Fine arts festival celebrates tenth anniversary

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Students from all the schools within the Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC) spent four days showing off their artistic talents when the PAGC held its tenth annual Fine Arts Festival April 30 to May 3.

Students participated in many different areas of the arts during the festival, ranging from visual arts to creative writing to performing arts.

"A lot of the events that they had when they first started it are some of the same events that they have now, like the dancing competitions," said festival director Shona Stapleton.

"The jigging and the square dancing have always been there. The rap dancing has always been there, too. I don't think it's changed, structurally, all that much. It's basically the involvement that has really changed."

That involvement has grown since the festival first began as an annual event a decade ago. Originally a two day event with about two to three hundred participating students and chaperones, the length of time the festival now takes in has doubled, and the number of participants has also risen considerably.

"We had well over 1,200 students and chaperones there, and they seemed to really enjoy themselves," said Stapleton.

An area the festival has been emphasizing is the use of First Nations language, and many of the people involved with the organizing of the festival understand its importance.

"The festival recognizes and awards artists for using their First Nations language in all areas of competition with a special language medal," said Janice Morin, of the festival committee.

Stapleton expanded on this by saying, "In choir, it's required for them to sing in their first language. In drama, we've never really put a requirement on it, but it's going to be included on points for the scoring when you do a competition for drama in your first language, as well as writing.

"I don't know exactly how it's going to happen, but we're talking now about having language writing competitions, specifically in First Nation languages. That's something we're just talking about now, and I'm pretty sure that's going to be implemented, but I'm not sure of the exact rules behind it yet."

Part of the writing competitions this year was the re-telling of traditional stories and myths. In a similar fashion, the performing arts segments of the festival also looked at both traditional and modern forms of these areas.

All in all, the organizers were pleased with the week's events.

"The Fine Arts Festival turned out well," said Stapleton. "Actually, very well. We feel it was one of the better ones that we've had, and that was the reaction from some of the schools, too."

"As a committee member, I was delighted to see the excitement fill the room and was impressed with the originality and quality of the performances," added Morin.

"It is a great feeling to see children and youth meeting new friends and visiting with old friends from previous festivals. You know you have done a fine job when you witness amazing art, performances, and see smiling faces."

Community prepares for self-government

Cheryl Petten, Sage Writer, SAKIMAY FIRST NATION

Fifteen members of Sakimay First Nation spent six weeks this spring learning to become more effective community members in preparation for the day when the nation becomes self-governing.

The First Nation is currently working to draft a community constitution, which it hopes to put before band members for referendum by July, according to Richard Kaye. Kaye sits on the band's Indian governance committee and the health committee, and is a certified life skills trainer.

Fifteen people graduated from the latest offering of the life skills program, while 21 graduated the first time the program was offered in 1999.

The life skills students worked mostly on self-discovery, Kaye explained, dealing with issues such as self-esteem, strengths and weaknesses, problem solving, family dynamics, parenting, and how to explore and take advantage of opportunities.

"They carried alot of garbage when they first came in and didn't realize what harm they were doing to themselves and to the community," Kaye said of the course participants. "And after taking this they kind of saw self and wanted to be a better person.

"A lot of emotion was brought out towards the end, because they were in touch with their feelings then. In tune with their feelings . . . I think that's what we tried to instill in them. In tune with how they feel, and focusing on how they feel throughout the day, and work their problems through instead of just giving up and getting angry. There's too much violence in communities because of anger and disappointment and that type of stuff. Negativeness.

The life skills program was initiated by chief and council, but is being co-ordinated by the Sakimay health centre, Kaye said. The course was developed to help band members become more active and effective participants within the community.

Before the life skills courses were offered, Kaye explained, there was a lack of participation in programs offered by the band.

"Now there's more participation, because they can understand more and they can express themselves better. When we have community meetings, the people that have taken life skills certainly lead the way in discussion and dialogue. So that's what we're focusing on now- to do more," Kaye said.

"When the chief and council has mandated the governance committee to look at the election act, the committee has found that we get our authority from the Indian Act, and we soon discovered that in order to get the power from the people, we must have our own constitution. So we proceeded to do the constitution-it's in draft form-making all the declarations of our rights as Indian people, our inherent right given to us by the Creator. We make a declaration of those rights, and from there we will make a declaration of how we want to govern ourselves. And from there we instill it all in the constitution, how we want to govern ourselve, and elections are one of them. And it's community driven. It's not chief and council driven, it's community driven."

The band will also be working to develop a system of alternative dispute resolution in conjunction with the constitution, Kaye said.

"We like to be able to solve our own problems, whether it's in labor, housing, employment, child care, environment, to have these dispute mechanisms in place . . . and be able to solve these problems with setting up of a tribunal to hear cases, and be able to mediate and to satisfy parties that are engaged in the disputes. And that will be community based and driven."

The band's alternative dispute resolution system will be equal to or better than those offered by the provincial or federal governments, Kaye said.

"The community has to be able to buy into it, to know that it's fair, that they're going to get a fair hearing. We've got to demonstrate that the tribunal is well trained, well equipped and it's not biased."

Kaye said the band hopes to have an alternative dispute resolution system in place within two years.

In the meantime, the life skills training will continue.

"It's going to be ongoing. We see there's a need for it now, very much evidence, and that is why we have to have a healthy community in order to do our constitution and our governance processes," Kaye said.

"To have a better community, I think, is the bottom line. We want to move forward . . . we want to give something better for our children. Leave our children with something. Because we can't be going on the way we're going on. We have to leave something for our children to work with."