Scholar overcomes setback
Smith's Landing band manager Lorraine MacDonald on her educational journey after quitting Grade 7
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Lorraine MacDonald quit school in Grade 7 when she was just 14 years old but that didn't keep her from academic achievement.
Lorraine MacDonald is the band manager with Smith's Landing First Nation. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo
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Now in her early 60s, MacDonald - the band manager of Smith's Landing First Nation (SLFN) - can look back at an amazing journey as an adult learner. It has seen her earn college diplomas and two university degrees, and taken her halfway to a master's degree.
"It's important that you pick up the pieces and just continue on," she said of getting educated as an adult.
MacDonald said it was unfortunate she quit school, noting that's not what she wanted to do, but she had to leave because of personal circumstances.
Now, she often shares her story with others who may also have quit school and put themselves down because of that.
"It was a long road, but you can't give up," she said, adding people just have to start with adult upgrading.
That upgrading gave her confidence, and led to additional education and a successful and varied career, including 13 years with the GNWT - in administration and economic development, as an arts and crafts officer, and as a manager of corporate services - and the past two-and-a-half years as band manager with SLFN.
MacDonald noted that, when she quit school as a teenager, she went to work.
"So I was a dishwasher right 'til I was 18," she recalled.
However, she got tired of that.
"I thought, 'I don't want to do this the rest of my life,' and I made a change," she said.
In the early 1970s, MacDonald went to the Adult Vocational Training Centre - the forerunner of today's Aurora College.
She earned a general equivalency diploma, got married afterward and stayed at home for six years with her children.
She then completed a secretarial arts course (and worked in that field for a while) and later returned to college for a diploma in public and business administration.
"I never gave up. I had to keep going. It didn't matter if things were tough in my position," said MacDonald, who also noted she became a single mom after being married for 10 years.
After earning the diploma in public and business administration, she worked as band manager for a year-and-a-half with the former Fitz-Smith Native Band in the mid-1980s.
"That was something I always dreamt about," she said of becoming band manager.
Even though she enjoyed the job, it didn't have the security, including a pension, that she needed as a single mom.
So she went to work for the GNWT.
But that was not the end of MacDonald's educational pursuits.
She earned a bachelor of indian social work, and a bachelor of arts majoring in indigenous studies, from the First Nations University of Canada in Saskatoon
In between, she worked for Service Canada.
After earning her second degree, she also attended the University of Saskatchewan because she had heard some people say the First Nations University of Canada offered a watered-down education.
"And I didn't feel good about that. So I thought, 'Well, I'm going to the University of Saskatchewan,'" she said, explaining she wanted to compare the two universities.
She discovered the criticism of the First Nations University of Canada was not true, noting her marks were just as good at the University of Saskatchewan.
"It's what you put into it," she said.
That personal educational experiment got MacDonald halfway to a master's degree in native studies.
"That's a project that I'm going to complete one of these days, even if I'm older," she said, noting she has one year left to earn that degree.
She credits her determination to the inspiration of her father and mother to follow her dreams and never give up, and to work hard.
The 62-year-old MacDonald enjoys her job as band manager, and has a vested interest as a member of SLFN in seeing the band grow.
"I've got so much passion in my job," she said. "This is the first job I can say I truly enjoy."
The majority of the approximately 340 band members live in Fort Smith, while about 40-50 live on reserve land just south of the NWT/Alberta border. Some others reside in the South.
MacDonald herself lives in Fort Smith, where she was born and raised.
She noted she went to university in her late 40s and finished her degrees in her 50s, and some people thought it was a waste of time because she was older.
"But at that age I didn't find it was a waste of time," she said, noting she thinks it's also important for older people to become more educated and set a good example for young people. "That's why I want to finish my master's degree. It's for the youth."
