Positive Role Models:
While interviewing CHR’s and seniors
across Canada for the
“Spirit in Motion” project, it was refreshing to meet
seniors who
lead healthy, active lives and to hear stories about seniors whose
healthy lifestyle can have a positive influence on others. The
following accounts are inspirational and just a few of the many
that exist in First Nations communities today:
The Older Man in Kangiqsualujjuaq
The CHR on the remote, northern Quebec Inuit community of
Kangiqsualujjuaq, Sophie Keelan, speaks about a local
73 year-old male elder who engages in a phenomenal number
and variety of activities. His positive outlook on life becomes
apparent when he told Sophie “I always have time for anything.”
Sophie gives the following account:“He walks all of the time
around
the community. He’s a member of the Education Parents’
Committee and attends community activities on special
occasions. He goes to watch hockey games at the arena.
He does arts and crafts, carries water and hauls wood. He
does light and heavy housekeeping, shops for groceries,
picks berries and medicines, snowshoes, baby-sits, canoes,
hunts, fishes and traps, shovels snow and washes clothes by hand!
He attends Church, ceremonies and cultural activities. He reads
in
Inuktitut syllabic and is trying to preserve the language with
the
young people. He watches television and when he wants to,
he plays bingo. He attends community meetings, is a storyteller
and shares his wisdom with the younger generation.”
The Seniors Group in Listuguj
Patricia Gray is the CHR in Listuguj and president of the
Elders Club in this Mi’maq community located in the
Gaspesie region of Quebec. Working in these two
capacities has given her a keen insight on how group
activities are beneficial to the social well being of seniors.
She talks about some of these activities:
“ First of all, we have our own hall that was donated by
the
community. We are registered with the Federation of Golden
Age Clubs of Eastern Quebec, so we are officially recognized
as a seniors club. We hold regular activities: every Wednesday
is bingo and a light lunch and on Thursday’s, we have card
games.
We do our own fundraising and one way we do this is to make and
sell our own arts and crafts. Some members swim and use the gym
in Campbellton every day. (Campbellton is a city located a stone’s
throw away across the Restigouche River and connected to Listuguj
by a bridge). Club members also get together to do volunteer work
in the community. For example, some of the things we do are cook
meals for community feasts, visit the sick and in winter, we knit
and
donate mittens for the school children. We have one lady who is
going to teach writing in the Mi’maq language and some of
our
members will be taking this culture course with her and plan to
go into the schools to teach the children what they learned. On
the spiritual side, we have members who go into sweatlodges,
attend women’s wellness fairs, and some go to the annual
religious pilgrimage to Ste. Anne de Beaupre. These are
just some of the activities our club is involved in. Our seniors
are
very, very busy and I think it’s the joy of doing things
together that
keeps them going.”
Vera and her Guest House
Ahousaht is a reserve of 800 Nuu-chah-nulth people,
the only village on Flores Island off the west coast of central
Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Accessible only by float
plane or boat, it is surrounded by ancient forest, blanketed
in lofty trees and yields an abundance in wildlife and salmon.
It attracts visitors from around the world, offering pleasures
such as hikes along one of many nature trails, whale watching,
fishing for salmon and generally sightseeing amid some of
the most spectacular scenery in the world.
In Ahousaht, 61 year old Vera Little is a mother of two
daughters and grandmother to three young grandsons.
She owns and operates Vera’s Guest House, a 10-room “bed
and
breakfast” that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. In addition
to being
its proprietor, she also owns and operates a catering business
AND teaches Home Economics in high school on a full time
basis! When she gets a break in teaching, she dashes home
to help her daughter Liz, who is manager of the guest house.
Her second daughter is away attending university but when she
is home during the summer months, she works with her sister
in this family-run business. Amazingly, Vera effectively balances
all three careers and this may be by virtue of their common link:
food.
In an interview with Vera, she provides a glimpse into how she
interweaves family and tradition into her businesses while at
the
same time, promotes healthy eating with her clientele:
“I try to serve nutritious foods and always serve vegetables,
even
though some people here still believe that since vegetables were
not part of their traditional diet that they should not be eating
them.
I was brought up to eat vegetables and know that it is important
to
your diet to eat a balanced meal.
The guest house is known for its seafood buffet and some people
come here just for that. Some of the foods I serve are bannock,
herring rolls, salmon jerky and smoked fish. I have a smoke house
where Liz and I smoke fish, something that I learned from my parents.
I explain the foods to the customers. Not everybody is into seafood,
so I serve meats such as beef and chicken. As for the catering
business, we serve at meetings and functions not only locally,
but in other communities too. All of what I do is hard work,
but that’s what I believe in.”
