Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to start today with a quote: “Education is the greatest weapon. With education you are the white man’s equal, without education you are his victim and so shall remain all of your lives. Study, learn, help one another always. Remember there is only poverty and misery in idleness and dreams - but in work there is self-respect and independence.” So said Chief Plenty Coups.
I have in front of me, as I speak, a picture of a proud friend and ally of the white people. He understood the future and he spoke passionately about it. He had the best interests of his people at heart.
In the past, aboriginal people either had to learn the ways of the land and hunted and trapped or you went hungry. Today, for the past couple of decades, we go to school. Education is vital for our aboriginal today; indeed, all people. Education is the way we take ownership of our destiny.
We learn how to use the old weapons, to keep them clean, respect them and use them, all for the survival of our families, and we didn’t fool with them. So we must take the same serious action and conviction in our educational institutions today. They are our modern weapons. We need to use them well for the survival of our families in the modern world. It has often been said the pen is mightier than the sword. That is so true. We need to keep our pens sharp and learn how to use them well.
Remember that education has always been a big part of the aboriginal way of life. In the olden days the education was one-on-one with our parents and elders, and our university was a live-in university on the land. That is why our elders are so wise and knowledgeable. Then we got sent to residential schools. So many of our people suffered there and continue to suffer today. However, we know that healing is possible and that it is no surprise that aboriginal people are the fastest nation of people to adapt to circumstances around them.
We need to cherish and support our educational institutions and the process of getting an education in both classrooms and on our land. When we say education is the future, I wonder if we not only talk the talk but actually walk the walk and agree that this is so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
