Youth summit aims to change future for Sask. Indigenous youth

Alphonse Thomas is out to make a difference.

The 19-year-old from Alberta’s Enoch Cree Nation is a member of the rap group Only the Brothers that was asked to perform at a youth summit wellness program over the Family Day weekend in Saskatoon to help inspire Indigenous youth across the province.

Only the Brothers aren’t known for their chart-topping successes quite yet. The group formed last year and explores difficult topics plaguing First Nations across the country.

Suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, missing and murdered Indigenous women — nothing is off limits for the group. It performed a song about the Highway of Tears, a stretch of road between Prince George and Prince Rupert, B.C. that has become notorious after dozens of Indigenous women have gone missing over the past four decades.

Thomas knows many of the topics are difficult to bring up at first, but the members of Only the Brothers have lived these issues.

“That’s the sad fate of our people, and that’s what we want to get across,” Thomas said. “I have six people in my family that have died on that road.”

Isiah Hunter from the Samson Cree Nation in Alberta lost his closest childhood friend to suicide. His memory is Hunter’s inspiration to keep making music.

“That really affected me,” Hunter said. “I just want to say to all the youth out there that you’re not alone and we’re in this together.”

The group’s performance over the weekend wasn’t just impacting youth in the summit. Organizers and elders felt the importance of the messages of Only the Brothers.

“After our first performance, an elder came up to us and said she broke down when she heard our song about missing and murdered Indigenous women. That really made us choke up and think,” said group member Ashtyn Memnook.

“If we made one person cry, imagine what we could do with the right publicity.”

The summit was organized by Qu’Appelle Beardy’s and Okemasis Wahpeton (QBOW) Child and Family Services. The intent of the summit was to better serve the youth in the six First Nations that make up QBOW.

A five-year plan was recently established to provide more culturally focused programming and services, something that wouldn’t be possible without speaking to the youth in the organization’s own communities.

“What’s affecting them?” organizer Amber Memnook said. “We really feel we need to give them that space and that opportunity to provide voice to their issues and their concerns and address what’s affecting them.”

Memnook said roughly 250 youth from the Wahpeton Lakota Nation, Beardy’s and Okemasis Cree Nation, Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation, Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation, Piapot Cree Nation and Wood Mountain Lakota Nation attended the summit.

With child welfare rights being handed back over to Indigenous communities as Ottawa formalizes Bill C-92, Memnook said prevention and cultural programs are taking a “new turn.”

“How are we going to prevent these children that are at risk of coming into this system? How are we going to keep families together? Getting the input from the young people, that was very important to us to fulfil those goals,” Memnook said.

Aside from input discussions, a variety of keynote speakers were selected to inspire youth before a banquet, fashion show and concert capped off the weekend summit.

It seems the crowd gathered heard the message loud and clear.

Thomas sees a path forward. He feels the horrific stories he has known growing up will be ancient history, and that he doesn’t share the same fate his grandfather or father faced.

“It’s really heartwarming, because it has never been like that for our people. It has always been drug abuse, alcoholics, just people not thriving for a future and I’m seeing a future in our people’s lives now,” Thomas said.

Memnook never knows what the reception is going to be like entering a summit, but was overwhelmed with the engagement and response from young people.

“That’s one of our main focuses, to ensure that these next generations that are coming — they don’t have to face those same trials and tribulations that even somebody in my generation faced,” Memnook said.

“There is a brighter future for everybody. There’s something on the horizon to look forward to. Our ancestors only wanted the best for us, and I think we’re (heading) in the right direction.”