Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been said by our elders that the weapons of our warriors today will be education; that our battles will be won in schools, colleges, universities and on our land. It also has been said that we will not win our battles in the bars or in the streets or in jails. We will actually stay stuck blaming others if we stay there.
I want to say that this early childhood development theme that we are having here, I support it so much that we should be looking at helping the parents. Usually it is the single mothers that stay home with the child for the first three years and strengthen that connection with the little child to the mother. The mother does a lot when they stay home with the child. They do the house management. They do counselling. They do multi-tasking. They do everything. They even cook our meals after we come home and they do everything. Our programs should be really looking at how we support the mothers in staying home and strengthening that strong relationship so they give that child that sense of security, respect and identity, so when that child goes out, that child carries the values of education to the schools. We are caught in a busy society where the mother has to also maybe find work, through no fault of her own, because of the situation we’re in.
So the government really needs to see that the real education of a child is at home. Even as one of our Members said, before the child is born. My grandmother was in midwifery and she delivered a lot of babies in Tulita – they say over 250 babies – and each baby that she delivered she gave them a Dene name, and with that Dene name came that person’s identity and character and strength. We haven’t had that yet.
So we should be looking at some of these things that will give a future to a child of good. No matter which role they work in, they’ll be good and strong and we can be proud of them. We have really good children in the Northwest Territories, but we need to support the mother first of all. So I hope this government will look at something like that and support the early childhood development of our people. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
