Aboriginal elders meet at AUC

Bea Shawanda of Sault Ste. Marie travels North America teaching a lesson she learned from her dog.

Shawanda (shown at left) was the keynote speaker at a weekend Elders Conference at Algoma University College.

She described how she was once helping an Ontario community respond to its excessive suicide rate.

"I was the grief councillor for our grief councillors," Shawanda said.

Returning home one day and feeling very stressed from her work, Shawanda recalled a moment of insight when she was greeted by her "reserve mutt."

"He literally danced his way to me, bouncing and jumping and tail-wagging, he was so glad to see me," she said.

Conscious joy

Shawanda used the story to urge conference attendees to work at bringing joy into their lives.

"There was so much darkness around me with the suicides. {I decided] I've got to consciously bring joy into my life."

An Odawa who spent her early years with Wikwemikong First Nation, Shawanda now uses the Soo has home base for her international travels as a conference speaker and social activist.

Residential school

She attended residential school at Spanish, but refuses to be victimized by her experiences there.

"I am not a residential school survivor," she told the conference.

"I am a residential school ex-student."

"Spanish did not make me what I am today. You are so much more than the residential school experience."

"It is the tenacity of our people that is the righteous legacy that we will give to our children," Shawanda said.

Britney Spears

Other advice from her presentation:

- "Get up half an hour earlier and sit still. As you greet your day, so your day shall be."

- "Be a hero to your own children. Our children need living heroes. They don't need Michael Jordan or Hulk Hogan or Britney Spears. They need you."

- "Make good memories for your children. Put them in their remembering place [their heart]."

Other speakers

It was the sixth time the annual Elders Conference has been hosted by Algoma University College.

Other speakers this year included Mary Elliot from Whitefish Lake (Atikimegoshing) First Nation, Jean Yandryk from Mississauga First Nation and Martin Assinewe from Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation.

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