Communities welcome Raven's Eye publisher

Page 10

This month and last, Raven's Eye publisher Bert Crowfoot travelled to British Columbia to visit communities and meet our readers. He went to Vancouver Island-Tofino, Ahousaht-and he attended the 19th annual Secwepemc gathering.

Bert said he was very warmly welcomed everywhere, never more so than by the chief and council of Ahousaht who showed him around and gave him the opportunity to get some great photos.

The youth fashion show put on by the summer program participants, aged 11 to 20, at Spallumcheen Indian band was another one of the trip highlights.

Raven's Eye later spoke to Dodie Jones, co-ordinator for Spallumcheen's Summer Youth Development Program, who along with two summer program workers assisted with putting on the fashion show. That was the culmination of a summer full of social and cultural activities, which included putting on a play and doing various jobs for the band that were part of the program.

The youth decided their own priorities, Jones said, and first on their list was a desire to learn some of their Splats'in language. An adult band member and an Elder give them a lesson once a week.

Originally a fashion show wasn't on the agenda, but the chief suggested the idea and the youth, some of whom had participated in fashion shows previously, readily agreed.

"Young people can benefit a lot from fashion shows," said Jones, whose daughter Shannon came in twice a week from Kelowna to co-ordinate the show. She mentioned accepting responsibility, dealing with the public, learning diplomacy, respect, problem-solving and working with others.

Jones, who is also a First Nations support worker in the Shuswap North Okanagan School District, said she was only a little disappointed that they didn't get a very large audience to come out on the Labour Day weekend, as all the young people had shown up on time, fullfilled all their duties including cleaning up the hall for the show, and put a lot of effort into making the fashion show a success. "The young people really pulled together and it really was their show."

Fred Robins from Esketemc First Nation at Williams Lake participated in lahal and was on the winning team at the three-day Secwepemc celebration. In addition to the lahal tournament, Robins said there were plenty of other sports, including ball hockey-men's and women's and a co-ed youth team organized by the Tsilhquo'in National Government. There were also 30 entries in the golf tourney, split into teams of three.

Most of the results could not be confirmed by press time, but Robins gave us some from memory.

In ball hockey, the Esket Stars won and on the women's side it was the Alkali Shamrocks.

In softball, on the men's side, the Splats'in from Lilooet won, the Rookies from Williams Lake were second, and the Robbins of Esket were third.

There was also the moccasin mile 5 km foot race for all age groups, which on the men's side, was won by Tom Johnson of Esket.