Future leaders inspire at annual Indigenous awards of excellence
- EFN Staff | June 19, 2018
The sense of success and perseverance was in the air as hundreds of parents, teachers and community supporters gathered for the 20th Annual SaskTel Indigenous Youth Awards of Excellence. One hundred and nineteen young people were nominated in one of twelve awards, honouring them for their leadership in sports, culture, perseverance and education.
Buffalo Boy Productions brought the drum and several dancers and some past nominees and recipients of the awards were on hand to share their talents. The Strong Sisters nailed their harmonies over a few songs, Dallas Boyer and his dad Phil played some toe tapping fiddle tunes and 2015 Outstanding Achievement recipient Darian Lonechild gave an emotional speech about the impact the award has had on her journey and how good it was to see all the outstanding youth.
“When I arrived at grand entry I went to stand with the young people and I just saw happy faces and was honoured and happy to be in the room and back for this experience. It brought back a lot of memories,” said Lonechild who has gone on to be the FSIN Female Youth Representative. “The amount of new young leaders that are up and coming is really inspiring for me and instills hope in me as a young leader. It was quite emotional experience for me.”
Colleen Cameron is chair of the Awards and she noted that the most difficult category for the judges each year is the Spirit Award.
“This award is given when young people fight through some of the real tragedies that can happen in our communities, and this year’s recipient showed just that,” said an emotional Cameron of the Spirit recipient Nautia Crier. “She lost her mom to a murder when she was only 13 and she has stayed in there and become a leader on this issue.”
Crier, a grade eleven student at Saskatoon’s Centennial Collegiate was humbled by the award.
“I feel like such an honour and I am looked at as a strong person and a role model. For my mom, I think it is important to make her proud and myself proud and know in my heart that somewhere she is listening and watching over me.”
Crier credits her perseverance to the supports of two teachers in particular. “Jamie Kelly a teacher at Centennial and Chelsea Davis a former teacher at Centennial and is now at EGADZ. They are my super moms and a big part of my life. If it wasn’t for them I would have dropped out of school in grade 9,” said Crier who wants to become a lawyer. “I am very hopeful for the future. I hope I set a good example for all the people having struggles and stuff like that. Drugs and alcohol never help the situation and you need to recognize the weaknesses that you have to you can strengthen them.”
Ronin Iron also echoes the sentiment of Nautia. Ronin, the recipient of the male Outstanding Achievement award is an exceptional athlete and student at Bedford Road in Saskatoon and he wants to be an engineer. But it isn’t easy. “I like to try for this award. It is hard work. I push myself, dedicate myself and go up against those barriers and stay drug and alcohol free. I try to keep my family and friends around me to keep my goals in sight. I want to go into engineering so I push myself as hard as I can in my school work,” said Iron.
Darian Lonechild and Nautia Creir shared a good hug after the awards. They came from the same school and same Spirit of Youth Group. “I jumped for joy when she won. We have that connection. This award will give them all a boost,” said Lonechild. “It was one evening that I was empowered as a young person to reflect on all the hard work and what I have done. To be nominated is a huge honour and to win is amazing.”