. God, I am a good kid in school. God are you dead or just faking? God, I'm a boy, not a girl. Girls are smart and the boys are tougher. Thank you,
- Quinten Cunningham.
Why do people swear and why do people do drugs? How did you die anyway? God, I love you.
- Stephen Ward.
How many friends do you have? Who made us? How many angels are up there? Who made you? Why do people talk different? Why is the sun hotter than the moon?
- Tyrell Willier
How come people in different countries write different than us? Why do we have one life to live? How come big kids beat up other little kids when they are not supposed to!
- Carlton Giroux
How did you make the Earth? Or, who made it? I wish I had good days all the time, and I mean it. Of course, you are good aren't you? But I hope you will write to me.
- Matthew Giroux.
May you please let my mom have a baby boy? How is it up there? Why did you make the world? I wonder if Mary is OK? The same with Jesus. God you're OK. Thank you for bringing me into the world. I wish I can see you.
- Kimberly Isadore.
Why do people lie? Why do you watch over people? How is my kookum up there? How do the angels look like? Why did they crucified Jesus?
- Tawny Giroux.
How many friends do you have up there? Do you have lots? How is my grandpa up there? Who made the water, did you? Sorry God, I have to go now.
- Desmond Giroux.
How is my sister, is she all right? How big is my sister, is she as big as my chest? I wish that I can see her in the sky, I real miss her. Could you kiss her for me. Good bye.
- Tracy Laboucan.
Yep, the Dreamspeaker's Festival has come and gone for another year. This year, some of my colleagues and I went to the 2nd Annual Awards and Gala. I thought it was going to be a repeat of last year (too crowded and not enough friendly people).
This year was the opposite. We had received some VIP passes to schmooze with the well-known actors and musicians before the actual event. Brenda Della Costa and I took pictures with the likes of Ryan Black (Silas of Dance Me Outside), Wapistan, Eric Schweig (Last of the Mohicans), and Claude McKenzie.
After the reception, we went downstairs to the gala. Many names
I didn't know and many films I have never seen. They had different
kinds of the aboriginal music played throughout the ceremony.
After the awards, Claude McKenzie did his number. Wow, I have
never seen him in concert and he played very well. After they
had taken the stage, the Freebird Band from Winnipeg played for
the rest of the night. After their set, Claude McKenzie and his
band came and sat with us for the rest of the night. It was great!
Terrying About - June
Tansi!
The Dreamspeakers Festival is now history and audience response to the performing artists was excellent as was the evening film awards and banquet. Such notable celebs as Gordon Tootoosis, Tantoo Cardinal, Tina Keeper, Dakota House, Jimmy Herman, Adam Beach, Ryan Black, Jordan Wheeler, Fidel Moreno, and Sonny Skyhawk enjoyed the evening.
So what if the Oilers got trounced by the Colorado Avalanche. They still did an admirable job and the scores did not reflect the real quality of the games. Anyway, look out next year; they'll be a terror.
Hey! Lets not forget about the Wabasca Powwow. They'll be celebrating loud enough that people in Athabasca will be able to hear them. The Powwow takes place from June 20-22
Up at Atikameg, the community is planning their Treaty Day celebrations for June 26 as are a number of other communities around the province. Some, mind you, make a bigger deal of it than others and that's wonderful. After all, formal treaties gave certain assurances which would not otherwise be there for the people and communities.
The Treaty 7 Tribal Council down at Calgary reports that it is planning it's fall education conference. This particular event is always well-attended and generally has a great keynote speaker. The host community this year will be the Blood tribe. The Council will take a role in the upcoming June 14 graduation ceremonies at the University of Calgary where Aboriginal enrollment has increased dramatically.
Up at Hobbema, Darell Currie, the Montana Band manager, says the Cecil Currie Memorial Rodeo was well attended and drew a lot of contestants. It was pointed out that it is a one-time event, not an annual rodeo.
Last month, the band also had the formal grand opening of it new K to 9 school. Although the principal's position is up for grabs, the school is functioning and has a lot of Native art.. The roof of the school is tipi-styled, a design by Morley Workum, an Edmonton Architect.
We haven't been over Grande Cache for awhile and do apologize
for the oversight. Doris McDonald reports that the Aseniwuche
Winewak Society is now called 'Nation' instead of 'Society.' They
are planning a July 5 round dance, likely at the Susa Creek School.
They've also been negotiating with industries to do a land-use
study and investigate areas of potential funding. The Aseniwuch
Winewak Nation's second annual Bull-Rama was scheduled for the
recreation centre and took place in May. Although it did not attract
huge numbers, it is believed it will pick up considerably over
a period of time. And that's no bull!
National Aboriginal Day plans under way
Mark June 21 on your calendar and get ready to explore a great sampling of Aboriginal culture.
National Aboriginal Day is a commemorative day set aside to showcase and highlight aspects of Aboriginal life and custom.
This year, the special day falls on a Saturday, so organizers have decided to make it a two day event. Events and displays will be up and ready on Friday, June 20. Several groups and organizations have a long list of events planned for both days.
Indian Affairs will transform Edmonton's Canada Place office building into three floors of culture through Friday's lunch hour. Dancers, drummers, and singers will follow a grand entry into the office block starting at 11:30 a.m. Dancers will swirl and jingle to the drum beat and singers will entertain the audience for 90 minutes. Upstairs there will be Aboriginal displays and crafts for sale.
A royal proclamation signed by Queen Elizabeth announcing the special day will also be on display.
Events in Edmonton on Saturday have been planned by a large committee for the past two months.
The Aboriginal Day Committee is made up of more than a dozen directors representing friendship centres, Aboriginal education, seniors' centres, Indian Affairs, the Feather of Hope AIDS awareness organization, and Aboriginal business women, just to name a few.
Jane Woodward, the co-ordinator at the Aboriginal Education Centre at Edmonton's Grant MacEwan Community College, is the chairperson of the committee.
She is just as excited about the volunteer spirit as she is about the events themselves.
"This entire thing is totally voluntary," she said.
There are about 20 different groups and organizations volunteering their time and manpower to host events and displays, she said.
The number of people volunteering to help has been staggering. So staggering that it's hard to keep an accurate count.
"I have no idea how many people are involved, because they just keep calling to say they will volunteer," she said. "I'm amazed and so impressed with these people who have come together and said, 'Yes, let's do this.'"
That volunteer spirit and the desire to help is also a big part of this year's theme for National Aboriginal Day.
Celebrating our Nations is the slogan behind the day.
"It is very, very important that we as Aboriginal people show people - not just non-Aboriginal - but we, each other our own, individual accomplishments," said Woodward.
Events for Saturday begin at noon and take place throughout the city.
Hobbema's Alaynee Littlechild is on her way to see the world.
The 18-year-old has been accepted in the Canada World Youth rural development exchange program.
Each year, the program selects several youths to be part of the cultural and work exchange. This year the program will take 10 Canadian participants to Mexico.
"I'll be going to Cuernovaca," said Littlechild. The Mexican city is just south of Mexico City.
The energetic student, who has just wrapped up her first year at the University of Alberta in the education program and hopes to major in special education, said she will learn a lot from the exchange.
She senses there will be a lot of similarities between her home town of Hobbema and the Mexican destination.
"Our cultures and community are so similar," she said. That could ease the transition for her.
"I don't think I'll have too much of a culture shock," she said.
In Mexico, Littlechild will be exposed to the culture of the region, take on a work experience program, and, of course, speak the language.
"I know some Spanish already," she admitted, but said she is going to have to learn more in a hurry.
"We have to know conversational Spanish by September."
Before the group takes off to Mexico, they experience living in another Canadian community first.
Canada World Youth participants from Mexico will be paired up with the Canadians and they will spend two months in Wetaskiwin.
Although Hobbema to Wetaskiwin is only a 15-minute drive, Littlechild is equally excited about going there.
"Living and working in Wetaskiwin, getting a full experience of my neighbors will be very interesting," Littlechild said.
After the two month stay in Wetaskiwin, Littlechild and the rest of the participants head south of the border.
Making the experience even more rewarding is Littlechild's own culture.
"I'm the only Native person selected from Western Canada for this," said the excited teen. "Being with the other students in my group, it will get people to know more about Native culture as well as sharing with Mexico."
Littlechild has to raise almost $3,500 from within her community. She has started with the fund-raising, and is hoping to have the money collected by the end of summer.
In the organization's 26 years of operating, Canada World Youth has sent Canadian participants to Latin America, Africa, Asia and parts of Eastern Europe.
Regional director for Canada World Youth Linda Rubuliak said the experience Littlechild will receive is invaluable.
"Our main goal is to build employable skills in all of our participants," she said.
Littlechild will gain important experience in building cross-cultural skills, group skills and linguistic skills. She will also have a better understanding of how communities function, how to assess community needs and how to work to meet those needs.
Being Aboriginal is also going to present some opportunities for the young participant, Rubuliak said.
"It's very, very significant in terms of this exchange because they are going to Mexico. There is a huge portion of that [Mexican] population that is Aboriginal and there's a whole sense of the people's Aboriginal roots."
The whole experience will stay with the participants throughout there lives, Rubuliak said.
"They are never going to hear anything about Mexico again without picturing the people and the faces of the people they are going to see over there."
By Jonathan Midgley
Sweetgrass Writer
FORT MCMURRAY
The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which includes the communities of Fort McMurray, Fort McKay, Fort Chipewyan, Anzac, Janvier and Conklin, has a new mayor.
Doug Faulkner was elected to the position at the May 26 byelection in the northern municipality.
"We did it. The people of Wood Buffalo came through," Faulkner said after the final ballots had been counted.
He won the election by only 254 votes over competitor Jim Carbery.
Faulkner, a former clergyman, said he is dedicated to all residents of the municipality.
"People have made fun of me about my preaching background and I don't care," he was quoted as saying. "I want to preach to all corners of Wood Buffalo."
In the Aboriginal communities, returning officer Pauline Gauthier said voter turnout was not as high as she would have like to see.
"The Native turnout was quite low," she said, but added that municipal elections historically have a low Aboriginal response.
Gauthier, who is also returning officer for the upcoming federal election, said it is not uncommon for upward of 80 per cent of Aboriginal communities to vote federally. Aboriginal people living on reserves are not eligible to vote in municipal elections, so only Aboriginal people living off the reserves were counted on the voters' list.
In the Fort Chipewyan area, of the 650 eligible voters, 132 made it to the ballot boxes. Fort McKay recorded just 57 of 250 eligible votes cast. The Anzac community had a good turnout with 156 of a possible 360 people casting votes. Twenty-three votes were counted in Janvier out of a possible 113, and Conklin saw 46 people hit the polling station out of 109 registered electors.
Only 9,000 of an eligible 22,000 votes were cast in the entire municipality.
In each of the Native community polling stations, Faulkner came in a distant second to Carbery, except in Anzac where Faulkner received 108 of the 156 votes tallied.
Faulkner was surprised first by the fairly low voter turnout in Aboriginal communities and also by the low number of votes for him.
"I didn't do so hot at all," he said.
Faulkner said he made a special effort to travel to the rural areas of the massive, 67,000 sq. km area, but despite his disappointment, he is committed to visiting each area several times more through his term.
Already, one of his top priorities is to bring the Aboriginal communities closer to discussion tables on issues dealing with the entire municipality.
"I have the negotiating and debating skills to build a stronger relationship between the rural and urban areas."
Part of that experience comes from his spiritual background. As a minister, Faulkner realized how important the people in a community are.
"I have committed myself to being a people's mayor."
And he won't be doing any whirlwind visits. He plans to visit communities and see as many people as possible while there.
"I'd like to be able to go to Fort Chipewyan (for example) and stay over night there," he said. He doesn't want people to think of his visits as a "traveling show," stopping in communities as more of a pit-stop than a genuine visit.
During the visits Faulkner said he will listen to the needs of the people and not just go there and tell them what is being planned around them.
"I am not going to go into those communities and tell the Aboriginal people what to do. . . I will go there to listen to them."
Faulkner was officially sworn into office on June 3. His term
in office is 16 months and then the next municipal election is
called. Faulkner said he will be ready for that election also.
Blood Tribe Head Chief Chris Shade penned his name to a historic health care agreement May 21 at the Blood Tribe Health Centre in Stand Off.
The memorandum of understanding involves the Blood Tribe Health Department and the Chinook Health Region. It will serve as a framework to build healthy relationships to benefit tribal members and other Natives with the Chinook Health Region.
"In 1995, the new health reforms changed the total type of health care in Alberta and that includes the Blood Tribe," said Shade. "We had to find ways and means to get back on the main stream of health care for our people."
Shade is sure this document will open doors for providing further coverage.
He said the health care centre has facilities for services like lab work and X-rays, but lacks professionals to conduct the work. The agreement will help alleviate that problems.
The agreement will promote and protect the health of the Blood people, assess the tribe's ongoing health needs and help determine priorities in health services. It will also promote health services to meet the needs of individuals.
Blood Tribe Health Board chairman Andy Blackwater said the tribe and the region have been working on the agreement for the past year.
"We shared the same thoughts when we first came together," Blackwater said. But things got into the hands of the lawyers. It took a year to complete.
Charles Weasel-Head acting director of health services at the health centre, said the memorandum may be small in the global picture of Alberta and Canadian health care, but it is an important agreement for the Blood Tribe and creates a stronger tie with the Chinook Health Region.
Frank Eden, chairman of the Chinook Health Region said the agreement is a positive stop toward further co-operation.
"I think the education and cross-cultural sensitivity
components are very important. This is a historic document and
I pledge the co-operation of our board for a close working relationship
with the Bloods and other Bands in the Treaty 7 area."
| Alberta Sweetgrass
Home | Top of This Page
| AMMSA Home Page |
[ Windspeaker
| CFWE-FM | Saskatchewan
Sage | Raven's Eye | Aboriginal Media Services ]
[ Mission & History | AMMSA Marketing | Advertising
| Merchandise | Subscriptions
| Contest ]
Comments: e-mail: edsweet@ammsa.com