Three local women will be honoured this Saturday for their contributions to the aboriginal community.
Cpl. Jocelyne Bauman and Tamara Brown are two of 20 women set to receive an Esquao Award this Saturday at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton. The awards, which celebrate their 15th anniversary this year, recognize the achievements of aboriginal women in Alberta.
Laura Auger of St. Albert will also get an Esquao this weekend for her work teaching rites of passage and midwifery to aboriginal women. She was not available for an interview.
Aboriginal women live in a country that is hostile to their very existence, says Muriel Stanley Venne, president of the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women, the group that organizes the Esquaos. Aboriginal women are three times more likely to experience spousal violence than non-aboriginals, according to Statistics Canada, and eight times more likely to be killed by their spouses.
"This kind of recognition needs to happen so people will view our women as they should," Stanley Venne says: as people with dignity, power and grace.
The dancing soldier
Bauman, a clerk with 1 Military Police at the Edmonton Garrison and a Métis who lives in Bon Accord, says she thought someone was playing a joke on her when she found out about the award. "After I started getting phone calls and my package in the mail, I starting thinking OK, maybe it's not a joke anymore."
Bauman cites her mom, an Ojibwa from Brokenhead, Man., as a huge inspiration. "She's done a wonderful job of moving forward," she says, having cast off her rough childhood in foster care to raise a successful family. "The pain goes deep and will stay deep, but what you do with it is what makes or breaks you."
Bauman works with aboriginal families and is one of the main organizers for Aboriginal Week at the garrison. She also works with the Aboriginal Veterans Society of Alberta as a jingle dancer.
One of her proudest moments as a dancer was leading a group of 20-odd students in a performance for the Queen during Alberta's centennial celebrations. "I remember that it was just pouring and the floor was so slick," she says. "I was tickled pink to see those young people have an opportunity like that."
Bauman says she plans to keep on dancing, but will soon switch to the more sedate traditional style in deference to her age. "Along with age and experience or wisdom comes creaky bones," she jokes.
She hopes sharing her culture with youth and the public will help address the issues aboriginals face today. "Everyone said I couldn't be successful and couldn't get a decent job," she says, due in most part to her aboriginal background. "I've managed to turn around and say that I can."
The tooth lover
Brown, a St. Albert dentist who works in Morinville, says she was one of those rare kids who actually liked going to the dentist. "I just remember having good memories of going to the dentist every six months," she says, smiling. "I must have had a good dentist!"
Brown, who is Métis, says she and her two sisters were raised by a single mom. "She was very spiritual," she says of her, "and always taught us the Native ways."
Her mother came from a rough family, but turned her life around and made sure her kids had what they needed. "She's actually in my opinion the big hero here."
Brown met her first mentor through the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program when she was six and stayed with the program for most of her childhood. It was those mentors who set her on the path to university, she says. Now, she's a Big Sister herself. "I felt the need to give back and hopefully make a difference for someone else, too."
The ceremony begins May 1 at 5 p.m. For details call Corey Wells at 780-749-8195.
