The National First Nations Youth Summit in Saskatoon wrapped up Thursday afternoon.
Over the course of three days, it is estimated about 500 participants from across the country took part in the summit.
In the process, participants were treated to a number of keynote speakers and participated in various breakout sessions on the environment, grassroots advocacy, health and wellness and justice.
The recommendations will now be drafted into a report which will set the agenda for the Assembly of First Nations five-year youth plan.
Jessica Danforth, one of the co-MCs of the event, says the three-day event which brought together Aboriginal youth from all over Canada was a great success.
“This was amazing, we had more than 500 youth, some people are saying 1,000, it was inspiring, it was uplifting, it was empowering…”
Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Vice-Chief Simon Bird told delegates they must build upon the positive energy created by the summit.
“You’ve to make the commitment that you’re going to go back to your communities, you’re going to try harder,” he says. “You’ve seen the youth, there’s a fire burning inside of you.”
The final keynote speaker of the summit was former Olympian Waneek Horn-Miller.
In her address, the Mohawk athlete talked to youth delegates about being stabbed by a soldier’s bayonet during the 1990 Oka crisis, the post traumatic stress disorder that followed and her mother’s advice.
“‘Nobody will ever, ever criticize you for quitting,’ she says, ‘but if you do, that soldier who stabbed you, you’ll be handing him your dream of becoming an Olympic athlete.’”
Miller adds she also had to overcome a racist coach on her way to cracking the Canadian Women’s Olympic Water Polo team.
“I had two choices in my head. One was believe them, are they right? Here’s this guy, he’s an Olympic coach, is he right? Or, I could get mad, I chose to get mad.”
Horn-Miller was a member of the national women’s water polo team that won the gold medal at the 1999 Pan-Am games and competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
The summit was co-hosted by the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and the Montreal Lake Cree Nation.