Profile of Aboriginal students raised

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The seventh annual Aboriginal Awareness Week at the University of Toronto that ran from March 22 to 26 was billed as Making Our Sound: A Celebration of First Nations Voices.

The five-day event, hosted by the university's First Nations House, featured writers Lee Maracle, Daniel David Moses, and Drew Hayden Taylor, as well as magazine publisher and actor Gary Farmer, Jennifer David, director of communications for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, CBC Newsworld anchor Carla Robinson, and a video showing of the movie Smoke Signals. The event also featured a coffee house organized by the Native Students Association that showcased the comedic, musical and dancing talents of various students, as well as Gloria Eshkabok, singing the blues, and a reading by Taylor.

"What's unique about this Aboriginal Awareness Week is we're trying to concentrate on modern Native culture," said Anita Benedict, co-ordinator of First Nations House. Aboriginal people are still rooted in their traditions and want to reclaim lost traditions as a means of providing a foundation for moving forward, she said.

"This is, for me, the most exciting of all Aboriginal Awareness Weeks," said Gina Luck, an Anishnawbe student pursuing her Master of Arts degree in English at the University of Toronto. "I don't think we've ever focused on Aboriginal artists and the media before," she said. "This is an exciting year in media development for Aboriginal people," she added.

Luck also performed at the coffee house, singing three of her own songs, one of which will be the subject of a music video. Luck said Aboriginal Awareness Week makes the larger university community aware of Aboriginal people and introduces the Aboriginal community to the university. Moses agreed with Luck.

The event allows the Aboriginal community to have a face on campus, said Moses.

"What are the numbers? Fifty- 60,000 Native people in this city? I mean, there are a lot of us here . . . it's good to be aware of that despite the mainstream's attempt to ignore that fact. You can't ignore it."

But the Aboriginal population in Toronto, which has sometimes been estimated as high as 90,000, is virtually invisible in a city of more than four million people, and that means its concerns and issues are often ignored or downplayed.

Sarah Ware, a Fine Arts student at the University of Toronto who describes herself as a "woman of color," said awareness is vital for getting the Aboriginal community's voice heard throughout the larger university community, especially when policies are being determined and funds and resources are being allocated.

"The awareness that there are First Nations people at the U of T seems to be lacking in most of the students, so Aboriginal Awareness Week provides an outlet for certain students . . . to learn that there is a First Nations House on campus," said Ware.

Gillian Morton from the University of Toronto's Women's Centre echoed Ware's concerns that Aboriginal people are being ignored on the campus, but said Aboriginal Awareness Week combats that.

"It's an opportunity to mingle with other students and with the creative and political people from the Aboriginal community to get a different view into issues that you hear about in the news," said Morton.

For Anthony Restine, the academic advisor at First Nations House, Aboriginal Awareness Week is also about raising the esteem of the Aboriginal students.

"For Aboriginal students, it's a sense of identity, a sense of promoting their various cultures," he said. "It's a chance to feel good about themselves, [and] it helps their self-esteem and confidence."

Benedict also believes that Aboriginal Awareness Week will make Aboriginal students more aware of each other on campus. First Nations House is aware of about 350 Aboriginal students but she estimates there must be at least 500, but those 500 or so students must find each other within a campus student population of more than 50,000.

"For the Aboriginastudents on cmpus, if they're not aware of First Nations House or aware of other Aboriginal students, [Aboriginal Awareness Week] gives them an awareness they might not have had. And it does the same thing for the non-Native community," she said.