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Alberta Elder Rose Auger has worked for more than 25 years with
Aboriginal offenders within Canada's prisons. Her ground-breaking work
in recognizing native offenders as human beings has resulted in both
structural and philosophical changes within the penal system. She was
presented with the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for heritage
and spritituality.
"Respect all life; that's the most important thing," she said.
"Whether it's a bug or a big animal, and know that they have a purpose
to be here."
Auger's been insisting on the importance of every individual human
being for decades, and she has been healing and enlightening all her
life. Decades ago, she hitchhiked to Ottawa from Driftpile First Nation
in northern Alberta to protest against the conditions on the reserve.
She was a board member of the Native American Lodge in Yelm, Wash., and
Elder with the United States Youth and Elders Council from 1977 until
1995.
She founded the Buffalo Robe Medicine Society in Alberta in 1980, and
it has dedicated itself to bring in juvenile offenders closer to Mother
Earth, their heritage and themselves. Auger is coordinator of the
Buffalo Robe Traveling college in northern Alberta and a healer with the
Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon.
In recent years, the correctional service has incorporated Aboriginal
ceremony and teaching into the prisons, to the benefit of the Native
prisoners and to the society upon their release. Auger was one of the
prime movers of those initiatives.
She was the first person asked to sit on the correctional Service of
Canada's council of Elders when it was formed in 1990, and she now acts
as an advisor to the National Parole Board of Canada.
"I really think it's the greatest honor that our people give us, the
award winners, to acknowledge us," said the woman whose traditional Cree
name is Woman Who Stands Strong. "All these years we are so committed
and dedicated to our work, but no one pays us any kind of honor, so to
get this honor is a great acknowledgment and blessing."
Auger received her National Aboriginal Achievement Award for "her
commitment to the preservation of life-enhancing tradition and
teaching."
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