Twenty Aboriginal youth from all over Saskatchewan are attending a leadership symposium in Saskatoon this week.
The event is being hosted by the Aboriginal Friendship Centres of Saskatchewan.
AFCS Executive Director Gwen Bear says the symposium focuses on small numbers to allow one-on-one contact within an informal setting between facilitators and participants.
“Because we don’t have a lot of youth, we want them to have intimate attention,” she says. “A lot of times we’ll have two to 300 youth coming to a conference and they don’t get that one-on-one attention. Especially with our facilitators.”
Wednesday morning’s theme was causes and prevention of lateral violence.
Errol Kinistino, a well-known musician and actor who has starred in such television shows as North of 60 and Corner Gas, was Wednesday morning’s facilitator.
He says the causes of lateral violence within Aboriginal communities lie within colonialism.
“Prior to colonialism, prior to contact, we lived here for thousands of years,” he says. “There was a way of doing things, there was a way of you had to survive as a people in this beautiful place we call Turtle Island.”
The topic of discussion in the afternoon was Aboriginal rights with featured speaker Saskatchewan Senator Lillian Dyck.
Dyck is a scientist, academic and one of a handful of Indigenous people in the Canadian Senate.
As a way of Indigenous youth asserting their rights, she stressed the importance of voting in the next federal election.
“I think it’s (voting) is very important because we are a growing population, there’s a very young population, and right now there’s a lot of bills that affect Aboriginal people,” she says. “And they need to be aware that’s happening and if they don’t vote, how are they going to determine what types of legislation are going to come forth and have an impact on how government is going to view Aboriginal people and their rights.”
Other topics covered in workshops this week include finance, leadership strategies and wellness.
The Aboriginal Youth Leadership Symposium wraps up on Friday.