Inspired by Aboriginal Youth Leaders from across Canada
CANDO’s 4th Annual Youth Panel Shares Ideas, Insights, Challenges and Successes
Co-written by Adele Alexander, RedWAY BC News writer <bio> and Kristin Kozuback, RedWAY BC News editor
The CANDO website introduces the Youth Panel this way:
‘Each year, the National Youth Panel is held along with the CANDO Annual National Conference & AGM. CANDO believes it is imperative to recognize and honour leaders, particularly Aboriginal youth from across Canada. One of the many highlights at the CANDO conference is our National Youth Panel.
Over the years, CANDO has continually realized featuring a youth panel is essential and hosting this event has allowed Aboriginal youth who are pursuing their dreams to speak their ways of success at our conference. Their voices are heard, their achievements are shared and their challenges are revealed!” http://www.edo.ca/conference/2008/national-youth-panel
This was the second year in a row that we have seen the Aboriginal Youth Panel together at a
CANDO conference – and again they provided us with an insightful session. The delegates they chose this year were incredibly inspiring!
In many ways they very different from each other, but each offered different versions of hope, inspiration, knowledge, and strength to the future generations.
Being a youth, Adele couldn’t wait to hear what these youth had say about their communities, their word, and how they overcame obstacles and losses.
Being an adult proud to work with, learn from, and hire youth, Kristin couldn’t wait to hear their ideas and challenges, especially how they benefited from (or needed more) support from friends, family, Elders, community workers and advisors to get to where they are today on their own journey to success.
We were eager to learn about
who and
what helped them to succeed. The rest of this article is written primarily by Adele and co-edited by Kristin in the peer-mentoring style of Spiritlink Communication’s ‘earn and learn’ programs.
Robert Animikii Horton
The one youth I was really fascinated by was
Robert Animikii Horton, who is from the
Rainy First Nations of
Manitou Rapids in Ontario.
He is an activist and a poet, very literate about the strength of our survival in the future. I was really surprised that he wasn’t there to talk about himself, but to use this time to talk about something much different – of inspiring others through education and action based in truth.
This speech started by speaking about what many expect an activist to talk about - what many youth think today - hitting many of the major points about problems youth face growing up in a country that does not really recognize them as First Peoples.
He also pointed out what has to be done so that future youth do not face the same problems of discrimination and dismissal - how we should look to the strengths of our past to help us move forward. Robert reminded us about sustainability - how the choices we make today will make major changes in the future, and how major changes are already happening because youth today are doing more to get involved.
Robert also challenged each of us to consider how we are making changes to plan for the future, to wonder how we will leave new legacies behind for future youth. We need to be aware of these changing times and will adapt to them.
He explains that how we do things - how much we actually hear, how much we say, and what we believe - is influenced by media and government – but that Youth today are beginning to demand more respect, recognition and rights owed to us by others on our land.
The other thing he spoke of was true leadership, something this world has not seen in a long time, which comes from the heart – a leadership that will serve the best of interest of our people by teaching our youth how to lead. He challenged the leaders of today to put an end to the problems our youth face today – and to invite them to the discussion tables (and conferences, I say!) to join in and be equally considered for their gifts.
My most favourite part of his speech was,
“We cannot respect the next seven generations unless we respect the woman more first, because they are the strength of communities. They are our children’s first teachers. The message, the character, and the pride that is given to the child by the mother is what the child is going to take into the world, and if we are not careful, that message and that voice will speak to us later. One cannot look seven generations forward unless we respect the women that make it possible.”
In Robert’s last few words, he turned again to other members of the CANDO Youth panel to encourage them to be proud and to have hope, dream, and imagine, saying “Youth are the chiefs
and teachers of tomorrow.”
Travis Badger
I think
Travis Badger, a fashion designer and Youth worker, has accomplished a lot. He shared so much – and I think he had the hardest obstacles to get through. He bravely told us about his battle with drugs, and how easy it is for kids to get hooked on meth. He explained how his friends and family were there to help him overcome his drug habit and now he is able to help other youth overcome their drug habits.
The thing that amazed me most is that he is only a year older than me and is pursuing his dream job while helping other youth. He has been sober for 3 years now, and is working with youth for about a year now because he has been through similar experiences so can really connect with them to help them learn and get better. Travis also does volunteer work in Edmonton helping youth be more aware of what’s going on around them.
When he was sixteen, he had his first fashion show that was a success, and he got a scholarship to a Toronto college. He is now working harder than ever to make his dreams come true. The four things he would like people to know are, “Follow your heart, have goals and dreams, always surround yourself with good people like family (parents, grandparents), and your culture. And then always remember who you are and where you come from. You will come across challenges and obstacles but in the end you will have your strength and who you are, who you want to become.”
Donald Bear
Donald Bear was a real classy Youth from the
Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. He is currently a Project Manager for the
Aboriginal Diabetes Outreach Program at the
West Side Community Clinic in Saskatoon. He has helped many people take charge of their lives through physical fitness and peer training while maintaining a positive attitude in everything he does.
During his speech, he mentioned how he grew up in a small town in northern Saskatchewan. He talked about how he didn’t have running water, had to chop wood, had to walk a long way to get to school each day, and ate mostly traditional foods as that was the way they lived – simply but productive lives. He felt awkward when he first went to a larger school where people didn’t understand that way of life.
In his high school years, he felt like he started to become himself. He developed more pride in being Aboriginal and it continued to build so that he continued on to college and to the
First Nations University to take a Certificate of Indigenous Administration which could help him get into other universities. This changed him personally, and Donald became proud of where he came from when he went into University of Saskatchewan to study commerce.
When he started, he and a group of people developed a society for other First Nations students studying business. They developed plans and goals, hosted many meetings, and even had a graduation and banquet – all within a two-year time period. He wanted to be the secretary of the organizations, but his friends wanted him to be the president because the society was his idea and he was such a natural leader. The last year he attended college, other people said that all they were going to accomplish was to create a webpage, but this society is still going because other students liked the idea and have carried on meeting and supporting others, too.
Donald is one of those students who went back to their community to give something back, to help develop capacity where it’s needed. So Donald returned to his northern Cree reserve and became a human resource manager. Some of the projects Donald helped develop were strategic conversations that redeveloped some of the job descriptions and HR policies for different agencies.
But in the third year he was home, his mom became ill from ovarian cancer. He didn’t know if she was going to get better, so he moved home to take care of her, got a part time job at a diabetes outreach place, and he learned some nursing skills to help his mom. Very resourceful and inspiring! Donald spent about 20 to 24 hours a week training to help take care of his mom. After a few weeks, Donald took his mom home and managed her health care for about a year and a half until he had to bring her back to the hospital because she got too sick.
About three days after her funeral, Donald was back at work and started a community outreach program; it was his way of coping with his loss, throwing himself back into his career.
Again, he started to participate on different panels and developed the community outreach program to find ways to make it better. Then Donald began to recruit people in the community, facilitated the training programs for a peer leadership, which has sixteen people now. There are many more programs under this one program now that are run regularly throughout the week.
Donald also shared a few of the community stories with us but it’s a video clip that we’ll try to upload in future issues of RedWAY
Elissa Kixen
Elissa Kixen is from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She started a small business called the
ImprovExperienceInc., which she was proud to say became incorporated a few months ago. Elisa graduated from
SEEDS -
Supporting Employment and Economic Development - program then soon after graduation she gave birth and launched her own business. Talk about being a busy woman!
Improve Experience Inc. is currently running their fourth program. Elissa is the director and teaches theatre, and wants to keep doing this until she retires. She wants to open new programs start in different locations as well.
Eli
ssa’s husband is the artistic consultant. In her words, she says, “Not only is he the artistic consultant, he was my backbone, supporting me. If it weren’t for him, I may be at home still crying, wondering why isn’t it working.”
When Elissa teaches, she does not criticize the youth. She believes, “it takes three compliments to fix one criticism.”
Her business focuses on supporting youth in learning their own way, not just on being a business. They don’t really tell the youth how to do things like project their voice or how to stand, because they find out on their own through workshops interacting and practicing. That way, Youth realize what they are doing wrong and want to learn how to do things better. Most of the plays and projects that are done are designed and directed completely by youth and Elissa lends a guiding hand and types their work up nicely for them.
But it takes longer that way, to have them experience learning and be guided, not ‘taught’. For example, there is one workshop they do every week, where they sit in a circle and just talk about what they think or how they feel. Although it can take a while, it is really important to create a safe learning space for everyone and it helps them then get focused on their work.
I think Elissa has an interesting way of teaching the youth, and think it should be done in more places and programs.
George Awashish
George Awashish is from the
Cree Nation of
Mistissini, Quebec. He owns and operates
Awashish Outdoor Adventures, which was launched and established in 2000. This is a tourism business offering world class fishing trips and a variety of outdoor activities from a cultural perspective. Many of their adventure tours happen along the Rupert River in their traditional territory. George speaks English, Cree and French fluently.
George originally wanted to utilize and develop various outfitting activities to do activities he loves while creating employment within his community. What better place to do it than his childhood playground, the land that has been passed on for the past four generations?!
George grew up hunting, fishing, and trapping on this land, and his dream was to preserve the family trap line through tourism activities.
George has many accomplishments, but has always managed to go back to his home. He has gone into other jobs in larger communities, but always felt that something was missing. After a few years of exploring his options he found himself back home on the Rupert River, and is growing his business and expanding to find new opportunities.
Aaron Marchant
Aaron Marchant is from the
Squamish Nation in North Vancouver, BC. He works as the Special Project Coordinator for his Nation and also works closely with the
Four Host First Nations who are helping to organize our
2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Aaron has been developing a
First Nations Snowboarding Team that has expanded to include people from Greater Vancouver area, Interior and Northern BC, as well as Washington State. He shared a really inspiring slideshow and video clips from
news stories about how Aboriginal Youth who are committed to healthy lifestyles can benefit from trying to make the team. The program he developed helps motivates youth who may be having trouble in school, as team members need to keep their grades up and be drug and alcohol free.
He really emphasized that the model they have developed could easily be transferred to other elite individual sports programs– golf, tennis, racing, skiing – or adapted to meet team sports.
And like the other Youth panellists, Aaron keeps expanding his goals and staying busy creating a future for himself and his family. He recently invested in a Wood Mizer sawmill and also invests in real estate. With Wood Mizer sawmill he can employ many of the people in his community and make his own snow boards for his team. Aaron thinks he gets his strength from his family, because his father and other family members are also entrepreneurial, too.
Links to success!
For more information about each of the Youth panelists, visit these links. It is worth the time to learn more about each of these inspiring, talented leaders.
· Robert Animikii Horton – Rainy River First Nation site:
http://rainyriver.firstnation.ca/home and
http://www.edo.ca/conference/2008/conference-speakers/robert-animikii-horton
· George Awashish – Awashish Outdoor Adventures at
http://awashish.com/ and
http://www.edo.ca/conference/2008/conference-speakers/george-awashish and the Cree Nation of Mistisinni
http://www.mistissini.ca/welcome.html
· Travis Badger -
http://www.edo.ca/conference/2008/conference-speakers/travis-badger and
http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca/abdt/apps/connectivitysurvey.nsf/vAllCProfile_en/693.html
· Donald Bear -
http://www.edo.ca/conference/2008/conference-speakers/donald-bear and the Peter Ballantyne First Nation site:
http://www.peterballantyne.ca/index.html
· Elissa Kixen – Aboriginal Youth Mean Business Award info at http://www.aymb.ca/entrepreneur_kixen.php and Aboriginal Boreal Conservation Leaders bio page at
http://www.abcleaders.org/stories/46/elissa-kixen
· Aaron Marchant -
http://www.edo.ca/conference/2008/conference-speakers/aaron-marchant, First Nations Snowboard Team
www.fnriders.com and Squamish Nation site at
www.Squamish.net
From the CANDO Website at www.edo.ca
“Each year the CANDO Board, Conference Committee and CANDO Staff select the youth based upon their strengths, their initiatives, their accomplishments, their entrepreneurial spirit of launching their careers, and their participation within their communities. On behalf of the CANDO Board of Directors, Conference Committee and CANDO Staff we would like to congratulate this year’s 2008 Annual National Youth Panelists! Congratulations Aaron Marchant, Travis Badger, Donald Bear, Elissa Kixen, George Awashish, and Robert Horton!
Do you know an individual between the ages of 18-35 making a difference in your community? If so, this is your opportunity to share their achievements by simply nominating him or her for the 5th National Youth Panel to be held in Edmonton, Alberta in October 2009.
Please contact the
CANDO office at
cando@edo.ca or call 1-800-463-9300 if you have any questions or require more information.
