Elders and education join forces

Page 31

There is a large, red-brick building on the outskirts of Brandon, Man.

where pigeons perch on broken window sills and the wind tosses pieces of

broken plaster across the floor. This was a residential school built in

1929 to house hundreds of Aboriginal children. Standing in ruins like a

monument to loneliness, the building has been ignored for years by the

city of Brandon and the rest of the province.

Calvin Pompana remembers when it wasn't a place he could ignore and it

will never be a place he could forget. Pompana is an elder from the

Sioux Valley First Nation. He went to residential schools in Brandon

and Portage la Prairie. Today, as an Elder, he is taking part in an

education program in Brandon which he hopes will alter some of the

burdens of the past.

"As Native people we don't let go very well. Things like past wrongs,

physical abuse, sexual abuse, we carry all of this around with us.

Instead of beating ourselves up we have to let go, move on," Pompana

said.

This is the kind of advice he gives to students at Brandon University

and Assiniboine College in Brandon. The university, college and Brandon

school division have worked together to create the Native Elders program

which is being proclaimed as a first. It is not the first program to

invite Native Elders to schools, but is perhaps the most comprehensive

in Canada as it is all inclusive from kindergarten to the post-secondary

level.

With 26 elementary an high schools taking part, 2,600 children are

learning about a history and culture that has been ignored or

misrepresented in the Canadian school system. Calvin Pompana and Isaac

Beaulieu are the two Elders who have taken on the task of helping

Brandon's students of all ages understand who the Aboriginal people are

and who they were.

"Big Bear, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse. There are hundreds of heroes. We

have been part of a history of change bu now we need to change things

for Native people. The prophecy of the white buffalo calf has begun."

Isaac Beaulieu agrees change is definitely in the air in Brandon. As

the other Elder in the program he said the counseling work he does is

often just common sense.

"I had one little girl who was giving the teachers real

problems-yelling, swearing. I sat down with her and listened and kept

on listening. She yelled a bit, then she talked. All she wanted was

for someone to listen to her for a change, hear her out, " Beaulieu

said.

Pompana and Beaulieu said teaching young people about sharing circles,

sweat lodges, and the past will help them deal with the present.

"I have had a white child come and see me with questions about Native

culture. It is that kind of thing that will eventually make a real

difference. That and teaching our children to have pride in

themselves." Beaulieu said.

The Native Elders program was launched on Feb. 9, at Brandon

University. Funding for this three year pilot project came from the

J.W. McConnell Family Foundations, the Universities Grants Commission

Access program, the department of Canadian Heritage and the Maurice

Price Foundation.