Contributions of Aboriginal women highlighted

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Beginning in 1992, the month of October has been set aside to commemorate the role women have played and continue to play in the development of Canada and Canadian society. This year, Women's History Month is being dedicated to recognizing and celebrating the contributions of Aboriginal women in Canada's past and present.

In keeping with this year's Women's History Month theme -Aboriginal Women: The Journey Forward-Saskatchewan's Status of Women office has selected six outstanding Aboriginal women from across the province to profile on its Web site-Ava Bear, Bev Cardinal, Cecile Asham, Monica Goulet, Leah Dorion and Falynn Baptiste.

When it comes to her career, Ava Bear from Muskoday First Nation has reinvented herself many times. She married while she was in Grade 11 and, upon graduating from high school, began a 17-year clerical career while also working to raise a family. She later served as a member of the Muskoday band council, and served one term as a vice-chief of the Saskatoon Tribal Council.

During her time on band council, Bear worked to encourage students to stay in school. Through her work, she also came to recognize the need for mothers and fathers to learn the parenting skills they were never exposed to because of residential schools. Following four years in university, Bear is about to earn her bachelor of social work degree, allowing her to assist those parents in their learning process.

Bev Cardinal is a Metis woman, born and raised in Regina. When she was 30, she found herself serving triple duty-working at the Gabriel Dumont Institute by day and taking university classes at night, while also fulfilling the full-time duties that come with being a mother. She is now employed as assistant cabinet secretary for the provincial government. Cardinal believes Aboriginal women have a role to play in ensuring their families and communities are healthy, and sees a need for Aboriginal women to develop strong ties to their communities and their culture.

She also recognizes the need to build strong relationships between different people and cultures, and believes Aboriginal women can and should take a lead role in that bridge building process.

Cecile Asham of Pasqua First Nation is a wife, mother and grandmother, an Elder and a pipe carrier. She sits on band council, is a provincial government employee and devotes time and effort to promoting equality and environmental awareness. She also works to ensure future generations learn about their culture, holding sweats and ceremonies to help heal the damage caused by the residential school system and the racism Native people have had to face over the years.

When she was a teenager, Monica Goulet couldn't see the point of staying in school, so she dropped out. After a series of dead-end jobs, one of her sisters suggested they go back to school together. They did just that, and within a couple of years, Goulet has earned a bachelor of education degree in the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program. She continued her education, earning a bachelor of arts, and is now the cultural diversity and race relations co-ordinator for the City of Saskatoon. Goulet sees overcoming stereotypes as the first step in breaking down the walls that exist between different cultural groups, and believes education is the key to taking that first step.

Leah Dorion is a Metis teacher, painter, film-maker, writer and mother who grew up in Prince Albert. Now an instructor at the Gabriel Dumont Institute in Prince Albert, Dorion has produced a children's book, had gallery showings of her artwork and has produced video documentaries that showcase Metis culture and history. Through her paintings, Dorion celebrates Aboriginal women, and hopes to pass a message on to future generations about what they can accomplish with their lives.

Falynn Baptiste from Red Pheasant First Nation is working toward two goals-becoming a teacher and pursuing a singing career. Baptiste is compleing her education degree at the College of Education in Saskatoon and plans to become a biology teacher. And she is receiving more and more requests to perform at various community events, where her ability to sing in Cree makes her talents even more in demand. Baptiste said her mother always encouraged her children to get a good education, a message she hopes to be able to pass on to future generations in her role as a teacher.

The six women profiled as part of Saskatchewan's Women's History Month celebrations were selected by Pat Faulconbridge, executive director of the Status of Women office.

"What I was looking for was I wanted to be able to profile women that are kind of from the grassroots and are making changes in their communities that don't typically get media attention or recognized publicly," she said.

"But they have a lot of influence within their communities and their families. So that was one of the reasons why I chose some of the women that I did. The problem was choosing just six," Pat Faulconbridge said.

"These women, they do things from the heart. They aren't initiating change because they want recognition. They really are initiating change because they want things to be better."

Faulconbridge said she was pleased with this year's Women's History Month theme because Aboriginal women are frequently overlooked when women's strengths and accomplishments are being celebrated. The strength of these women, and of the women that came before them, is a recurring theme in the profiles, she said.

"That's sort of one thing that's kind of a thread through all these stories, is how strong these women are and how it's been their upbringing, their cultural traditions and values and being raised by strong women themselves. They all speak about the strength of their mothers. So that's something that I think we need to kind of celebrate."

The six women are profiled online at www.swo.gov.sk.ca.