Nicola Valley Leaders of Tomorrow Keynote

Nicola Valley Leaders of Tomorrow Conference

Acknowledge the land, ancestors, and Elders of the land.

I’d like to thank:

The youth

without all of you, this conference would not be possible! This community is here because of you, they are interested in what you have to say, and they hope that you bring the teachings you learned here with you where ever you go. It’s like when you smudge with sweet grass or sage, when you’re done you bring the medicine with you on your clothes and in your hair, really it becomes a part of who you are.

To all of the organizers of this conference

haawa’a for all your time, time is well spent when investing in youth. Your time ensures we have the best resources available to us to make the next right choice. Your interest in these youth show them that you care about their well-being, and that’s all a youth really ever needs, to know they are supported through all their right and wrong decisions by the people they love.

To all the Elders of the Nicola Valley

You are truly the most valuable resource to us young people, the knowledge and wisdom you carry does transfer to us like electricity through a wire, even when we don’t think it is. I’ve witnessed young people caught up in gangs, drugs, and alcohol, but as I struggle with getting my baby, and her stroller through a doorway, a lot of times it is they who hold the door for me. I picture an Elder somewhere teaching a child about respect only for that child to become lost in street life. But that teaching remains. Haawa’a.

To the people of the Nicola Valley Nations

Haawa’a to all of you for ensuring that the youth of your community have an understanding of the adversity they will face on their journey. Hawaa’a for arming them with the tools they will need to overcome those adversities. Hawaa’a for  making sure that your young people are made to feel valued, and cared for.

The Speech

My name is Damian Leo Mathias Abrahams. My first name comes from a little boy in New York who sung my mother a song and read her a poem he’d written earlier that day. My tsiini Leo is where I got my first middle name. He’s an old Irish fisherman who, at close to 90 years old, is still fiercely independent. Mathias Abrahams and his wife Leila were my best friends in the whole world when I was growing up. They were my great grand parents. They were my naani and tsiini.

I tell you all this because this is who I am; I am my family. Everything they did caused me to be standing here in front of all of you today. My naani and tsiini worked hard so the children, I was not the only one, around them would live comfortably. When times were hard they made great sacrifices to make sure the kids would eat. One time my naani choose a bag of oranges over a pack of cigarettes so her grandchildren could have something nutritious to eat. She never bought another pack after that. As I look at the cursor blinking steadily on my computer screen, I wonder why I’m telling you about my great-grand parents.

Family are the most important people in your life, they are your support, they have been charged with the responsibility to protect you, nurture you, laugh with you, cry with you, be with you no matter what. There was a time when my family, aside from my naani and tsiini, didn’t do this for me. I was betrayed and abandoned by a family that was in the next room guzzling the next bottle of booze. My family was the worst kind: They were drunken indians. We tried to be normal, we moved to an uppity neighborhood in Port Moody where the other kids would tease me, calling me “stupid little Indian”. The other kids often asked me if my family and I were from India and why we came to Canada.

In my silence I wondered what they meant by that. I was born in Vancouver in 1981, shortly after that we moved to Haida Gwaii. At the age of two, my alcoholic mother lost me to the BC government. My experiences in the foster system weren’t as bad as some of the stories I’ve heard. I wasn’t beaten or molested. Religion, though, was pushed on me. I was told that I would burn in fire and brimstone just for being me.  As I hopped from one foster home to the next, I started feeling rejected. I didn’t know why my mom wasn’t there for me, and I wondered if she ever would. None of my foster parents showed me any sort of affection and I had no emotional bonds with anyone. The times that I was with my mom, she was still drinking. When I was 16 I went to my last foster home. It was there that I turned to drugs and alcohol through the influence of my foster brother Andrew.

When they say that marijuana is the gateway drug, I’m pretty sure it’s true. When I turned 18 I was a grown-up in the eyes of the government, free to make my own choices. Weed turned to acid, acid turned to shrooms, shrooms turned to exstacy, exstacy turned to coke, coke turned to crack, and crack turned to Crystal Meth.

My journey on Crystal Meth was terrible. It brought me to the streets begging for money, it brought me to the streets to find a place to rest my head. My whole world was consumed by Meth. I spent my time either doing a hit, or getting the next hit ready, hours turned to minutes, minutes turned to seconds. 5 years I was on meth, it only felt like 5 months. All of the sudden I was in Edmonton, 144 pounds, lost and confused.

I came to Edmonton to start my life anew. I started helping out at sweatlodges, pipe ceremonies, I started dancing the Sundance. I went from street culture to the our culture and it helped me feel good about myself, I felt included when I walked into the arbour at the Sundance and someone made room for me to sit. I felt the power of the ceremony at the end when all the dancers came together for the first time since the ceremony began and for the first time in my life I was overwhelmed by the positive rather than the negative.

TELL THE STORY FROM YOUR FIRST NIGHT’S DREAM

From that first experience of our culture, I knew that was the road I wanted to travel. I began to explore Cree culture and Haida culture. I learned a lot from my gaagi, my uncle, Frank. I learned Haida songs with him 15 years ago with my skaan, my Aunty Roberta. We all huddled around a tape deck listening to one of our relatives sing. We’d play 10 or so seconds of a song, pause it, sing it ourselves, and rewind it to make sure we got the words right. I was so happy that my gaagi and I were singing Haida songs again because while on meth not one verse passed through my lips.

As I explored my people’s songs and dances, I slowly learned who I was. I wasn’t that stupid little Indian from India anymore. I am Haida, I am strong, I am smart, I am handsome! I learned through the performances that my gaagi and I did that I have a voice that people will listen to. My culture is also who I am.

I learned a lot from listening to the Elders at the Sundance, and I carry those teachings with me wherever I go. One of the most important teachings they gave me was about the Buffalo. They told me that in the old days, the Buffalo would provide their community with absolutely everything it needed. The meat would feed everyone, the bones gave them the tools they needed to survive, the hide clothed and sheltered them, and even the skull would give them ceremony. The Buffalo was very important to them. The Elders told me that today, my Buffalo is Education. Education will feed me. Education will give me the tools I need to live. Education will clothe me and shelter me. Education will strengthen me, my family, and my community.

So I went to school, graduated high school, and enrolled in university and am now 3 credits away from my first degree. That will be something that no one can take away from me, it represents my hard work over the past four years, it represents the hard work of our ancestors ensuring that education is a part of the agreements with the government. My education is also who I am.

TALK ABOUT KHAILA AND ALL HER LESSONS!

CONCLUSION

You might have noticed that all I really talked about today is my failures and my accomplishments. I use my story not be high on myself, but it’s really the only way I know how to show people that any adversity can be over come. I stopped trying to prevent failure and worked on failing better because I recognized that failure is bound to happen and that if I learn from failure it’s not really a failure at all. Because of that ability people began seeing me as a leader, I always moved forward with my life.

In March 2009 I was recognized on a provincial level by the Alberta Aboriginal Youth Achievement Awards and in July of the same year I was selected to be a part of the Lead Your Way! National Aboriginal Role Model Program where I travel to communities to give talks about drugs, education, and the Haida culture. As a National Aboriginal Role Model, I’ve been honored to witness what being an Aboriginal youth means. In all the communities I’ve been to, I often wondered why they needed to request a role model because they have so many youth that are doing amazing things for their community already, just as I’ve seen here today. From all the experiences I had during my travels, I concluded that youth aren’t the leaders of tomorrow, we are the leaders of today!

HAAWA’A!