Gathering Our Voices 2006
Aboriginal Youth Conference
March 12-15 in Kamloops, BC
by Michele Morfit

The BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres’ 4th annual Aboriginal Youth Conference, Gathering Our Voices, was held at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC from March 12-15, 2006. 800 youth and chaperones from all over the province flew, drove and bussed into the Kamloops area to participate in a 4 day fair of workshops, entertainment, food, and fun!

Sunday’s welcoming ceremonies included a buffet dinner in the gym and performances by Dallas Arcand and Jared Sowan, followed by the Keynote address by Waneek Horn-Miller. This year’s theme was “health and justice”, which were reflected in the workshops held over the next 3 days. Participants were able to chose up to 8 different one hour workshops:

1. A Life Worth Living – solutions to and awareness of suicides.
2. Aboriginal Street Youth in Vancouver
3. Act Out of Knowledge – prevention and intervention of sexual exploitation of youth.
4. Building Esteem through Photography
5. Don’t Call Me Chief or Princess: Erasing Race and Gender Stereotypes in the Media
6. Healthy Relationships, Healthy Nations: Keeping it Real
7. Klee Chos “New Beginnings”
8. Leadership in Action through Theatre Role-Playing
9. Prison and the Aboriginal Community
10. Youth Leadership to Discuss Critical Issues
11. Sacred Medicine, The Sacred You
12. Sakatowin, We are “All” related
13. Stopping the Silence: Talking and Taking Action on First Nation Youth Suicide
and Addiction Issues
14. Theatre Motivational / Alcohol & Drug Workshop
15. Vancouver Urban Aboriginal Youth Justice Workshop
16. Building Healthy First Nation’s Communities
17. Expressing Yourself through Music
18. Bullying
19. Tobacco Reduction Strategy

In addition, three full day workshops were held. Make Sexual Health Reality (Television) provided hands-on experience for beginners in video production, while LIVE: Portable Recording Studio allowed participants to book recording studio time and create their own track! (Check out the resulting compilation here on Drumbeat!!). A career fair was also held simultaneously over the three days which featured a number of different post-secondary institutions as well as career information.

The Aboriginal Youth Alliance Forum, co-hosted by PAYC and Centre for Native Policy & Research, allowed youth to discuss how Aboriginal youth groups all over BC could work together to share resources and encourage the further development of youth voices in the community and province. There was a great turnout of youth who after playing such warm-up games as “I’ve Never” with musical chairs that had everyone racing around the room, were able to get off to a great start as far as developing an understanding of what “youth engagement” means and what direction a collective youth voice could go. Kris Corrigan and Chief Shane Gottfriedson facilitated and provided a lot of enthusiasm and motivation! It was fantastic to see some youth who at the beginning were too shy to even say there own name, but by the end were enthusiastically participating in discussion.

Monday evening’s entertainment included Hip Hop performances by Sundown Stylistics, Rapture Risin’, War Party and 7th Generation! While Tuesday evening boasted an impressive showcase of youth talent! Emceed by Grandma Susie, an excited audience was impressed by a diverse display of acting, singing, rapping, dancing and guitar picking. Some were obviously nervous as they awaited there turn, but it all seemed to melt away when they stopped on stage, the audience cheering them on!

The conference wound down Wednesday afternoon with closing ceremonies, a buffet lunch and the grand prize and career fair draws (ipods, cameras and other goodies). One lucky participant walked away with an all expense paid trip for four to Disneyland, including $500 spending money!

With a few minor glitches here and there, which always comes part and parcel to planning a conference of this size, the conference went very well, thanks to our impressive conference coordinator, Dianne Biin! Just over 300 evaluation forms were filled out to help guide the organizer for next year, most expressing their enthusiasm and appreciation for the experience as a whole.

If you would like to let us know about your experience of the conference or would like to get more information, please write to us at: drumbeat@bcaafc.com