Today at my yard sale one of the former highschool students was there. She commented on how Webequie sucks and she hates it here. Immediately my colleague and I jumped on the wagon of "Don't say that. Take pride in your hometown." Realistically, a lot of things about Webequie do suck, but I believe that is because no one takes pride in their community.
Everywhere I go here, I see hats, t-shirts, and art work that says "Native Pride" yet I see very little of it. To me, taking pride in one's racial/cultural identity goes hand in hand with taking pride in your community. This means, caring about how outsiders (ie. the teachers) perceive the community and keeping the community a healthy, safe place (ie. not throwing used needles all of the ground and not going 80km/hr down a dirt road where teachers live and children and dogs play). Nearly every day new windows are smashed at the school. At least once a month someone is med-evaced for drug related issues. The youth are allowed to stay out all night long, vandalizing and huffing white out, and no one goes to look for them. There are no consequences for anything and basic laws are completely overlooked. So I do not blame the student for saying this community sucks, but instead of complaining about it to outsiders who bust their butts trying to change it, (to no avail) I wish that this community would make change for themselves from the inside.Until then, it's all just teacher talk.
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