Woman overcomes difficult childhood to help others

Achievement Page 15

Dorothy Betz, a 70-year-old retired community activist who helped spearhead the friendship centre movement in Canada, is excited to receive this year's National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the category of Community Development.

Wayne Helgason, president of the Indian and Métis Friendship Centre in Winnipeg, who nominated Betz for the award, has known her 25 years.

"She's very principled," he says. "If Dorothy is involved with a committee you know there's no shenanigans going on . . . she's there as the conscience of an organization."

She had a long career as a court worker based in the friendship centre in Winnipeg. In February, the Winnipeg Police Service presented her with a Certificate of Appreciation for her dedication in helping Aboriginal people.

Helgason says Betz never failed to give "very strong advice" to young people who needed direction. He thinks more than a few of them have turned themselves around as a result of listening to her advice.

Her contribution is all the more remarkable in that she did not exactly get off to a privileged start in life. Both parents were dead by the time she was seven, and Dorothy was placed in residential school for 15 years, beginning when she was three.

The school stood on her own Pine Creek Reserve, so she was close to her grandparents. Not too close, however. For some years, the only access to the school was by boat. For 10 months of the year, the 250 children were segregated from their families for the dubious privilege of being educated to the Grade 6 level, which was as far as the system went. At least in the summers they had the chance to pick berries, dry and scrape deer hides, make pemmican and learn other traditional pursuits.

The year Betz turned 18 is the year the school introduced Grade 8, but the authorities gave her a dollar, a change of clothes and sent her out into the world to make her living. She got jobs as a domestic and waitress to start.

Later, Betz's interest in helping Native people to move up in the world was sparked when her uncle, a chief, started taking her to meetings and conferences in Winnipeg. The lack of a place to meet was a problem that caused Dorothy to become involved in starting up the friendship centre in her city. When the Indian/Métis Friendship Centre opened in 1957, Betz became the first chairwoman.

Betz volunteered with the centre for seven years. She was in on the ground floor, training court workers and learning everything she could about the judicial system. From there she helped develop other programs, including starting up Kinew Housing. She trained Native counsellors for social services and worked as a counsellor with Indian affairs.

Sometimes her help even extended to purchasing bus tickets and alarm clocks for people so they would make it to work.

In 1980, Betz accepted an appointment to the parole board in Saskatoon, participating in case reviews and parole hearings. She also mentored university social work students during their summer work placements.

Five years later, Betz wanted to return to her family in Winnipeg where, true to her tradition of community service, she went to work with young offenders in the Juvenile Youth Centre. Her career there was abruptly halted by an automobile accident, however.

Betz hasn't let limited mobility dampen her spirits or her quest for new challenges. While she was still in a wheelchair, she got on a hospital committee that was seeking Aboriginal participation in its study of seniors' issues. At the same time, she helped put a proposal together to establish a seniors' centre. It took more than six years, but in 1991 an Aboriginal senior citizens' complex called Kekinan Centre opened to serve 30 residents. She also acted on a hospital commission to review treatment of Aboriginal people in hospital emergency rooms and was instrumental in obtaining interpreters.

Today, Betz still volunteers, but not on the front lines. She sells her knitting and donatesthe money to the Youth Program at the friendship centre. Her friend Wayne Helgason says this activity, as much as any other, illustrates her "consistency." He points out that "she still knits and sets up a table, year in and year out. She's very selfless and always thinking of other people."

Formerly, she was on as many as 13 committees:

"I had my nose in everything," she adds, "everything from working with children to assisting ex-offenders. I was forever studying and trying to learn new things. I even took public speaking - the Dale Carnegie course - a real difficult one."

At the time, Betz adds, she was the only one of three Aboriginal people in the course who finished it. She says the confidence to try public speaking may have come from being an orphan with "no-one to boss me around."

She said her skill at developing relationships started in school, when she often mediated disputes and protected younger students from the older ones. She also liked sports, which taught her teamwork. And by the time she started working in the court system, she had six children in her care too.

As time went on, Betz's' public speaking skills were in demand at graduating classes of colleges, universities, nursing schools, the RCMP and city police and the Law Society. She let the graduates know what they could expect in the way of cultural differences when working with Aboriginal people.

Despite her busy schedule, Betz says her goals have been basically simple: "to try to better our people; to overcome racism and the barriers between people." What helped her stay focused was her determination that the generations of young Native people coming up after her would not see themselves as second-class citizens. She sees the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards as a reflection of her ideals.