Elected Council Member with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service workers nominated for Premier’s Award
By Rick Garrick
Aundeck Omni Kaning’s Darren Madahbee of Aundeck Omni Kaning First Nation has received a nomination for the Premier’s Award which he credits to his role as an elected council member with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers.
The Premier’s Awards celebrate the achievements of Ontario college graduates in the province and throughout the world, and are administered by Colleges Ontario.
“I was the first Anishinabek person to be nominated and to get a spot on board with the Council of [the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers],” says the Sault College Social Service Worker, Native Specialization graduate. “That was a very good feather in the cap. I helped a couple of post-secondary institutions move forward into joining the family with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers.”
Madahbee says the Social Service Worker, Native Specialization program was a “life-changing experience.”
“At the time my mom was passing on of cancer…she made me promise to go ahead with my education goals and not to worry about her,” Madahbee says. “When she passed, it kind of just lit the fires underneath me to do the best that I possibly could do.”
Madahbee now uses his experience and education to deliver suicide intervention and prevention workshops and programs across northern Ontario.
“I’ve done a couple of contracts for [Nishnawbe Aski Nation] where they brought in community members from 25 communities,” Madahbee says. “We did three days of suicide workshops and prevention workshops just to give them some basic life skills and coping mechanisms for when they go back home.”
Madahbee also volunteers with the United Chiefs and Councils of Mnidoo Mnising (UCCM) Anishnaabe Police Services’ mental health advisory board.
“Our communities are so small—we know the members and some of the potential crises that could occur,” Madahbee says. “We just help [the police] to lessen their workload by identifying potential community crises and kind of nipping them in the bud before they occur.”
In addition to his role as a mental health community wellness worker with Aundeck Omni Kaning’s NAANDWEGAMIK Health Centre, Madahbee also operates a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu club for people on Manitoulin Island.
“That’s been a fantastic program,” Madahbee says, noting the program helps develop capacity and life-skills in the community. “[It’s] been absolutely phenomenal here. I think every First Nation should have a martial arts program instilled in their community where they have access to that because not everybody is a baseball player or a hockey player.”
Madahbee first got involved with martial arts when he was a teenager.
“When karate presented itself here, I just hopped on board,” Madahbee says. “I loved that for quite a while, and then I got into the wrestling and boxing and kick boxing and eventually with the UFC coming out, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu.”
Madahbee was nominated for the Community Services category of the Premier’s Awards, one of the many awards categories which also include Business, Creative Arts and Design, Health Sciences, Recent Graduate and Technology. The 2016 awards gala is scheduled for November 21 at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel.
“It was totally unexpected,” Madahbee says about his nomination and being one of the 107 graduates who were nominated for the Premier’s Awards this year. “Actually, it was a very good feeling. It was out of the blue.”
Recent Premier’s Award recipients include former Fort William Chief Georjann Morriseau, a Confederation College Aboriginal Law and Advocacy graduate who was recognized in 2014.