WE Day celebrates youth leadership
For its haunted house food bank fundraiser at the end of the month, the Leadership Council of students at Sunchild First Nation school is using their Youtube videos to try to get television personality Ellen Degeneres and her producer Andy Lassner through the doors.
They spoke on stage at Rogers Place about their work for WE Day on Tuesday, an event that was all about inspiring kids to keep up their benevolent work.
“We’re trying to make people see that there is opportunity out there — there is hope,” said 17-year-old student Dominic Frencheater in an interview. Sunchild is about 233 km southwest of Edmonton.
For the council, leadership is about being a positive example for younger kids, and helping them build courage and confidence, including through sharing language and ceremonies, said Kitana Gladeau, 16.
“It’s like a footprint,” said Tyler Edwards, 17.
An estimated 16,000 Alberta students earned tickets to Edmonton’s first WE Day through their community work. The upbeat music-driven stadium show also featured musicians like Brett Kissel and Daya as well as athletes, poets, dancers, and inspirational people who overcame obstacles.
Anthony Johnson and James Makokis, the Indigenous, two-spirit winners of The Amazing Race Canada, spoke to the crowd about the importance of treaty rights and relationships and protecting the environment, including sacred sites.
“Youth have a real sense of what is right and what is wrong, and they can be some of the biggest ambassadors for change in this nation,” said Makokis in an interview.
The earth has finite resources, and we need to take care of it, said Johnson.
“That has nothing to do with brands, or images or houses, or any of these things. It has to do with a physical reality that is the ultimate law, and if we can’t respond to that and respect each other within those constraints, life will go away.”
And, good leadership is about being responsible to each other, Johnson said. Kids are using social media in a way that echoes the inclusive circle that Indigenous people have incorporated in their governance structures for thousands of years, he said.
“The power of that circle is that when Indigenous people make decisions, the kids are there. And the kids see and hear you. Whatever you say in front of them, it’s going to be for them, so you need to watch what you say and watch what you do. There’s no wiggle room to be deceitful or deceptive because the innocence of that child is present,” said Johnson.
In the 2018 and 2019 school year, over 965 school groups from across Alberta participated in WE Schools.