Earlier this month, the folks at Green Valley Alliance Church hosted Grade 8 students from Missabey Elementary School in the Northern Ontario First Nations community of Mishkeegogamang.
It’s a north-south partnership that has grown out of the work of Paul Burston, building ties between Bradford West Gwillimbury and Mish, and rewarding the students for their hard work and achievements in their final year of elementary school.
The kids got to travel to Toronto, Canada's Wonderland, and to Niagara Falls to see the sights before heading back to graduate and prepare for high school in the fall.
There are acknowledged fears and concerns: the students will have to leave their community and families and travel to Thunder Bay to attend secondary school, an alien environment without the supports of home.
Thunder Bay has not been known as the safest environment for kids coming from the reserves. A few years ago, a coroner’s inquest looked into the deaths of seven students, between 2000 and 2011, and there has been criticism of the investigative response of police to missing-persons reports.
Green Valley Alliance Church will be holding it’s annual June 21 National Indigenous Peoples Day Feast, celebrating First Nations cultures, and raising funds to support summer programs for youth at Mishkeegogamang – and this year, there will be a special speaker.
Suzanne Smoke has been invited to be guest speaker.
Smoke, a member of the Mississaugas of Rice Lake, Alderville First Nation, is an area outreach and program co-ordinator for the Muskoka/Parry Sound Sexual Assault Services, working to stem the tide of violence against Indigenous women and girls.
She has worked on anti-human-trafficking strategies and protocols both in Simcoe Muskoka and Toronto, and she is executive director of Biindigen Healing and Arts, providing programming and healing to the off-reserve indigenous population of southern Ontario.
Tickets to the feast are $20 apiece, available at Green Valley Alliance Church, 758 Simcoe Rd., or call 289-383-6089. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. All are welcome.
