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Jealousy, ridicule within communities prevent aboriginal youth from pursuing education, training
 Access to education and training is widely considered to be a crucial
part of improving the state of poverty in many aboriginal communities.
Canadian universities and colleges have created programs to assist
aboriginal youth with everything from transitioning into urban living
to studying aboriginal science. However, one aboriginal entrepreneur
says that it is not only access to programs that stops aboriginal
people from pursuing higher education, but their communities as well.
Devon Meekis, who started his own IT company about a decade ago,
says he encounters jealousy and ridicule from within his own community,
which can be debilitating for many young people. "We have this theory
we call the 'crab syndrome,' where if somebody is pulling themselves
out of the pail, all of the other crabs will try and bring them back
down again," said Meekis, whose business is based in Thunder Bay, Ont.
Add
to that prejudice and misconceptions from the white community, and it's
no wonder aboriginal people have a hard time breaking into the business
world, says Meekis.
That's why he's joining 24 other young aboriginals in Project
Beyshick, a mentorship initiative aiming to foster and sharpen the
business acumen of First Nations communities through an intensive,
week-long program of seminars, presentations, and workshops.
"I'm
seeing how hard it is for people like us to make it—for people who grew
up on the reserve especially," says Meekis, who named his company FLI,
which means "for little Indians. "I figured that the best way to show
somebody that they can make it is to make it yourself."
Project
Beyshick, which started Saturday with orientation sessions in
Peterborough, Ont., also gives participants from northern Ontario's
Nishnawbe Aski Nation, serious face-time with some of Canada's top
business leaders. Meekis is set to spend three days this week job
shadowing with Karen Dunk-Green, who works for TD Bank Financial Group.
"This year, I want to learn how to effectively manage people - how to
effectively be hands-off while still keeping your ideas alive," said
Meekis, 32.
Project Beyshick, which is now in it's third
annual edition, is the brainchild of Aditya Jha, a Nepal-born
businessman and philanthropist who moved to Canada from India and
started a software company called Isopia Inc. in 1999. Jha, who sold
Isopia Inc. for more than $100 million in 2001, says he was spurred to
start the project after witnessing the social problems and third-world
conditions rife within aboriginal communities.
Jha says that
getting aboriginal people more heavily involved in the business
community could be an effective alternative to the system of government
handouts that has kept aboriginals locked in a cycle of poverty.
Greg
Baas, a participant who owns and runs a fishing and hunting lodge in
the remote town of Sioux Lookout, Ont., echoes those sentiments. He
adds most aboriginal people in his community don't have the support
necessary to start businesses. "There are programs right now to help
aboriginal businesses, but it's just having the courage to try and do
it. It's not easy to run a business and not everyone wants to do it,"
he said. Baas, 32, is set to spend three days shadowing Ken Folwer, the
investment wizard who heads one of the country's top investment and
management advisory firms.
TVO CEO Lisa De Wilde, also
acting as a program mentor this year, says the program is a unique
tool. "It does something that's concrete and it delivers something to
young people that I think is unique across Canada." Last year, Wilde
mentored a 16-year-old girl from Timmins, Ont., who was exposed to an
entirely new world. "She had a real eye-opening experience. She was so
sweet. She said, 'I've never been exposed to a woman that runs an
organization.’"
-with a report from CP
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