Se’To Skatowin 2008: National Aboriginal Youth Health Careers Conference – Congress of Aboriginal People’s National Youth Council

by Daniel McKennitt
February 21-24, 2008 in Winnipeg, MB

I enjoyed my visit to the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples Health Careers Challenge Conference” held on February 21, 2008 – February 24, 2008 at the Winnipeg Convention Center.







Aboriginal students are severely under represented in health careers and hopefully through conferences such as this one, Aboriginal students in health care fields will increase.

The conference began with an exceptional opening ceremony including Elders representing all four directions (North, South, East, West). This was followed by opening remarks from members of government and Aboriginal organizations.

I was then asked by CBC Radio to conduct a telephone interview about the conference and the importance of these conferences for Aboriginal youth.

The afternoon consisted of a panel of health professionals discussing career choices and upbringing.

The next day, the conference again had panellists from different health professions telling their stories of choosing their careers.

The afternoon consisted of small group sessions including our own, NAHO/NARMP facilitated by Candice Lys and myself. Candice is such an amazing young women, who has travelled throughout the world.

After a brief introduction, Candice presented first on her story of travelling, school and leaving home.

I then presented on succeeding in sciences and how I learned to use my traditional cultural teachings to help me learn science.

I then went on to tell the students what I am currently doing, training to be a doctor, and why science is such an important foundation for this career.

After this, Candice and I went through the National Aboriginal Role Model Program PowerPoint, explaining what the program is, what NAHO is, the history of the program and what the role models do.

Three other role models, Catlin Tolley, Derek Sanderson and Julie Bull, were all in attendance and helped us answer questions the students had about being a role model, or life as a role model.