Indigenous social work student recognized for academic, community achievements with President's Medal
- Katie Doke Sawatzky | June 12, 2017
A graduating student from Maskawacis, Alberta, was recognized with the President’s Medal this weekend at the University of Regina.
Clayton Lorne Green is graduating with a Bachelor of Indigenous Social Work and was recognized not only for his academic achievement but also for community work that he’s done for over a decade.
“It felt good,” he said after finding out about the award. “We always knew we were just as smart as non-Indigenous people, right, but they actually conditioned us to believe that we weren’t for the longest time so this just verifies that we’re all equal,” he said.
Lynne Wells, vice-president academic at First Nations University of Canada, nominated Green for the President’s Medal. He was in a class she taught at Maskawacis Cultural College and impressed her right away.
“First of all his writing was extraordinarily good, very moving. One of the main projects for the class was to write a personal memoir about their lives and Lorne’s was incredible to read,” she said.
Green attended Ermineskin Indian Residential School for 7 years. Despite the negative impact that experience had on his life and family, Green was able to heal and decided to invest his time and energy into reconciliation work.
“I think we’re at a significant turning point in First Nations history, he said. “The Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement…it’s enlightened a lot of people so…we’re starting to shift towards healing. For me, it creates hope that we will become healthy.”
Green is a board member of the Remembering the Children Society, a group working to preserve the cemetery of the Red Deer Indian Residential School. He also facilitates a men’s group on domestic violence. Recently he travelled to Rwanda to learn about reconciliation work going on there since the genocide of 1994, caused by lateral violence between the Tutsis and Hutus.
“They have reconciliation villages where perpetrators are living with survivors,” Green said. “That’s the ultimate forgiveness there. So is possible, definitely possible.”
Even before he focused on IRS issues, Green was set on helping people. He was the first person from Samson Cree First Nation to receive international firefighting qualifications and was the director of disaster services there. He also worked as an Emergency Medical Technician for Maskawacis in the 80s.
Green will start a masters degree in clinical social work in the fall. He plans to become therapist to help residential school survivors on their healing journeys.
“My biggest thing is that we will become a healthier nation and take our rightful place in mainstream society. It’s time for us to rise,” he said.
Green also received the Dean’s Medal from the Faculty of Social Work.