Indigenous Peoples Abroad Program: retrospective: where are they now?

After a rewarding experience in Port Vila, Vanuatu, Jennifer Chong found herself reacquainted with her previous employer, Canada World Youth, but assuming new responsibilities as an international youth exchange program supervisor. Jennifer's experiences thus far have not disappointed her--the contract began with a move to a new community in Canada in May where she started to search for work placements and housing for the 16 youth soon to be arriving from Poland and the Ukraine. These placements included helping Habitat for Humanity build a house for a homeless family, organizing the Salvation Army Food Bank, and raising money for HIV North's annual AIDS awareness fundraising walk.

In the winter, the Eastern Europeans will travel back to Europe with their young Canadian counterparts, and contribute to community development efforts there for another three months. Jennifer's training with Vanuatu's Wan Smolbag, a youth-run community theatre company that uses drama to reach and engage young people on a range of development issues in the South Pacific, bolstered her skills in working with young people across cultures in innovative and creative ways. With a heightened sense of the realities confronting young people, particularly in a developing world context, she is working to empower youth to affect change in their communities, especially around issues of globalization and development.

Upon her return from Rarotonga, Cook Islands, Renee (Keyskwecandskew) Hetu, a member of Saulteau First Nation in British Columbia, resumed her position as a First Nations students advocate within the Kelowna School District, working with Aboriginal students as well as teachers, principals, parents, and social workers to support and encourage First Nations students to stay in school. Now she is back in school, hoping to complete her Bachelor of Social Work by 2007 and to pursue a career in social service, corrections, addictions, and therapy. Renee travelled from Moberly Lake in Northern BC to Rarotonga, Cook Islands, where she introduced principles of restorative justice and healing circles practiced within many First Nations communities to prisoners at the Arongi Prision and to Probation Service staff at the Ministry of Justice.

Upon reflecting on her time in Rarotonga, Renee says she's "learned that although we are thousands of miles apart, as indigenous people, we have many similarities". She feels that both in the Cook Islands and Canada, customs shared through dancing, feasting, and community lead to a sense of togetherness and community strength. While Renee has always had an interest in the field of corrections and therapy, her experiences in Rarotonga reinforced her dedication--she is especially interested in First Nations-focused corrections approaches, and hopes to work with the Ministry of Children and Families in the future.

With US $15,000 in her pocket and a Canada-US Fulbright Scholarship to her name, former intern Lyana Patrick, a member of the Stellat'en First Nation, is winging her way south to study with the University of Washington's Native Voice's Program where she will produce her documentary film tentatively entitled Travel Across the Medicine Land. "I want to look at the impact of the Canada/US border on First Nations communities, how that artificial border bisected those communities," states Lyana. "I'll look at these issues in the context of post-9/11 and in particular how the 1792 Jay Treaty, which allowed First Nations to work and travel freely across that border, is now considered abrogated in light of global terrorism."

As an intern in New Zealand, Lyana worked with the Kiwaia Maori TV and Film Production Company where she had the opportunity to direct her debut film, celebrating the traditional Maori practice of ta moko (tattooing). Hoping the film could contribute to efforts to invigorate Maori culture, Lyana is also interested in exploring the use of art and tattoo in Canadian indigenous culture through her film-making.