There's a good chance that a gathering of indigenous youth from the Chinook's Edge School Division (CESD) will be held again next year.
The first-ever CESD indigenous youth conference was held in Olds Oct. 5, attracting about 225 students and administrators to the Alumni Centre.
Tracy Laut, a co-chair of that event and a family wellness worker at École Deer Meadow School, says it's too early to say what will happen, because evaluations from students and staff who attended the gathering are still being received and evaluated.
However, Laut says it was “a huge success,” so chances are some kind of gathering of indigenous youth in the school division will be held next year, and it might turn into an annual event.
“We're in the process of doing a formal evaluation so that's in the early stages,” Laut says.
“However, people are beginning already to talk about whether this is going to be an annual event. I'm still surviving this event,” she adds with a laugh. “But yeah, we're definitely excited (about its potential to help kids).”
Originally, Senator Murray Sinclair, former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which held hearings across the country into the experiences of aboriginal people in Indian Residential Schools, was supposed to address the crowd.
However, that address had to be cancelled because it conflicted with his senatorial duties.
Laut says if another gathering of CESD indigenous students is held, organizers will definitely make sure Sinclair can be there to address students.
“Absolutely. That's first on our list for whatever we do next. He sent HUGE regrets,” she says.
“When we first started talking to him last April, he had hoped to be able to attend in person because such a huge focus of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was the education of our indigenous youth and to bring them together. So what better way than a conference, right?
“So he was hoping to be in person. Then it turned out their sitting was starting the first week of October. Of course, when the Senate is sitting, he has to be there. So it was just bad timing by a week. If we had (scheduled the conference for) September, he would have been here,” Laut adds.
Given all those problems, Laut was asked if organizers would schedule another gathering of indigenous youth at a different time of year.
“We like the timing in October because it kicks off the whole school year,” she says.
“Now the students go back to their schools and they're excited and they're pumped up and ready to put together a year of programming in their own schools, so we liked it at the beginning of the year.
“But everything is open for discussion in terms of evaluation and how to make the program the best it can be.”
