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We know we have considerable challenges in the area of human resource development. To meet the challenge of the future we must be certain that we have the skills and the education to be the entrepreneurs, the professionals in the areas of forest management, mining, tourism, business development, accountants, lawyers, doctors, nurses, and all the other professions required to maintain a nation.
And this is where the current youth come into the picture. If the vision which I have described has a chance of being realized it will be because of what our youth as individuals do, the choices you make about your own futures, and your personal commitment to make a contribution to the future of the Cree Nation. If we do not begin to seize the opportunity, if our youth do not see the opportunities for the future, then the opportunity will be lost.
And if that opportunity is lost then the Cree Nation will be relegated to an insignificant enclave of communities whose people occupy their time with a combination of traditional pursuits and narrowly defined local community development consisting of some minimal housing construction and a small range of educational and social services. The noble and ambitious vision of Cree Nation-building will have been a passing dream. But this scenario can be avoided by the determination of our people, and particularly our youth, to see a different outcome.
Our Cree Nation, with all of our institutions, programs and services, have oriented themselves to ensuring that our youth be supported in every possible way so they gain the skills and education required for us to take the next steps in nation-building. We need you and we are with you.
I also call upon all of us who are parents to participate in the building of our Nation. I ask that you encourage and support your children in their educations so that they can fulfill their personal dreams while at the same time making a contribution to the betterment of our communities. This encouragement can take many forms, but please let them know that it is alright to dream big dreams, it is alright to imagine better communities and it is alright for them to become involved in whatever way it is meaningful for them to be involved in the life of the communities. Help them to understand the changes which our society is going through and let them know that the world we are creating for them is full of opportunities for their personal fulfillment and growth. And let them know that we all need them to be the best they can be. And when we talk to our children let us be careful about the words we use. We should not tell them that we are victims, but rather, let us with optimism tell them that we are responsible determiners of our own history and that they are part of this new era of responsibility.
If we all resolve to do our share to bring about our common vision, then our future will be positive, exciting and inspiring. We will live up to the challenge and we will become the major economic, social and political force in northern Quebec. We will become the major developers of resources, the major tourism centers, the major commercial entrepreneurs. We will be represented by Crees at all levels of government—local, provincial and federal. We will maintain our own institutions for the delivery of a full range of educational, health and social services. We will have our own form of democratic government which provides a full range of services to address the needs of our people. In short, we will become a thriving, healthy and dynamic indigenous nation.
Let us now then, together, resolve to put the past behind us—a difficult past of colonial oppression, attempts at genocide, threats to our rights, a great deal of individual and collective hurt—and let us, as our ancestors taught us, orient the entrances of our tents in the direction of the rising sun and in the direction of the optimism which comes with a new day.
Opportunities are only as good as our willingness and our capacity to take advantage of them. We cannot lose this opportunity to be the very best that we can be. We cannot afford the kind of negativity which paralyzes us and which prevents us from moving forward. We cannot afford to miss the opportunity to advance the cause of our own people, and the cause of other indigenous peoples in Canada and around the world.
We need to have the courage to permit our higher instincts to determine our future, not our lower ones. Instead of dwelling in a place of negativity and looking for what is imperfect, let us believe that we are now in a position to build the kind of life for the future generations of our Cree people which other native groups can only dream of. Let our optimism, our faith, and our inherited wisdom guide us in a noble challenge to build a genuine, a proud and a healthy Cree Nation, for the sake of our children, our children’s children and for indigenous peoples everywhere.
Meegwetch.
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