Aboriginal education project rebounds

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The Aboriginal Education Project at Mount Royal College has rebounded and expanded the services it delivers to the Native community after suffering funding cuts to its three post-secondary preparation program levels two years ago.

The College was forced to eliminate Level Three from the project in 1997, but the fall semester of 1999 marked the debut of its Aboriginal child and youth care program. That gives Aboriginal students an alternative to the first year of the college's two-year diploma program.

"The purpose of the program is to offer a modified version of the first year so that we introduce an Aboriginal perspective into Aboriginal child-rearing and traditional knowledge systems," Shawna Cunningham, project administrator, said.

She said the program was developed in response to the lack of Aboriginal workers to deal with the high number of Aboriginal children that go through social service agencies.

In 1998, William Roper Hall, a social agency that deals with children and youth, approached Mount Royal's social services department about the need for Aboriginal child and youth care workers.

"This agency brought forward some statistics to indicate that over 51 per cent of the children in care or at risk are Aboriginal and that very few of the people that work with the children are Aboriginal," Cunningham said.

The matter was referred to Cunningham, who then formed an advisory committee that represents 15 Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal agencies. The committee worked with Cunningham in developing the program and obtaining funding from Treaty 7 Economic Corporation and the Calgary Foundation. Cunningham said the foundation has been more than generous because it not only provided funding, but it awards bursaries to help students with tuition.

The 28 students in the ten-month program take the core courses required by the college program, in addition to gaining culural knowledge. Their instructors are, with one exception, all Aboriginal. Doug Dokis, an Ojibway from Ontario, facilitates an Aboriginal seminar every Friday.

"Basically what my role is, is to try and integrate the mainstream programming with an Aboriginal perspective," Dokis said.

Dokis said he tries to impress upon his students that Aboriginal culture is about lifestyles and they must first learn to respect themselves before they can understand and learn about their culture.

Dokis brings knowledge that he gained from living among different First Nations across North America, in addition to his credentials in Native human services, health administration and seven years of work experience with child welfare agencies in Calgary and surrounding First Nations.

His experiences have led him to understand that each culture is distinct. He said, however, there's a commonality of self respect-respect for your neighbors, the world and the Creator among Aboriginal people-and it's that commonality that he focuses on. He hopes his class can be a beginning point for students to seek out elders and teachers from their own Nation and learn about their culture.

"If we're going to be out there trying to guide the young people, then we need to be in a position ourselves where we're living or attempting to live a healthy lifestyle ourselves," Dokis said. He added that people giving advice and guidance don't always practise what they teach.

"The degree, the diploma is great, but unless they balance that with their lifestyle they could become part of the problem," Dokis said. "I try very hard to do that."

The students represent First Nations from across Alberta and Canada and each student brings a different perspective, level of involvement and experience with their respective culture.

Patrick Deranger is a Chipewyan from Fort Chipewyan located on the shores of Lake Athabasca in northern Alberta. Patrick says the students benefit from exposure to different perspectives, ideas and philosophies.

"All in all, it's spurring people to think," Deranger said.

Deranger was unable to ge into a management program at the University of Calgary so he enrolled in the Aboriginal Education Project and he has no regrets.

"I think it's almost like nature coming in to kind of help me be here for the moment," Deranger said. "So I'm glad I'm here."

He says the Aboriginal perspective has been ignored for too long when teaching Aboriginal students in all levels of education.

"For the first time they (AEP) open a whole new window," Deranger said.

"It's part of our identity and it's very important to us. So it makes you feel good to be acknowledged because you're brought up to think and to see things a little different."

Cunningham said that although the program was designed to increase the number of Aboriginal people working with Aboriginal children and youth, it's possible the program could include non-Aboriginals in the future.

"If the agencies came forward and said we have a lot of non-Native people we would like them to gain some access to traditional knowledge systems and Aboriginal perspective then I would feel compelled to respond," Cunningham said. "If the Aboriginal community was comfortable with that."