Opening session of CJI’s Third Youth for Others Advocacy Symposium
Dolores Peltier-Corkey of Kateri Native Ministry leads the smudging ceremony. Photo: T. Sison/CJI
Ottawa
The opening session began with a smudging ceremony led by Dolores Peltier-Corkey of Kateri Native Ministry, an organization that has been involved in healing and reconciliation work in Ottawa.
Peltier-Corkey explained how the act of drawing the smoke from burnt sage over one’s head, eyes, ears, mouth, heart and body cleanses and enables one to think good thoughts, see good actions, hear good things, speak good words, and show goodness.
Peltier-Corkey, who is from Wikwemkoong Unceded Territory and a member of the Deer Clan, told students that like them, she is also on the path of learning and reconciliation.
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‘Period poverty’ and other barriers to girls’ education
Students engaged in a solidarity activity where they put themselves in the shoes of poor and marginalized families in the Global South who are making hard choices about food and education for their children.
Keynote speaker Noluthando Honono spoke about the experience of South Africa, where “living below the poverty line is a standard norm,” and how providing free education is not enough because most families cannot afford the other costs associated with it, such as uniforms, school supplies, transportation, and food. If children are educated at all, preference is given to boys, who are expected to stay at home and take care of the rest of the household. Girls aren’t educated because they are expected to marry at a young age, making them more vulnerable to gender-based violence, she said.
Honono discussed “period poverty,” or how girls in the Global South often miss school and end up dropping out because they don’t have menstrual products or schools don’t have hygiene facilities. There are girls who drop out of school because it is unsafe for them to walk long distances to get to school, she added.
The Global North, which benefited from the plundering of the Global South’s resources under colonialism, must share its resources so that girls can get an education that will help them not only improve their own lives, but transform their societies and the world, she said. “The beneficiaries of colonialism need to give back to education. Colonialism funded everything that made you the powerhouse that you are,” she said.
