Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Sep 03/99) - The recent Midway Lake Music Festival represented not only a meeting of great fiddlers, but also of two great minds -- Jonathan Sealy and Inuvik's Ruth Blake.

Sealy was one of Blake's professors at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College and had come up North from Saskatoon to visit his prized pupil. In fact, Blake completed her studies just this spring and will graduate in October -- and has already begun working with social services in Inuvik. She had only good things to say about her college of choice.

"I did a lot of research on the college before I went," she said, "and in all the courses it offers it has a First Nations perspective and many of the professors are First Nation."

Blake said that while she learned about social work, she also gained an essential grounding in aboriginal history.

"It helped me understand the treaties and the colonization process in general, which is so crucial for anyone working in the social field -- how it impacted our people," she said. "It gave me a good understanding of why our people are the way they are today, when so many people have lost their identity."

Blake described the college's approach as extremely progressive in, for example, integrating elders into the curriculum as often as possible.

Of Gwich'in and Slavey descent herself, Blake said she also appreciated coming to know First Nations people from across the country and being able to share in their cultures.

But just as the school is open to both aboriginal and non-aboriginal students, it also attracts a variety of instructors -- including Sealy, who comes from Barbados in the Caribbean. Sealy said his exotic roots are not a disadvantage in relating to his classes.

"It helps because of my own colonial experience," he said. "I haven't experienced exactly the same thing as my students, but I can relate to them in terms of poverty and colonialism."

The fact that Sealy was involved in social work in Vancouver and Yellowknife and has now taught in Saskatoon for 22 years doesn't hurt either. He said the college's social work program began in 1974 and has graduated more than 600 students.

Sealy was clearly pleased with Blake's efforts, but also said his first visit to the North in more than two decades made him realize how much work was still to be done. He said he had expected to see more aboriginal people involved in social work and in more government positions of power.

"I'm interested in Northern people taking over the departments," he said. "I understand that something has happened in those 22 years since I was here, but it hasn't happened that fast."