National council tops youth wish list

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Canada's Aboriginal youth want to form a unified front to help deal with issues and concerns common to young Native men and women across the country.

A group of about 50 young people met with the Assembly of First Nations to see how the recommendations made at last February's National Youth Conference in Halifax were progressing.

The formation of a national youth council was the number one priority of the group. Other recommendations focused on family violence, HIV and AIDS, residential schools, peer pressure, young offenders, education and racism.

Christian Garrow, with the assembly's youth secretariat, said the November meeting was more of a round table discussion on progress made from the earlier conference.

"The round table gave the youth another opportunity to determine how the AFN should address youth issues," he said.

Garrow said the assembly is planning to address the need for a national youth council at its next annual meeting, expected to be held early in the new year.

He said the conferences have been a good experience builder for the participants. Garrow was pleased they had come together as a group with some very good recommendations.

Garrow said the issues discussed were based on the participants' own feelings. Giving young people the power to determine their own topics of discussion is what the conferences are all about, Garrow said.

"The key point is that we are listening to the youth, but it is up to them to tell us how we should be addressing the issues on their behalf," he said.

Garrow said the youth conferences are unique in that way. Other similar attempts to get the youth to work on problems across the nation have failed because not enough responsibility is given to the young people themselves.

"Other initiatives have failed because there was a lack of appreciation at the community level," he said.

Murphy Patrick, from the Lake Babine First Nation near Burns Lake, B.C., attended the conference. He said the control given to the participants is what makes these youth conferences so beneficial.

He said the conferences let the young participants "gain respect and recognition" for themselves and other Aboriginal youth.

It is that desire to handle problems on a youth level which makes the creation of a national youth council so important, he said.

A council that stretches from coast to coast would mean a lot to Aboriginal youth and would help in tackling large issues plaguing communities in Canada, he said.

"It could tackle the suicide issue and education, making the youth more aware that education is important," he said.

Patrick said there is a youth council set up in Burns Lake and it has been successful. The council deals with community issues, he said, but those issues are common in many communities across the country.

Getting the Assembly of First Nations on side to help create a national council would play to the adage that there is strength in numbers and give the youth a unified organization to belong to. It would give them more of a powerful voice, Patrick said.

"We are the future leaders, and right now we may not be recognized as future leaders," he said.

That recognition is lacking from the adult world and also the youth, he said. A national council would give the youth a place to belong and a place to learn about the issues around them.

"We want to get more involved and get more people involved to make some changes," said Patrick. "Then, in the future, we will know what we are doing."