The Indigenous Committee has been active this year.
Recently we organized a visit to Crawford Lake for the inbound and outbound Rotary Exchange students. We had 11 students and 10 adults and the visit included a guided tour of the Iroquois Village, followed by lunch and a self-guided tour of one of the many trails in the park. Everyone had a great time and we hope to make this an annual event for the exchange students. I would like to thank the Rotarians that joined us for the day and helped ensure that it ran smoothly.
Below are the Exchange Students and some of the other folks who joined us for the day.
In May we selected Sonnie Debassige as our second recipient of the Rotary Indigenous Scholarship through the University of Sudbury. She is from the M’Chigeeng reserve on Manitoulin Island, but now lives in Sudbury with her father. She has had a challenging life but that has motivated her to pursue a higher education. She is entering her third year in Indigenous Studies and has been active in the Indigenous Student Circle at the University. Ultimately she hopes to get her PhD and teach Indigenous students. She will come to one of our club meetings in the future to thank us in person. Sonnie was extremely appreciative of winning the award and below is a copy of the note she sent me.
Aanii Cliff,
I want to say thank you so much for this opportunity. You have brought great joy for me and my family by bestowing this upon me. When I told my father his words were "stuff like this only happens in movies!" He was so proud of my accomplishment. I would definitely love to call, tonight seems a bit late, I was out with my grandmother searching for fiddleheads and morrels. I will call you tomorrow and we can definitely talk.
Miigwetch for such an amazing opportunity,
Sonnie Debassige
I also heard recently from our first recipient, Stepfanie Johnston. She graduated from the University of Sudbury in April and will be attending Graduate School at the University of Toronto in the Fall. A note from her is below.
Aanii/Hello!
I hope you are doing well. I know it has been a while since we spoke and I just wanted to let you know what my future plans are. I have been accepted to University of Toronto's Masters program in Anthropology with a Collaborative Specialization in Indigenous Health. I am very excited to begin my journey as a Masters student in Toronto in September.
I just wanted to let you and the rest of the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar how much their generosity means to me, being able to go to Graduate School to do my Masters in Indigenous Health is something that I could only previously dream of. Your scholarship has helped me to reach my goals in becoming an advocate in health care provision!
From the bottom of my heart, g'chi-miigwech (thank you so much) it really has meant a lot to me!
Stepfanie Johnston
Earlier this year, we also arranged for Stephen Paquette to be the guest speaker at one of our meetings and I believe that everyone was very impressed with his presentation. Stephen was the person who helped us last year create the Indigenous Pavilion at Ribfest.
Some of the committee also attended a couple of the Vital Conversations on Indigenous Issues that was organized by the Oakville Community Foundation. These sessions were moderated by Stephen Paquette and helped the attendees gain a better insight into some of the issues that Indigenous people are still dealing with.
It has been a good year for the committee and I would like to thank everyone that helped make the various activities a success. We are in a period of Reconciliation and Healing with the Indigenous Nations in our country and I am pleased that our club is playing an active role.