Walking in two worlds

When Alice Sabourin, an Ojibwe woman of Pic River First Nation, first set off at the age of 22 to attend university in 1984, she had a vague idea of who she wanted to be like.
“Bev Sabourin – my cousin. She’s a very professional, educated, well-established and reputable person,” Sabourin said of her mentor. She knew that if she followed in her cousin Bev’s footsteps, she would someday reach the same caliber.
Sabourin did not originally plan on enrolling into university. “Nobody in my childhood, not even my parents or anyone in high school said ‘go to university!’” she recalled. Sabourin explained that when she was younger, university wasn’t part of what was encouraged or discussed in her family.
“It took only a couple of people, these older women who said ‘you are very smart. Go to university.” Sabourin tried to brush off the older women’s goading by saying she would go next year, but they wouldn’t have that. “No, go now!” the ladies told her. Sabourin laughed as she explained that she sheepishly agreed to.
“And that’s all it took, was someone to say ‘you’re smart,’” Sabourin said. She completed four years of university and now holds a position at Lakehead University teaching Aboriginal Education to fourth-year classes.
Sabourin is a survivor. Her life wasn’t always easy; parts of her childhood were marred by experiences with family violence and she dealt with her fair share of racism. Racism often came from both sides of the fence she was seemingly sat on – Sabourin is a “half-breed.” It was a term she used to feel anxious about being called, especially when she returned to the Thunder Bay area.
“But the elders just embraced me,” Sabourin said. “They kept saying ‘you’re Alice Sabourin,” she explained, which was her mother’s maiden name. Her last name was Rives. “That’s why I have that name now, because it made me feel so proud,” Sabourin said of her family’s name.
Besides teaching at the university, Sabourin is a designer and an artist, and has held many events in relation to both positions. Her most recent program was in 2010 called the Remember Me Project, in honour of the missing and murdered Aboriginal Women.
In August, Sabourin will be putting on a poetry-performance at St.Paul’s United Church in commemoration of the residential school survivors, and is also preparing for a fashion show. “What Am I Made Of” will showcase dresses made out of organic material and recycled leather.
Sabourin likes to include young Aboriginal women in her fashion shows.
“They love it!” Sabourin said of the girls about the fashion shows. “Our Aboriginal women don’t often get to be on front and center stage. It always gives me the biggest joy when we get to say ‘these are our women, our beautiful girls.’”
Sabourin also works with young Aboriginal women in correctional settings. She believes that the connections she makes with the youth go beyond the confines of the correctional facility’s walls. Sabourin will encounter young people who still remember her from years ago in either said correctional facilities or in education.
“They always ask me, ‘do you remember me?’ and I say, ‘yes I remember you,’” Sabourin said. She is proud of the Aboriginal youth she has met and worked with, and can see similarities in all of them.
Sabourin voiced the two factors she feels are important when it comes to Aboriginal student’s success in education.
“Mentors – when you have really strong role models, people you can look up to who are ahead of you then it is easier,” Sabourin said.
Family is the other important factor to Sabourin when it comes to being successful in education. She has seen families migrate to the city together. “So that’s a way of ensuring success in education. You don’t go alone, it’s too stressful. You bring people with you.”
Sabourin praises the work that is done at the local all-native school Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School (DFC). Sabourin refers to the principal and vice-principal of the school, Jonathan Kakegamic and Sharon Angeconeb as “the dynamic duo.”
“They’re just there (available), they created a community with the staff and the students,” Sabourin said. She explained that the job the staff does doesn’t stop once the school day is over. “The doors are always open.”
Sabourin knows there are worries in educated Aboriginal people about how they are supposed to function as professionals in the outside world and as Anishinaabe people in their own world.
“It takes a really strong person to walk in two worlds,” she said, which is a statement that really stands out in regards to Sabourin and her life.