Visiting the old fashioned way-without notice

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Once again this month, I was on the road with the view of Edmonton behind me. I was on my way to Saddle Lake, St. Paul and Lac La Biche. I attended a dinner and the annual powwow in Saddle Lake, stopped in at the friendship centre in St. Paul and I toured Beaver Lake First Nation.

Incidentally, almost no one in any of the communities I visited knew I was going to drop in, which is the way I like to visit. I like to follow our traditional values as much as I can.

While I was growing up, we never knew who was going to drop by our place for a visit, and it was always a big deal whenever they would. They rarely gave us a day's notice. Of course, back then we did not have telephones, e-mail or a fax machine, but I do not think my grandparents would even want anyone to use these devices.

The first sign of a visitor was a distant, steady drone of a motorboat or a skidoo, or maybe the dog's ears would perk up when they would hear, rather than see, a dog team in the distance. Out would come the dry-meat and the butter kept by my grandmother for special occasions, the food items she said we did not have.

Proper protocols for visiting nowadays? Well, we have to go through a lot of paper work just to visit. I'm glad that you can still visit my grandparents in Fort Chipewyan without any notice, and I guarantee you will be treated with respect and you won't have to fill out any forms before you enter their home.

Saddle Lake

This community was a wonderful place to visit. I stopped over at the Bison Gas Station maybe a half a dozen times asking for directions and the staff were always friendly and they did not say they did not know. They said 'I'll ask for you,' but they did not say they did not know. So thank you staff of the Bison store. You were helpful, and thank you for your hospitality and for offering me a coffee. A great big hello to cashiers Marilyn Steinhauer, Justine McGilvery and Linda McGilvery and to gas jockeys Dustin Brertton and Jeremy Cardinal, who said that they liked working there because they got to meet a lot of people. So keep up the good work and keep presenting your positive and friendly attitudes. It makes people leave your community with a good feeling and good memories.

St. Paul

Thanks to Darlene Cardinal, Francis Whiskeyjack and Lavina Delver for a tour of their friendship centre, which is called the Manawanis Friendship Centre. I asked the staff why they called it Manawanis, and according to Francis, the community of St. Paul was once called Manawanis by the Aboriginal people of the area. Manawanis is a Cree word meaning a place to gather eggs.

Apparently, many ducks and geese who would lay their eggs in the area's marshes and every year the people would gather them for food. This tradition also gave the people a chance to visit and catch up on the latest news. So I now know something I did not know last week.

"A lot of people drop by to visit or to find one of the services we offer here. If we do not have what they are looking for here, then we will refer them to another agency. We network with the Metis, First Nations and non-Aboriginal people in the area. We believe in our traditional values, staff retreats and team building," said executive director Theresa Whiskeyjack.

Beaver Lake

Thank you to Florence Boucher of Lac La Biche for giving me a tour of Beaver Lake. It was quiet, so we were able to take our time as Florence pointed out the fire hall, the treatment centre, the powwow grounds, the beach and the ball diamond.

The arbor in the community is just being worked on and will soon be ready for their annual powwow on Aug. 1 to 3. For further information call James Gladue at (780) 623-4549.

Calgary

Ghost River Rediscovery executive director, Michael Lickers, believes that it is really important for young people to get reconnected to nature. He said that the great outdoors was a school for the First Nations people to learn in. Ghost River Rediscovery, located in Calgary, is bsed on a program that started on the West Coast 25 years ago. Since then, the rediscovery programs are running in over 40 areas around the world and are geared to the cultures of the individual regions.

For further information you can call (403) 270-9351 or you can check out the programs on ghostriverrediscovery.com.

Sturgeon Lake

Shirley Armstrong gave us a call here at the office to let us know that Sturgeon Lake is having their second annual Regaining our Spirit Annual Residential School Conference on Aug. 4 to 8. Last year's conference was the first one they'd ever put on and the committee learned a lot from the experience.

"This year we are hoping for at least 400 people. This is what we are aiming for. We already have 100 pre-registered for the conference and that is good news," Shirley said.

The conference will include an opening ceremony, a feast and round dance, a karaoke night, a talent show and a sober dance. For information you can call Shirley at (780) 483-1183 or David Nabew at (780) 524-5407.

Edmonton

More than 500 people gathered in the Stan Daniels Healing Centre's gymnasium on June 21 for the second annual Aboriginal Day traditional powwow, feast, giveaway and a speech on the centre's founder, the late Stan Daniels. Wife Christine attended the celebration. The centre houses a number of inmates who are in the process of being released from prison. It offers a number of programs to help with their integration back into the community. Head of the powwow committee and chief of the Native Brotherhood Committee, Ricky Okimaw, said that along with cultural co-ordinator Archie House, Ken Mah, vice president of the Native Brotherhood Committee, staff Blaine Paul, and director Kelly Hardy, the gathering was successful.

"Our goal is to integrate back into society with the help of our Elders, the community and all the resources available, so by putting on an event like this we are trying to make a positive impact to the community. This is part of ourway of thanking the Aboriginal community for helping us, and for the Elders who accept us with open arms," he said.

Okimaw said that he wants to continue seeking Elders' advice. He said there is a whole spectrum of healing in the Aboriginal culture that he's learned from the Elders and he wants to keep that door open.

"I do not want to close the doors on what I've learned, because that is what I've done in the past. I do not want to turn my back on the Creator and the resources out there and say, 'OK, I can do it on my own, because I cannot do it on my own. Because when I thought I could do it by myself, that was when I fell and I fell hard. This can be a vicious cycle, and getting back up and trying again is hard," he said.

"For so long I've put myself down. I was just a 96-Street drunken Indian, but now I know differently. Our ancestors were not like that. We were once clean people. We did not need or require alcohol or drugs to help us through. I now see the cycle starting to break and we as Aboriginal people are now starting to pull away from the destructive behaviors we were in," he said.