Northerners examine education options

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On Feb. 14 and 15, 100 community members from the five Aboriginal bands in the Fort McMurray region gathered at the Sawridge Hotel with one thing in mind: education. The five participants at the conference were the Athabasca Chipewyan, Fort McKay, Fort McMurray, Chipewyan Prairie and the Mikisew Cree bands. This is their third education conference in six years.

"What we as a committee are trying to do is make the people in the communities aware about First Nation education," said Roy Vermillion, Athabasca Tribal Council's education director.

Clarifying issues regarding education in their communities and discussing a band-operated school were some of the objectives of the conference.

Participants wanted to know why their children had to repeat their final year in high school when they came to Fort McMurray.

"We find that our children have to repeat their final year in high school, as in a refresher course," commented one of the parents. "Why do they have to do that? Isn't the Grade 12 in our communities good enough?"

"There are a lot of people that are skeptical about how things are being run today. The Northland School Division system has been with us for the last four decades, and over the years the improvement to education is not great," said Vermillion. "Actually if our education program from kindergarten to 12 was a quality education, the students should be able to come out (with) a diploma similar to other schools in the province. However in our case that is not happening," he said.

"The tribal school district concept has been floating around in the last two conferences. People have been talking about maybe a tribal school district might be more appropriate for this region," said Vermillion.

That means "the communities would be involved in the education of their children. It will be open to any student in the community. However, there may be more programs that will meet the communities' needs, such as cultural programs," he said.

Education committee members present included (Mikisew Cree First Nation) Marina Whiteknife and Therese Tuccaro; (Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation) Janice Marcel and Arson Bernille; (Fort McKay First Nation) Elissa Whiteknife and Mavis Mercredi; (Fort McMurray First Nation) Loretta Cheecham; (Chipewyan Prairie First Nation) Verna Quintal and Evelyn Janvier; and (Athabasca Tribal Council) Roy Vermillion and Archie Cyprien.

"I think that the conference was very educational," said Trevor Micheal a student from Fort Chipewyan.

"I think that it is a great conference," said Kirby Bouchier, 20, a student from Janvier.

Guest speakers included Colin Kelly, superintendent of the Northland School Division; Terry Fortin, a provincial education consultant, Joyce Goodstriker, Kainai Board of Education superintendent; Evelyn Janvier, Chipewyan Prairie First Nation councillor; as well as Dr. Cora Voyageur, David Tuccaro, David Janvier and Bernadette Dumais.

"It was very nice to see some of our people come back to their communities and be presenters at this conference," said Vermillion. "They had a lot to offer to the people. It made the Elders proud to see the result of what quality education can do," he said.