First Nations Resource
Guide comes full circle

ast year, facing the stresses of an

increasingly busy office, First

Nations Services Coordinator Betsy
Bruyere went to see her healer. “In the
spirit of time management,” she reports,
“We come up with the idea of a handbook
to bring together a lot of the information
our office distributes.”

In this way, a year-long project to
compile and publish a guide for First
Nations learners, their communities and
thes who work with them was born.
Bruyere, Assistant Misty Paul and four
work study students as well as “countless
others” inside and outside the College
have now produced the Resource Guide
for First Nations Learners, the only
resource of its kind in the province. .

The guide covers specific information
on admission, registration and student

services available at Douglas College as
well as community information and
resources. There is also a section devoted
to cultural resources such as language
schools, music and the arts, and videos
and books of interest to First Nations
learners.

But the handbook section Bruyere is
most proud of is the women’s section.
“We have so many female students
returning to school here,” she says. “They
all need help of one kind or another.” At
Douglas College this year there are
approximately 163 First Nations students,
up from a total of 88 in 1995/96. The
majority are mature women re-entering
the school system after raising a family.

Another source of pride is the process
followed by the working group preparing
the guide. All aspects of the project were

Kain Kus - “Medicine Woman for Healing”

handled within the circle of the group,
from planning to decisions to problem
resolution. “In a circle there is no
hierarchy,” says Bruyere. “Everyone has
an equal voice.”

With publication of the guide, the
circle has been repeated, with resources
collected from First Nations communities
now ready vo be given back. ““We’re very,
very happy with how the guide has turned
out,” says Bruyere. “It’s an accumulation
of our spiritual growth, because education
is healing.”

The Resource Guide for First Nations
Learners is free, available to all, and
st. ald be ready at the end of September.
Check the Student Society office, Student
Services, call First Nations Services at
local 5565, or visit them in room 2202
beside the library. J

 

The cover design for the Resource Guide for First Nations Learners is from the limited edition print “Kain Kus” by Nuu
Chah Nulth artist Tim Paul. In the image, Moon watches as Owl is carried by Crow, a female figure who “makes sure
everybody is well balanced and taken care of, with hearts and minds clear and strong.” In giving permission for the
image to be used by First Nations Services at Douglas College, Paul conveyed the prayer behind the work: “That the
Owl and Grandmcther Moon would call the First Nations to healing through education.”