Page 26

Robert Breaker, a former chief of the Siksika Nation and Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Leadership and Self-Government, part of the Banff Centre for for Management, spoke on Feb. 18 of the importance of singing a new song. First, however, he had his listeners do an exercise that showed how every-one has scotomas, or blind spots. He went on to explain how most people are conditioned to think one way and not consider the alternatives.

Page 25

Eight hundred and thirteen kilometres north of Winnipeg at Norway House Cree Nation is a university program that claims to be the first of its kind in Canada.

Page 23

Snookie Catholique and Donna Smith have a few things in common. Both received funding for training through a foundation that would like to see more women working in the technical side of television. Both women are now back in their communities and reaping the rewards of their education, knowledge and experience.

The Women's Television Network is a foundation that funds women interested in the behind-the-scenes and technical side of television through the WTNdowment. The endowment covers travel costs, tuition fees, and living expenses.

Page 22

When you live in an inner city neighborhood in a fractured family, where do you learn to build the healthy relationships necessary for the workforce?

Page 20

The Marae is the focal point of Maoirdom in any New Zealand community. It's a building or series of buildings in which Maori spiritual and moral values are celebrated and preserved. It is sacred to the living and a memorial to the dead. Typically, the marae consists of the whare kai (the dining hall) and the whare nul (the big house or the house of learning). Within the whare nul the presence of generations of departed souls is tangible. Photographs adorn the walls to remind the living of their ancestors.

Page 19

For the Kitigan Zibi School located on the Algonquin First Nation of Maniwaki in Quebec, participation in the First Nations SchoolNet Project yielded immediate results as students used the initiative to chronicle and showcase information about their own heritage.

While the 200-student school already had a pretty active computer program, the new initiative created the spark for students to develop their own community website, which includes information about powwows, band council meetings, community updates and more.

Page 19

Computers - not since the advent of electricity has technological change had such an impact on the lives of people.

And the opportunities and challenges of the computer age have come home to First Nations as well - particularly the youth - with the First Nations SchoolNet project.

Created in 1996 by Industry Canada, and now jointly administered by the Assembly of First Nations, the project provides First Nations' schools with a link to the information highway by providing computers and PC digital receiving satellite dishes.

Page 18

Fear's echoing voice sounded in my head with disgust.

"Be afraid, be very, very afraid. You don't deserve love and you don't need love. No one cares and no one is going save you. You're a nothing and you will always be a nothing! Run faster!"

Fear continued to scream at me.

"I'm going to catch you and when I do, I'll give you a real reason to cry! Run faster!"

"Fear, like the many times I have listened to you in the past, I now ask you to listen to me," I replied. I proceeded to be true to my spirit as I went on to say this to Fear:

Page 16

When Sandra Shade first went to work for the Chinook Health Region's Diabetes and Lipids Education Centre, her job was to focus on the urban Aboriginal community. Within a short time, however, she was getting so many referrals from the nearby Blood and Peigan reserves that they were included in her Aboriginal diabetes prevention and maintenance program.

"Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions among Native people," Shade said. "Lots of people have the disease and don't know it. And Aboriginals also get far more complications from the disease than non-Natives."

Page 15

Laughing at pain, poverty and oppression won't make them go away, but it will make those problems seem smaller and easier to handle. That seems to be the message that Don Burnstick brings with him when he speaks to young people.

You can see it working. At the end of a two-day youth conference at the Saskatoon Inn on Feb. 3, the hotel lobby was jammed with teenagers waiting for their rides back home. Burnstick was making his way to the parking lot after spending the two days as the undisputed star of the gathering.