Article Origin
Page S3
Marie Smallface Marule still considers herself a radical. Smallface Marule, who was presented the Aboriginal Achievement Award in Education on March 31, may look settled into life with all the creature comforts. Smallface Marule was one of 14 award recipients and one of three who received an award for their work in education. She may live in a quiet residential neighborhood in a split-level home in West Lethbridge and be in her fourth year as president of Red Crow Community College but she still fights for the rights of Aboriginal groups and individuals around the world.
It's a battle she's fought most of her life. She was 18 years old when
she became involved in Blood Reserve tribal politics and a member of the Indian Association of Alberta.
Life really changed for Smallface Marule, now 50, when she attended the
University of Alberta from 1962 to 1966 while achieving her bachelor's degree in sociology and anthropology.
She's proud to have been the first person from the Blood Reserve to
attend that institution but bristled at the time when others continually reminded her of her accomplishment because she was a Native. She doesn't look at herself as someone who blazed a trail for others to
follow.
"I've been made to feel that way but I've never been conscious of it, "Smallface Marule said last week between Aboriginal education seminars
in Calgary and Duluth, Minn. "I appreciate the sentiment but not the prejudice behind it. To put it in the context of my race was irritating."
Other people's perceptions of her led her to a long road as an advocate for Aboriginal human rights, a road that would eventually lead to
Africa.
"I felt out of place at first and self-conscious about attitudes but I learned very quickly that they didn't understand. They treated me like a foreign student or they didn't pay any attention to me at all," she said of her university experience. "That's why I had an affinity for
African people."
A year as vice-president of Club International led to a better understanding of the plight of Aboriginal people around the globe. "I was very close friends with some African students and that helped me make my decision to go to Africa," she said.
They helped each other in a world that was foreign to both. For
Smallface Marule the University of Alberta could have been in Africa. She spent four years in Zambia in the late 60s during a time of change
and independence for Aboriginals for British colonization.
"They already had political independence but it was an exciting time to
be there," she said.
She became involved in community development and adult literacy while
in Zambia. "I felt very much a part of the nation-building that was
taking place."
This is the same fate she had hoped for the Aboriginal people in
Canada: A chance to remove colonial chains and shake free of government
imposed controls she feels have hindered the growth of her people and the erosion of their heritage and culture.
"At that time I was very native," she admits. "it's extremely difficult for a fledgling nation state to combat the external economical
and financial interest which manipulate the internal economical and financial situations."
She said while in Zambia she saw how international economic powers provided aid but not without a sometimes heft price. Labor laws, fiscal
policies and technology uses had to change to conform with the wishes of the countries providing aid.
"It applies to people in Canada," she said. "You have the same situation with the provincial and federal government with what you can
and can't do under which program and services."
While in Zambia she met a South African in exile, a man who would later
become her husband. He was a member of the African National Congress of
South Africa. They had two daughters together and Smallface Marule has raised her grand-niece as her own daughter, as well.
In her three decades of fighting different levels of government to see greater Aboriginal control, Smallace Marule said she has seen little
change.
"I think in actual fact the control is greater -- nothing has changed," she said.
"I worked for 10 years in an attempt to get the United Nations to recognize Indigenous people around the world as nations of people who require protection of group rights," she said.
She helped create and is still chief administrator of the World Council of Indigenous People, which has brought international attention to Indigenous peoples.
"I've worked all my life against the genocide of North American Natives and the destruction of our culture and unique heritage," she said.
At Red Crow College, in its ninth year, students must take Blackfoot studies and Blackfoot language as an example of maintaining the identity of Native people as a distinctive one. She is helping the college cultivate the educational needs of the students and the community as a whole and planting the seeds of change.
"I'm quite positive right now the situation is optimum for radical change," she said.
- 1509 views