Subscribe!
Comment on this Story
Helen Robinson-Settee
Written by Anna Pellissier
As the Director of the Aboriginal Education Directorate of Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth/Advanced Education and Literacy in North End Winnipeg, Helen Robinson-Settee has a hand in a lot of different projects. Besides working as an advocate for the Directorate itself within the province, she also works externally with school administrators, educators, students, parents, Aboriginal and community organizations, and just about anyone with an interest in the kind of educational opportunities available to Aboriginal children and youth.
In Manitoba, the Aboriginal Education Directorate works with Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth as well as Manitoba Advanced Education and Literacy. While working to ensure that Manitoba Aboriginal youth experience an educational system that keeps their specific needs in mind, they also work within the government to initiate policy development and to further the objectives outlined in the Aboriginal Education Action Plan. This plan, which has been in effect since 2004, was developed to fulfill the need for a clear strategy for a culturally conscious educational system.
When it comes to Aboriginal Education, Robinson-Settee stresses the need for getting children and youth connected to the land through their traditional practices such as hunting, fishing and trapping. The Aboriginal Education Directorate and other partners are currently working to develop a curriculum that incorporates land stewardship with Aboriginal beliefs and practices in the hopes that it can be taught in schools around Manitoba.
Robinson-Settee works with various grassroots initiatives on the part of Aboriginal organizations and individuals to incorporate traditional beliefs and practices into contemporary life. While these organizations often exist informally and under the radar, she can easily list some that have gained recognition and funding for their efforts. For example, there is the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER). One of its goals is to provide eco-friendly housing for Aboriginal communities. After a comprehensive Canada-wide study, published as the Aboriginal Housing Assessment, the centre accepted ideas and suggestions from eighteen different communities about building using local materials and alternative housing designs — an empowering reply to the controversy in many communities over available and habitable housing. Specifically in Manitoba, straw bale houses were touted as a sustainable alternative.
“The Earth is our mother, a human body, and we can tell when she’s sick. Right now it is like she has emphysema . . . If we take care of the earth our mother, she will take care of us.”
Robinson-Settee also mentions the University College of the North, a post-secondary institution based in The Pas that has received recognition from the Directorate for its efforts on education in the North. UCN is a post-secondary institution that incorporates sustainable economic development in northern communities into its mission - one of its core values in “stewardship.” UCN, through this progressive mission, plays an important role in advocating for the conservation of the boreal forest in Manitoba, something Robinson-Settee believes is indispensable.
For Robinson-Settee, working to take care of the boreal forest as part of Aboriginal empowerment initiatives is not a choice. “The Earth is our mother, a human body, and we can tell when she’s sick. Right now it is like she has emphysema. The muskeg and the moss are deteriorating.” She adds, “If you do something to nature unintentionally, it is similar to the notion of what goes around comes around. If we take care of the earth our mother, she will take care of us.”
What we do to our environment has immediate consequences not only for ourselves, but for our families and communities. Through her work in providing an empowering and comprehensive educational system for Aboriginal children and youth, as well as her efforts in other environmental initiatives, Helen Robinson-Settee makes it her priority to teach the next generation to treat the earth with respect.
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Yes! Education is the 1st step toward positive action.
May 8th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
WQW ANTHER LEADER STEPPING OUT INTO THE UNKNOWEN AND SHOUTING TO OUR PEOPLE ACROSS THE NATION.
OUR YOUTH IS OUR SURVIVAL,TEACH THEM EVERYTHING POSSIABLE!!MEEGWETCH