Staff with Peter Ballantyne Child and Family Services cut the ribbon for the new therapeutic centre on June 16. (Derek Craddock/paNOW Staff)

By Derek Craddock

KISTAPINAN

New facility pledges to bring identity back to children from PBCN

Jun 16, 2022 | 5:00 PM

With a raising of the flags, a victory song and a cutting of the ribbon, the Peter Ballantyne Child and Family Services Therapeutic Centre officially opened.

Members of council for Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation (PBCN) along with staff from Child and Family Services and countless other dignitaries came together Thursday morning to open the new centre on the Kistapinan Reserve just south of Prince Albert.

Before the event began, Elders and members of PBCN blessed the facility with a traditional smudging before moving to the front gates of the centre where the flags of Treaty 6 Territory and PBCN were raised. The Sturgeon Lake Iron Swing Drum group performed a flag song followed by a song of victory.

Those who spoke at the opening ceremony included PBCN Elder Ernest Cook, acting Chief Kevin Morin, Vice Chief David Pratt of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN), and board chair Ethel McDermott.

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Executive director for Peter Ballantyne Child and Family Services, Vera Sayese, spoke about the journey to get this facility built and how the Family Services started from nothing after the residential school in the area officially shut down.

“We had nothing; we had no capital funding. Today, we have 38 buildings throughout our communities.”

The centre was made possible through several partnerships, including with the provincial and federal governments.

Saskatoon-based VCM Construction helped build the centre, which includes the main facility and eight different homes, representing the eight communities within PBCN.

(Derek Craddock/paNOW Staff)

Following the speeches from dignitaries, the ribbon was cut and the staff at the new centre celebrated the birth of a project that’s been years in the making.

Sayese said the facility will house children with medical and behavioural needs. The objective of the centre though is to bring these children back to their traditional lands and customs.

“Our mandate is to protect children and to live in their communities, to have their culture, their language and traditional way of life,” she said. “We have 202 children in care, so those kids have been placed in their communities and there’s 38 that are going in this home right away.”

Sayese, who has worked with child welfare for the past 27 years, believes this home is the best thing for children from PBCN.

“My heart’s been here from the get-go. The care and compassion for those children to have the values and the guiding principles of Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation. To know themselves, to know their identity. They’ve lost their identity. The purpose of this is for them to have their identity back, to know that they’re a Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation Woodland child and to learn the traditional way of life.”

“To be able to go to the land and learn those teachings, that’s the purpose of the grounds we are at today.”

Sayese is hopeful the first group of children and families can move into the new homes starting Monday.

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derek.craddock@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @PA_Craddock