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Wawatay News
FEBRUARY 16, 2012
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New Award for Ontario’s Aboriginal Artists and Arts Leaders!
Nominations for The Ontario Arts Council Aboriginal Arts Award are now open.
ᐧᐊᐧᐊᑌ ᐊᒋᒧᐧᐃᓇᐣ
Child poverty education program in jeopardy
This new annual award honours an Aboriginal artist’s or arts leader’s distinguished career and outstanding achievements in Ontario. The $7,500 Ontario Arts Council Aboriginal Arts Award also provides the winner with the opportunity to select a promising new Aboriginal artist who will receive a separate $2,500. Any Ontario resident may nominate! DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS: APRIL 2, 2012 For more information, call Carolyn Gloude at 416-969-7423 or 1-800-387-0058 ext. 7423 (toll-free) or email cgloude@arts.on.ca or go to www.arts.on.ca and click on Awards and Fellowships for details. Pour plus de détails, contactez Luciana Pierre au 416-969-7400 / sans frais 1-800-387-0058 poste 7400 / lpierre@arts.on.ca / visitez le site www.arts.on.ca et cliquez sur Prix et bourses.
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IT’S ON! THE LITTLE BANDS HOCKEY TOURNAMENT SIOUX LOOKOUT MEMORIAL ARENA
CATCH ALL THE ACTION! LIVE ON WAWATAY RADIO
photo by Linda Henry/Wawatay News
Nathaniel Moses (in regalia) shows students at Our Lady of Charity school in Thunder Bay the power of the drum. Moses hopes more funding can be found for the Biwaase’aa Program that helps students deal with the effects of poverty.
Linda Henry Wawatay News
A popular program that fights child poverty while bringing Aboriginal teaching into Thunder Bay schools is in jeopardy, as its funding runs out at the end of March. The Biwaase’aa Program has operated in seven Thunder Bay elementary schools since 2004. It places an Aboriginal Youth Worker into each school and provides a nutritional lunch, after-school program and literacy skills in the schools, while working one-on-one with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students alike. The “main purpose of the program is to work towards child poverty in the elementary schools,” said program manager Paul Frances. “It is a year round program, following the school calendar.” The program also hosts “feasts and showcases pow wow gatherings,” said youth worker Nathaniel Moses. “This gives the students an opportunity to learn about some of our Aboriginal practices, to promote our First Nations pride,” said Moses. “Being a person who works directly in a school as an
Aboriginal person, I am given a role model incentives for our students that I’m actually here for all kinds/walks of life,” “When we talk to them (the students), we talk about our history and our pride,” Moses added. As for the nutritional program, it is provided so the children can have a “full belly to have a good mind as they come to school,” Moses explained. All children need good nutrition to maintain good grades. It is one of Maslow’s basic level of needs. The program is geared towards all students, “not just Natives, but non-Native as well,” added Moses. Up to 35 to 40 students use the program regularly. Each day they come to school and are provided with a snack, lunch and extra help with schoolwork. The funding currently comes from the Urban Aboriginal Strategy, which is a federal funding source. Other sources of funding include The United Way and the provincial government. “We are not sure what is going to happen after March,” said Frances. “Right now we are looking to try to keep the program going from April to June.
The main focus now is to try to find the funds.” Frances added that the program is trying to bring together its many partners to find funding. “We held a Stakeholders Forum back in November, we brought in a lot of our partners/stakeholdes to sustain the program,” said Frances. “We have partnered with Frontier College to deliver our afterschool program. It involves adults/parents to come in for literacy lessons.” Special Education teacher Lucy Goldberg said the loss of funding would be unfortunate for Our Lady of Charity school, as the program helps build compassion and tolerance for other people and cultures. “I think its important we have that to continue in our school, here at Our Lady of Charity,” Goldberg said. “Getting to know about other people’s culture is important for building compassion, tolerance for one another.” “We are a community together, individuals come together,” she added. “We try to integrate all our children’s needs and bring them into their culture. It doesn’t matter what ethinicity they are, we promote spirituality.”
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Lillian McGregor Advocate for Aboriginal languages 2006 Order of Ontario appointee
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