Indigenous youth make connections

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Now in its third year of overseas internships, the Pacific Peoples' Partnership (PPP) is looking for 10 First Nations youth age 18 to 30 to take up six-month positions in the South Pacific. The deadline for applications to the internship program is May 31. To be eligible, applicants need to meet the criteria set by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade that includes the following: applicants must be less than 30 years of age, unemployed or underemployed, and not in school.

In addition, PPP has initiated a project to reach out to British Columbia's First Nation youth and to meet with Indigenous youth from the Pacific Islands.

"We are bringing together Indigenous youth to share ideas on cultural sustainability in the new millennium," said Vanessa Nevin, a Micmac youth who is PPP's youth-to-youth project co-ordinator. "Nowadays, we are getting disconnected from our culture because of television. We are disconnected from the culture and also disconnected from our Elders. Elder involvement in the project is integral as the youth are going to be the Elders in the future."

As part of the youth-to-youth project, Indigenous youth will take part in a tour of selected areas in British Columbia. Noted author Zohl de Ishtar will be coming from Australia and will be bringing with her six Indigenous Australian women, of which two are Elders. The Kapululangu Women's Law and Culture Centre has sponsored the Australian delegation. The purpose for their visit is to connect with Indigenous Canadians, Hawaiian and other Pacific peoples as they work toward the revitalization of cultural practices. These women from the Wirrimanu (Balgo) community will be traveling to both Hawaii and British Columbia. They are from a tribal group that lived in Australia's desert without "European" contact until the 1940s.

Wirrimanu people are renowned for the strength of their cultural heritage and traditionally-oriented ways of living. They are best known by their law-based artworks (acrylic on canvas). Their dancing and songs are held in equal esteem and they have traveled internationally to such places as the Cook Islands where they performed in the South Pacific Arts Festival. The women Elders established Kapululangu in 1999 to assist Wirrimanu women to maintain and revitalize their traditional cultural practices and values in the context of their contemporary society. Kapululangu women are custodians of some of Australia's strongest law and, while they will not share the most intimate details of their law, they wish to exchange and share some of their knowledge with other Indigenous peoples across the world.

Other Pacific youth that will be joining the youth-to-youth tour include journalist Lice (pronounced Liethey) Movono, who is a 21-year-old Fijian woman who was affected by last year's coup. Also participating is Sam Obed, an Indigenous youth from Vanuatu, who works with the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and has been part of video productions concerning youth issues. Clay Hawk, 26, is a Maori man from New Zealand and is involved with tourism. Turarangi Tarapu, 28, is a Maori from the Cook Islands and a member of the Orama Cultural Dance Group. They will join keynote speaker Nanaia Mahuta, 30, who is Maori woman, the youngest member of the New Zealand parliament, elected at age 26.

The youth-to-youth tour will take place between June 9 and June 28. Communities to be visited include Alert Bay, Cowichan, Port Alberni, Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, Vernon and Kamloops. Local friendship centres and First Nations will be hosting the visitors. All-day youth seminars are planned for June 16 in Victoria and June 23 in Kelowna with the evenings open for cultural sharing.