Small graduating class marks Natuashish milestone

When Shekau Piwas graduated from high school Thursday, the simple act marked a significant milestone for her entire community on Labrador's rugged north coast.

The Grade 12 student and a fellow classmate became the first students to graduate since the community was relocated in late 2002 from Davis Inlet, a bleak, ramshackle village once described as having the highest suicide rate in Canada.

In the early 1990s, video images of children in Davis Inlet sniffing gasoline from plastic bags and screaming they wanted to die were beamed around the world, producing an international embarrassment for the Canadian government.

The ugly event prompted Ottawa to promise the Innu they would be resettled.

A decade later, Piwas was among the 680 Innu who left behind Davis's deplorable, sub-standard housing to make new lives in new built homes about 15 kilometres away in Natuashish.

The $152-million federal relocation project was aimed at healing deep wounds caused by decades of widespread substance abuse and domestic violence amid Third World living conditions.

On Thursday, the small graduating class was a tangible sign of hope for a community that has seen more than its share of hardship and grief.

"I wanted to go and do some other things with my life," Piwas said when asked why she stayed in school when so may others had dropped out. "I'm thinking about going to university and doing a bachelor of education."

That's music to the ears of John Nui, a deputy chief with the town's band council who has his sights fixed on the long term.

The band is hoping that if more students get a post-secondary education, the community may one day be able to run the school and have more Innu teachers.

"We're very excited," Nui said. "I just hope this trend continues so we can pursue our own goals."

Earlier in the week, when Piwas and classmate Desiree Andrew tried on their graduation robes, younger students looked on in admiration.

"They've never seen that before," said their teacher, Brad Jones. "Then they were saying 'Oh, I can't wait for my graduation.'

"Maybe there's an incentive there now that wasn't there in the past, because they know what they get at the end of the road."

First graduates in a dozen years

It's been 12 years since an Innu student in northern Labrador has graduated from high school and the resettlement hasn't been a panacea for the problems facing the Innu.

Piwas, 20, said most of her friends dropped out because of what she described as "the problems … alcohol and stuff and drugs."

"I just ignored it and I just did my work with my parents and I just did what they say."

There are other signs that the fresh start afforded by a new town is having an positive impact.

At the local school, kindergarten enrolment has nearly doubled from last year, and Nui said there's been a surge in enrolment for adult education classes since the relocation.

Bruce Vey, Labrador's director of education, said he believes the relocation has renewed the community's drive to get ahead.

"There's more of a sense of pride, a sense of wanting to do well and recognizing the need for education," he said. "After all, every parent wants the best for their child."