Alberta One
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
We’re kind of like at a transition program for the first year university aboriginal students. Uh, the retention rate’s really down for aboriginal students and our program brought U of L retention rates from 33% to 92. Now we-we only had, uh, we thought we’d only get 30 students; we got like 60 applicants. I’ve been busy just more or less, um, case-advising with a little extra. And the whole basis of the, um, what do you call it, the case counseling system is based on, um, aboriginal, um, upbringing. It’s nothing new. It’s old. And, uh, you know like, uh, when a, when a child walks across a ca--, an encampment and kicks a dog or throws a rock at a dog, and the first person closest to him will come and scold the child, and that’s allowed? Or give him direction, and how they scold a child by giving him a story about why they shouldn’t do, you know. And then they end up, every time they do something bad in the past a child would end up having a lot more than just getting scolded, they will get talk; they will get, uh, they will get, what do you call it a--, a great big, long lecture. And they use a lot of stories, and the basis of, uh, all our Blackfoot history’s on Scarface. It’s a long story, but it’s a story with sub-stories: the first medicine bundle, the first, uh, beaver bundle, the, uh, first medicine pipe. You know, everything extends from this one story. So what happens is, um, we-we’re basically using that concept to. . .There-there’s a transition program we heard all across Canada, eh? They’re trying to turn native students into white students so they can survive in the city. We turned it around. We’re turning Indian students into Indian students, and use those strengths to survive anywhere.