3rd Annual Maadaadizi Post-Secondary Student Orientation highlights importance of education and role models

Fort William Councillor Michele Solomon and The Revenant actor Grace Dove spoke about their education paths during the 3rd Annual Maadaadizi Orientation for Aboriginal post-secondary students on Sept. 10 in Thunder Bay.
Fort William Councillor Michele Solomon and The Revenant actress, Grace Dove, spoke about their education paths during the 3rd Annual Maadaadizi Post-Secondary Student Orientation for Aboriginal post-secondary students on September 10, 2016, in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY—Fort William Councillor Michele Solomon stressed the importance of educational role models during the 3rd Annual Maadaadizi Post-Secondary Student Orientation for Aboriginal post-secondary students in Thunder Bay, Ontario on September 10, 2016.

“Growing up, I didn’t really have a lot of educational role models,” Solomon says. “It’s not that they weren’t out there; they just weren’t really all that accessible to me. They weren’t available to me on a day-to-day basis in my life.”

Solomon says educational role models are now available for First Nations people every day.

“They are out there in the news, they are out there on the Internet, they are out there fighting the cause on behalf of Aboriginal people,” Solomon says.

Solomon stresses the importance of the annual Maadaadizi Post-Secondary Student Orientation, noting that events like it did not exist when she graduated from Confederation College in 2000.

“So today, this is an amazing opportunity to come together and help each other to recognize each other’s potential and to inspire each other to reach our potential,” Solomon says.

Grace Dove, a Canim Lake Indian Band citizen who performed as Leonardo DiCaprio’s wife during the 2015 film The Revenant, spoke about her acting career during the Maadaadizi Post-Secondary Student Orientation at Marina Park.

“When I moved to Vancouver to pursue a career in acting, it was mostly fun and exciting the first few years while I studied,” Dove says. “So many new ideas and opinions as a young adult in a whole new world. I worked hard and I put in the time. So much of school for me was just unlearning the limitations I had put on myself when I was younger.”

Dove says her biggest lessons came after she completed her post-secondary studies.

“That was when dedication, discipline, and your own drive to learn must shine,” Dove says. “It was a full year before I booked any acting work, and in that time I had three part-time jobs.”

Even though Dove has found success with her role in The Revenant, she still “[takes] it one day at a time.”

“If I get too far ahead of myself, I get lost and worry needlessly because I cannot change the past and the future is unknown,” Dove says. “Every day I practice just being present.”

The Maadaadizi Post-Secondary Student Orientation also featured local musician Nick Sherman and Elvis impersonator Bobby Narcisse, a variety of information booths from local organizations, an artisan’s market, and children’s activities. Students received free pizza as well as an opportunity to win prizes.

Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, vice provost (Aboriginal Initiatives) at Lakehead University and a Chippewas of Georgina Island citizen, says beginning an education right now is absolutely critical.

“One of the most important things that is going on across Canada right now is the fact that Indigenous issues, Indigenous students, and Indigenous education is being recognized by, really the world, so I think there is a lot going on right now that you as students and as parents need to take into account,” Wesley-Esquimaux says. “We are reconstituting languages, we are working on Truth and Reconciliation right across the entire country. This year Lakehead has put an Indigenous content requirement in that every single student who enters our university and graduates from here on forward will have at least a minimum of 18 hours of Indigenous instruction. I think that is pretty spectacular, given that Lakehead is the first one in Canada to actually accomplish that.”

The Maadaadizi Post-Secondary Student Orientation was hosted by Oshki-Pimache-O-Win Education and Training Institute, Confederation College, Lakehead University, Eabametoong First Nation, Fort William First Nation, Matawa First Nations Education, Northern Nishnawbe Education Council, and Seven Generations Education Institute.