Little imposter opens the show and welcomes audience

Achievement Page 12

As the performers and technicians scurried throughout the Saskatchewan Centre for the Arts in Regina during the last rehearsal before show time, Justin Bellegarde appeared to be the most relaxed person involved with the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards gala show.

The Grade 6 student at Fort Qu'Appelle Elementary school was the host of the nationally televised awards ceremony - for all of three minutes. His job was to welcome the more than 2,000 dignitaries that made up the audience at the centre - and the estimated 500,000 who will watch the show on CBC in the coming month - to the sixth annual awards show.

Once onstage, he said he was John Kim Bell, the founder of the awards. It was a good enough con, until the real John Kim Bell, draped with ropes, screamed for guards to catch the little troublemaker who tied him up backstage.

So what if it was staged? Justin Bellegarde is learning the ropes of the acting business. His role was to kick-start the awards ceremony, and that's just what he did, and he had a good time doing it.

"I got to meet a whole bunch of new people," he said. "I made some new friends, and you get to eat pretty good, too."

Acting is something Bellegarde now wants to do with his life. And it all started thanks to a costume.

Last year, a production company began filming the television movie Big Bear on Pasqua First Nation. When the call went out for extras to perform in some scenes, Justin was the only person who could fit into a small boy's clothing and headdress.

"I hadn't done anything like that before, except in school plays or something like that," he said. But the experience has given the 11-year-old, who lives with his grandmother on the Pasqua First Nations, a whole new idea about what he wants to do with his life.

"Yeah, I'd like to be an actor. I see some things like shows on TV and I think, 'yeah, I could do that'."

Working on Big Bear gave him an opportunity to work with the best actors and behind-the-scenes crew in Aboriginal cinema. Working last week at the Saskatchewan centre was a bit of a homecoming for Justin, since he shared a dressing room with Gordon Tootoosis, the star of Big Bear as well as the television show North of 60 and the movie Legends of the Fall.

"He's really good. I really like what he's done," said Bellegarde.