Kids look for answers in Ottawa

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It's a trip that 25 Grades 5 and 6 students at Napi Playground Elementary School on the Peigan reserve are not likely to forget. The students, with 10 chaperones, including principal Gayle Strikes With A Gun, teachers Margaret Thomas, Sheena Jackson, and Elder Elsie Crow Shoe, took their classroom on the road - all the way to Ottawa to see the workings of the nation's capital first-hand and to lobby the government for a new fine arts centre on the reserve.

The group left on May 15 and returned on May 24.

"It fit totally into their curriculum," said Grade 5 teacher Sheena Jackson. "After all their learning and researching, they saw things for real."

Travelling across the country on a large bus stands out in the students' minds as much as the actual destination.

"Canada's landscape really stood out," said student Lawrence Jackson. "When we went across Saskatchewan and it was so flat, I didn't think there'd be anything in Manitoba, but there were trees and that surprised me."

"For me, it was how many hours it took to get from one place to another," said student Charmaine Little Moustache. "Canada is so big!"

The trip took the students - many who had never been out of Alberta - to many cities, including Regina, Winnipeg, Sault Ste. Marie, Toronto and Niagara Falls, before making it to Ottawa, where they spent a couple of days visting parliament and other important government addresses.

Equipped with a drafted plan of action for how they would like to see the education system revised on their reserve, especially the need for a fine arts centre, the children were expecting to meet with Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Indian Affairs minister Jane Stewart. Unfortunately, both appointments fell through.

Chretien sent a letter of regret, said Sheena Jackson, and Stewart sent a representative from her department.

"I had some questions the prime minister could have answered," said disappointed student Joseph Big Bull.

Making up for a little of the disappointment was a meeting with Senator Joyce Fairbairn, who's an honorary chief of the Bloods.

"I was a little nervous, having to say a speech to someone that important, but she was nice," said Lawrence Jackson, who presented the group's report to Fairbairn.

Although the trip was a whirl-wind of places and faces, their teachers feel that in the end, the students got a real taste of how things work in government circles.

Jackson said her students realize that they won't be getting the fine arts centre anytime in the near future and, indeed, more trips to Ottawa and more lobbying may be necessary.

"I think they realize that this is just the beginning," she said.

While the trip may have only taken nine days, the planning has been a long work in progress.

The idea for the journey came from the students themselves, after they received letters from the prime minister and former Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin. The letters were in response to concerns the studnets had passed on to visiting speaker Ovide Mercredi.

"The kids were shocked the prime minister had responded," said Jackson. "He was very positive in his response to the kids. He was proud to see they wanted to pursue a better future for themselves."

What transpired next was planning for a trip to Ottawa to meet with the prime minister and the Indian Affairs minister in person and research as to how the education system at Napi Playground Elementary could be improved.

They determined that a fine arts centre was needed on the reserve. They also researched the route they wanted to take across Canada.

To make the trip a reality, $35,000 had to be raised. With the children pitching in for fundraising with bottle drives, meal catering, working bingo and other activities, combined with community donations, $6,900 was raised. The parents contributed $3,100. Indian and Northern Affairs gave $10,000 as did the Peigan Board of Education. The Peigan council covered the remaining $5,000.