by Smagnis, MMNN Contributor

Congratulations to all of our high school, community college, university and other graduates of higher learning. You have achieved a significant milestone but remember that your journey is one of life long learning. So..Learn today like you are going to live forever.

Take the best of the White Man`s road, pick it up and take it with you. That which is bad, leave it alone, cast it aside. Take the best of the Indian Ways – always keep them. They have been proven for thousands of years. Do not let them die! ……..Chief Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Teton-Sioux

Some of you will return to your communities and be employed there in some capacity and eventually become community leaders. Many of you will be employed by Government and private sector companies. Some of you will enter into the world of consulting for companies wanting to do business with First Nations, Metis or Inuit communities. Some of you may start your own businesses. Regardless of where you choose to work, never forget who you are and your roots as an Indigenous Person.

You are the future. The responsibilities of nurturing and protecting future generations and acting as Stewards for Mother Earth is in your hands. There is much to be done as little has been achieved since these words echoed by the late Chief Dan George in his famous 1967 Speech (A Lament for Confederation), “Oh God! Like the thunderbird of old I shall rise again out of the sea; I shall grab the instruments of the white man’s ...