Grandmothers on the move

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The "Golden Girls" will be among 13 students graduating this spring from Brandon University's First Nations Aboriginal Counselling program.

This year, Matilda Lathlin, 53, Judy Stevenson, 54, and Tina Fox, 62, will be among those graduating from the four-year undergraduate program that blends Western education with traditional philosophy.

Students take courses in traditional teachings and spirituality, as well as courses in psychology and other social sciences to provide a Western-style education with Aboriginal cultural underpinnings.

Lathlin is the mother of four children and the grandmother of eight. A member of the Opaskwayak First Nation, Lathlin attended a day school on her reserve in the early days. Dropping out in the ninth grade, Lathlin later took upgrading courses at Keewatin Community College where she completed a bookkeeping program. In 1966, she met her husband, Antoine, to whom she has been married for 37 years. After working as a bookkeeper for her band's child welfare department, Lathlin took part in a program where she and other band members trained as accountants under the band's financial auditor. This allowed Lathlin to enhance her skills and prepare for her current position as controller/accountant for the Opaskwayak education authority.

In 2001, Lathlin decided to return to school. As the wife of an Anglican minister, she said that "people came to us for counselling and I wanted to help." She also felt that she missed out on something by not going to university. As she reflects on her experience, she said that her training has allowed her to "gain an understanding about the difference between Western and Aboriginal traditions."

Stevenson is a member of the Peguis First Nation. Like Lathlin, Stevenson attended a day school on the reserve until transferring to a residential school at Dauphin, Man. It was at the residential school in Dauphin where she met husband, Kenneth. Married in 1966, she and her husband have raised four children.

Stevenson's life has been one of continued learning. Wanting to become a nurse, she first started university in 1975. Things did not work out and she later found work as a health care aide. To enhance her skills she completed a health care aide program at Red River College. Stevenson is also a certified Reiki practitioner, a skill she would need at a time of personal crisis. In 1997, her youngest daughter was diagnosed with leukemia and to comfort her Stevenson would "brush negative energy from her body" using Reiki movements.

Samantha Stevenson passed away in 1997 at the tender age of 11.

To honor her daughter's memory, Stevenson and her husband established the Sam S.R. Stevenson Memorial Creative Arts Award. The award is given to students who excel in arts at the reserve's elementary school.

This spring, Strong Turtle Woman (Stevenson) will receive her bachelor of First Nations Aboriginal Counselling degree. This will complement her diploma in community-centred therapy, which she completed in 1998. Stevenson said she "always thought there was unfinished business. I felt that my life was half-finished." As she reflects, she remembered that her late daughter wanted to become a therapist.

"In a way, I realized her dream."

Stoney Nation member Tina Fox is the eldest member of Golden Girl's club. As a child, she attended the Morley Indian Residential School in Morley, Alta. In 1960, she graduated from the Calgary School for Nursing Aides. After working in Alberta for one year, Fox boarded the train and left for Sheet Harbour, N.S., where she had landed a job.

Asked why she chose Nova Scotia, the grandmother of four said that it was "out of sheer curiosity."

Married to Kent in 1968, Fox returned to Morley where she raised her five children. A tribal councillor for 14 years, she retired in 2000.

Fox was the first woman to serve on the Stoney Tribal Council where she was chair of the health and social development committees. In 1998, she received the WCA of Calgary Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her service to the Stoney Nation. Her award came at a time when she was mourning the loss of her husband who died in March of that year after a battle with Lou Gehrig's disease.

Throughout her lifetime, Fox has worked as a practical nurse, family and criminal court worker, program manager and wellness facilitator. Fox first learned about the Brandon University program at a wellness conference in 1999.

At first, she thought she was too old to go back to school. Then, she read about a former chief in British Columbia who had received his undergraduate degree at age 63. With the support of her surviving children (her oldest passed away in 1987), Red Mountain Woman (Fox) returned to school in 2001.

As these ladies have demonstrated, education is a lifelong journey and it is never too late to start down another path.