Youth determined to continue schooling

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Students sat patiently in an Edmonton conference hall foyer both anticipating and dreading the next round of workshops aimed at making them more productive adults.

They all took the waiting in stride.

"I know it's important -- this conference and what they're trying to do," confided 13-year-old Heart Lake School seventh-grader Curtis Cardinal. "But when I go out in the real world, I'm going to play ball -- basketball or baseball, or something."

Cardinal was one of more than 500 Native students attending the First Aboriginal Youth Conference at the Coast Terrace Inn recently. He does have his sights set on a higher education, which he hopes would enable him someday to leave his northern Alberta reserve and find a more comfortable lifestyle. But he doesn't wasn't to be pushed into it.

"Sure I'm going on to university - I realized that a long time ago," he said, but he's not enthused about the workshops which are meant to inspire and motivate him to achieve an education.

But other students attending the conference from April 30 to May 2 seemed to agree the decision to stay in their Indian or Metis community school and finish their education is never an easy one.

{I think we need this," said Saddle Lake Native Darla Quinney, 15. "It's really good for young people like me."

Quinney admitted it was frightening to rub elbows with many of the industry experts on hand to share some of the requirements needed to join the future work force. But she wants to be ready.

"I've decided, too," she said. "I'm going to college to take business."

The workshop conference, titled Challenge of the Century -- The Vision for Aboriginal Youth, was sponsored by the Yellowhead Tribal Council, Edmonton Catholic School district, Alberta Education and the Metis Nation of Alberta.

According to conference steering committee member Leith Campbell, misconceptions and inconsistencies about the aboriginal equation system are the reasons the event was held.

Unlike the mainstream system, Campbell explained children from Native schools need to understand why they're being educated -- not simply that they need it.

He said that Native school administrations from all over Canada were invited to send their students to the conference, which was geared toward building Native character and self-esteem. Students from as far away as Ontario and B.C. attended, he said.

"They need to know the holistic concepts of intellectual growth, health, spirituality and emotional wellness, Campbell explained.

The conference included 24 workshop sessions from adapting personal survival skills to owning a business.

Native students, from grade nine to post-secondary school age, were also offered a trade show and exhibition of business and universities.

Campbell said Native students never have the opportunity to experience what areas of potential success await them when they finish high school.

"There's so much extra baggage in the Native kid's life right now. They need a focus how to make (their learning) connect," he said.

Native students also heard presentations from guest speakers, all of whom stressed the importance of staying in school.

"You are the future, and you'll only get out of life what you put into it," said Cliff Supernault, executive director of the Native services unit for the Alberta government. "You not only have to know how to get there, but you have to know how to stay."

Supernault, a Metis from Paddle Prairie, Alberta, has worked for the government for seven years.

He told the morning conference crowd Native youth are being offered opportunities that weren't available to aboriginal communities before.

"Take on these challenges, and take them back to your communities," he said.

Pauline Pelly, an elders' adviser with Saskatchewan Institute of Technology and Assembly of First Nations in Ottawa, perhaps had the most inspiring message for the Native students.

She spoke of her 30-year struggle with alcohol abuse and family turmoil before

she took a five-year univesity course in education.

"When I sobered up, I became a person. I became a leader and a role model,"

she said. "If I can do it, you can do it, too."

Former Miss Canada Leslie McLaren, a Metis from St. Albert, was the Master

of Ceremonies.