By Angela Hill

Walking for the future

Jun 10, 2011 | 6:47 AM

STURGEON LAKE — A group of youth is tired of waiting for their future to get better and are taking matters into their own hands.

After watching more people use injections drugs, alcoholism and the HIV rate increase, the youth on Sturgeon Lake First Nation got together to fight for their future.

They were the driving force behind an awareness walk that wound it’s through the community, Thursday.

“When this came up, we jumped at the opportunity,” said Edward Daniels, who lead the procession from horseback.

“It shows that we care for (the youth) … shows that there are other ideas besides drugs, alcohol … death and incarceration.”

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For Darcie Laliberte, 16, it was about getting more of her classmate involved.

“To see more students come out and participate in things like this … not all of the students go to school. They are drinking and doing drugs,” she said.

The walk started with three busloads of kids and their teachers, support workers, elders and staff from the health clinic.

As they walked from the general store and through the villages, more people joined them.

“The youth are really concerned about the addictions in Sturgeon Lake and the rise that we’ve seen in the last five years,” said Shirley Bighead, director of health on the First Nation.

“The youth felt that we needed to do something to raise awareness here, that we needed to walk in the villages. The villages are where we see a high concentration of drug use, intravenous drug use.

They wanted to walk through there and let the community members know that they’re opposed to this, that they want it stopped in our community.”

The walk is just the beginning of many positive steps, including the youth talking to leadership about making Sturgeon Lake a dry reserve — drug and alcohol free.

Elders are throwing their support behind the youth.

“They’ve worked how many years to build our community, and it’s … destroying them to see what’s happening to our community,” Bighead said.

“They are there for us all the time and they’re all involved. You see some of they are having a difficult time walking, but they’re there, they’re there to support us all the time.”

One of the elders, Mary Rose Naytowhow, an addictions counsellor, said she is happy to see the youth speaking up because there are difficulties communicating in the community. The youth are making a difference, she said.

“And I saw the message is really coming across to the whole community and I’m really proud that it’s our students that came up with the idea to initiate the walk.”

ahill@panow.com