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The students and staff at Eel Ground School from New Brunswick will be sharing their award winning play and song during a national video conference that is scheduled to take place on May 30 starting at 12 noon CDT. Check out their web site at http://firstnationhelp.com/fasd/ for registration information.

Two sessions are being planned, one for students and an evening session for community members.

Listen to the children from Eel Ground First Nation describe their experience of researching, posting and performing their play about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) during a CBC Maritime Noon radio interview

7:30 minute CBC radio interview of the Grade 7 and 8 children involved in the production and performance of the play about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) entitled "The People vs Mary Moses" PLUS the playing of the song "An Ounce of Love" ... posted at ...

http://knet.ca/documents/CBC-interview-Eel-Ground-Play-and-Song.wav 

Their song - An Ounce of Love will be a special highlight of the presentation can be heard at http://knet.ca/Song-An-Ounce-Of-Love.mp3 (7Mb). The words to this important message can be seen below ...

AN OUNCE OF LOVE

Lyrics by Peter MacDonald and The FAS Project students at Eel Ground School
Music and Additional Lyrics by Peggy Ward
copyright 2006

Hey Mom before you have that ice cold drink
I need you to stop ~ stop and think
Think about what you want me to be
And what the world in nine months will see

I long to grow up and be beautiful as you
This poison will hurt us you know it’s true
I want you to love me ~ not have to cry
The drink is calling but so am I

CHORUS
An ounce of LOVE is all that it takes
For us to share a life that never shatters and breaks
For nine months the only SPIRIT I’ll see
Is the love that flows from you to me
Please let it be ~ oh ~ let it be please

If today you drink ~ when tomorrow comes
You might feel better but the damage is done
And it can’t be undone ~ I can’t sleep it off
I can’t rub it off ~ I can’t wear it off

Look into your future see what will come
Your decision now will be set in stone
And I’ll carry that stone with me every day
Please Momma don’t throw my life away

CHORUS

I know you want to see ‘kindergarten me’
Rhyming all of my ABC’s
Growing through all of the years to be
Solid ~ strong ~ steady as an oak tree

If only you could hear what’s in my mind
I know you want to love me and be kind
And even if nobody’s there for you
Be there for yourself ~ be there for me t

CHORUS

++++++++++++++

Dreams Do Come True

A message to the students of Eel Ground about their work from Della Maguire, http://www.firstnationhealing.ca/

I would never have thought that when I started working in the field of Fetal Alcohol in 1993, what I considered at that time a gloom and doom journey, that it would be a journey that continues to pleasantly reward me. I had never heard of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in 1993 when I had just started out in the Addiction Field. I cannot describe the devastating feeling I got while attending a workshop on FAS/FAE and learned about the damage that alcohol can do to the unborn baby. Personally I just wanted to learn more, but I think the creator had another plan. Then I met Francis Perry. After Francis got diagnosed and started to learn about himself, we became a team for he was willing to share his life story about what it means to live with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in hopes that it could help save one baby from a most difficult life.

I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart, to you, the drama students of Eel Ground First Nation, staff, and volunteers for your passion and dedication that I have seen in the production of The People vs Mary Moses. As a team you have captured the essences of a real life story that will fill the hearts of many, not only in our First Nation Communities, but in the general public as well. The play is powerful yet you have presented it with sensitivity and you also have incorporated the great gift of humor that Francis is famous for. You have been able to reproduce a story that will be an enormous educational tool that will save many from a life of much difficulty and will be appreciated by many for years.

You are young ambassadors of Eel Ground First Nation and I am so very proud to have met you all. You are all role models to youth of every First Nation and to all other nations as well. I know this is only the beginning for you. Keep up the great work; you seem to do it with such ease. The journey that I thought of as gloom and doom turned into something beautiful and precious. The creator had plans for me that I did not realize would be so satisfying and rewarding and you certainly are a huge part of that. So congratulations on all the awards that you received for the production of The People vs Mary Moses you certainly deserve it and may there be more and more to come. So dreams do come true, for you have made it possible for my dream of educating all First Nation communities about the harm alcohol can do prenatally to the unborn baby. Thank you so much and may the creator always guide you all, listen to your heart and much greatness will come your way. 

Wela’lioq 

Della Maguire Executive Director,
Mi’kmaq First Nation Healing Society.

adapted from KORI news at http://research.knet.ca ...

A Maori academic is eager to share best practices and lessons learned from New Zealand regarding promoting adult literacy. "We’re not here to tell anyone how to do anything. We’re hear to share with Canadian First Nation and Metis communities what our communities have created to combat illiteracy," said Dr. Rongo Wetere, a professor and former CEO of New Zealand’s first Maori-controlled and operated university.

He was speaking during an on-line video conference linking six First Nations communities in Ontario’s far north on May 3 that was hosted by the Fort William First Nation KIHS classroom and coordinated by KORI. Earlier, Dr. Wetere  had a tour of the KO Research Institute to see some of the services available there.

"In New Zealand, our communities have adapted and have harnessed technology to transform the lessons learned from Cuba and Finland in teaching people to read and write."

Dr. Wetere and his team have developed a 34-week multi-media program that provides people with all of the academic tools they need for employment, college or university work.

"This approach works because it does not depend on teachers and classrooms." Rather, it focuses on families who work together in their homes with the help of a full-time community facilitator who is paid to work with all of the people enrolled in the program.

Dr. Rongo Wetere’s discussion was entitled, “Literacy Alternatives for All: the Pathway Out - The New Zealand experience.”  The core of the literacy method is based on a Cuban model where post secondary education is mandatory and free for all people to the first level.  This method has been adapted to the Maori culture and circumstance. Dr. Wetere is working with British Columbia Aboriginal peoples and is seeking First Nations partners to work with Northwestern Ontario First Nations to adapt the literacy method to the Canadian Aboriginal experience.

"Anyone can participate in the program but its really a gift from the Maori to the rest of society."

Click here to see the archived video conference of Dr. Wetere’s presentation.

Click here to see the pictures of Dr. Wetere's and Marcia Krawll's visit