I'll be the first to admit it: I'd never heard of Wapikoni Mobile until I got the media advisory from the federal NDP late this afternoon that a trio of Quebec NDPs — Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, Jonathan Genest-Jourdain, Romeo Saganash — will hold a Parliament Hill press conference Thursday to press Human Resources Minister Diane Finley to restore federal funding to Wapikoni Mobile.
What is Wapikoni Mobile? Check out the Wapikoni SOS site on Facebook but, if you're not in the click-and-go frame of mind, I'll cut and paste from this call to action issued on Aug 17:
Wapikoni Mobile is a unique project, with mobile video music studios that have been travelling for seven years in isolated Quebec communities. It offers practical skills development workshops in new media technologies to First Nations youth.
These workshops, up to now mainly financed by the ministry of Human Resources and Skills Development, are intended to develop skills, competence, employability, self-esteem and cultural pride among First Nations youth.
The mobile studios have visited nineteen communities over seven years¬. More than 2000 First Nations youth have participated in Wapikoni Mobile workshops. These youth have directed 450 films that have been translated into several languages, a cultural heritage that is unique in the world. Their films have been distributed everywhere, from South America to New Caledonia, from Paris to New York. Many of the youth travel with their productions. Some participants of Wapikoni Mobile have thereby landed jobs and contract work. Others, like the performer and musician Samian, have even begun an international career. Many have found the desire to return to school and make their contribution to their community.
Samian [Wiki bio in English / his Web site en français] by the way, will also be at tomorrow's Parliament Hill press conference.
You can watch a selection of the films made through the Wapikoni Mobile initiative at the National Film Board's Web site or using the NFB iPhone/iPad apps.
But they've not been seen just there. I'll cut and paste again:
The Shanghai Pavilion broadcast films directed by First Nations youth over and over again at the Universal Exposition in 2010. The Vancouver Olympics did the same, and various Canadian embassies organize screenings in the countries they serve. In these ways, the young creators become proud ambassadors of their culture and active citizens. A great deal of work has been invested by First Nations youth to attain this status.
Now, I try my darndest to track every spending announcement our federal government makes but I've not seen anything for Wapikoni.
Some reports from July in the Montreal Gazette and elsewhere seem to indicate this project was getting $490,000 a year in federal funds (for the last several years, I believe) which represented about a half of its annual budget. Not a lot of money — but, of course, we're fighting a monster deficit, ladies and gentlemen, and belts must be tightened.
And, as the PC report from July noted, the e-mailed response from the government was pretty clear: Other projects “better meet the program's objective, that is to say: gettin young people to learn the wide range of skills and work experience needed to participate in the labor market.”
Ok but: I've travelled a fair bit in remote and northern Canadian native communities — got family on some, even — and there is not a whole heckuva lot going on there youth-opportunity-wise.
To quote from the Gazette piece written by Christopher Curtis published on July 26:
It was never Abraham Côté's dream to work as a cashier in a cigarette shop, but in the Algonquin village of Kitigan-Zibi there are only so many jobs to go around.
“There's a gas station, two stores and the band council, but beyond that there isn't that much potential for work,” he told The Gazette by phone.
“So you're kind of lucky if you can get a job.”
Curtis reports that 2,000 youth have participated in this initiative which has spurred the creation of 450 (!) films which have won 45 awards in Canada and abroad. (Most interestingly: These films present a rich visual record of Cree and Algonquin life in early 21st century northern Quebec which I'm pretty sure has a value all of its own no matter what).
I don't know what the criteria was that prompted HRSDC to cut the funding but, for only a half-a-million bucks a year, this seems to touch a lot of young people in remote communities. If you're gonna spend training money, this sounds not so bad.
And yet, though my interest is piqued: I must send my apologies in advance if I'm not in 130-S at 1030 tomorrow to learn more. I've got an Ethics committee to cover and my colleagues are similarly spread hither and thither on on a busy morning on Parliament Hill. Look forward to learning more though.