Dreamcatcher conference a hit

Page 16

The Dreamcatcher Aboriginal Youth Conference was in itself a dream come true for many of the Aboriginal youth attending.

The three day conference from Oct. 24 to 26 was attended by over 1,500 youth aged 10 and over from communities across north and western Canada, including Old Crow, Yukon and Providence, N.W.T., Manitoba, B.C., Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

This was the fifth year for the Dreamcatcher Aboriginal Youth Conference. It was hosted by the Child and Youth Care Program at Grant MacEwan College.

The conference consisted of a collection of workshops designed to help Aboriginal youth understand their full potential. The conference also featured a series of special events including displays of youth artwork, dancing, plays, a mini pow-wow, and trip to the provincial museum. Exhibitors sold Aboriginal art and crafts ranging from paintings and jewelry to moccasins and clothing. Celebrated Native actress Tantoo Cardinal also made a guest appearance.

The theme for the conference was Keeping Your Spirit Alive.

Those attending were invited to design quilt squares for the "Keeping Your Spirit Alive" quilt. Using liquid embroidery, they wrote their names, where they were from, and decorated the quilt squares. The completed quilts hung in the gym for the closing exercises.

"The children have had an experience they will never forget. I could feel their pride all week," said Jacqueline Pruner, co-ordinator for the Youth Native Action Group (YNAG) from Old Crow, "They definitely chased their dreams. This is theirs. This is something they worked for."

The youth group's slogan is "because we wanna" and the 12 young people from Old Crow, proved they attended the conference because they wanted to.

The Old Crow group raised over $15,000 through massive fundraising activities to pay for conference fees, transportation, hotel accommodations, and other expenses.

"They had to earn their trip," said Pruner.

They presented a play which they had written, produced, and directed. The play, A Day In the Life of Old Crow, was a true story showing life in Old Crow.

Kari Patterson, 12, said she worked hard to be in the play and to attend the conference.

"I baked cookies for the bake sale and went on pop can runs, taking them to the recycling depot," she said.

The museum trip, powwows and dances were Patterson's favorites of the conference.

Old Crow is a small Yukon community of less than 300 people and a few of the children from Old Crow had never been further south than Whitehorse. They noticed the smells and the pollution, the tall buildings, and how many people there are in Edmonton.

Pruner thinks that Aboriginal youth today need to see their people as a proud people, and that they need adult role models.

For some of the groups, the Dreamcatcher Conference has become an annual event. For the community of Fort Providence, N.W.T., this was their fourth year.

Sisters Arleen and Rowna Canadien attended with the youth group from Fort Providence. Arleen was at the Dreamcatcher Conference in 1995. A Grade 12 student, she plans on following her dream to become a lawyer.

"It's good. I liked the provincial museum trip and went to the special events," she said, "I met Tantoo Cardinal. I like her."

Rowna Canadien, 15, was attending for the first time. She liked the 'cultural stuff."

"I've been learning a lot about my culture," she said.