New SICC president wants to reach out to communities

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Ralph Morin is planning to make some big changes at the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre (SICC).

Over the summer, Morin, who hails from Big River First Nation, was appointed as the SICC's new president. He brings to the position a background in education, having worked as a teacher, principal and administrator.

Morin, who has a master's degree in educational administration, started his career teaching in Big River, then spent two years as principal on Mistawasis First Nation. Prior to taking over the SICC presidency, he was director of education on Thunderchild First Nation.

One thing Morin has been aware of since he first began teaching is the lack of curriculum available dealing with Aboriginal culture and language. That is something he hopes to rectify through the SICC.

Morin plans to try to take the SICC back to its original mandate, that of supporting First Nations in the areas of culture, language and education. Part of that process, he explained, will be to create links between the centre and First Nation communities across the province to help ensure the SICC is meeting the needs of those communities.

"I have been in education for the last 14, 15 years. And ... to be honest, I haven't really utilized the SICC in any way," Morin said. "I was kind of familiar in terms of its mandate, but never really had any exposure to it in terms of the resources or the services or the programs it had. And I think that's the common message out there with education and also with communities in general. And I understand that the SICC has limited resources to get out there, but in respect to making contact and those connections and links to communities so we can support in which ever way we can, my goal is to try to improve that area, the communication with and the links with First Nations communities, and try to find out what we need to deliver, programs that will service them," he said.

"If we're going to develop resources without their consultation, then most of the time it's not going to be utilized. That resource is going to be collecting dust on the shelf, which many have already. And I think it's just a uniqueness that we're missing and the consultation, and creating that awareness that we're there to support and we're there to provide resources if needed," Morin said.

In addition to creating links between the SICC and First Nation communities, Morin hopes to create opportunities for communities to communicate with each other as well.

"Many First Nations people are creating resources and doing things on their own and reinventing the wheel most of the time. But it's because the communication links and the networking are not there."

Before any networks can be created or any curriculum can be devised, however, the first thing the SICC must do is get the message out to First Nation communities that developing programs to preserve and promote language and culture needs to be a priority, Morin said.

"I've said this before and I've said it to many of the people I've worked with is, you know, the only people that are waving the flag in terms of language and culture in our communities is the language instructors. And it's not going to take a language instructor to save our culture and language. It's going to take the effort of our communities and everybody, all First Nations."