Patricia Jackson is a Youth & Family Advocate for the Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of British Columbia, and, as noted on the title (or index) page, Patricia was declared the Aboriginal Woman of Distinction by Today's Woman for the 7th Annual presentation of the northern award. She received the honours during a banquet in Prince George, at the Coast North Inn, this fall. She won this recognition from tireless work at an urgent task.
"We are supporting clients who are facing an imbalance, and we advocate correcting injustice." Patricia Jackson comes to the job with the correct set of personal experiences because, it is true she is young enough to have avoided residential school horrors (by falling outside an age demographic), but Patricia underwent her own disturbing experiences in concert with what Governor General Adrienne Clarkson (Ret.) calls systemic racism against First Nations in Canada.
Systemic racism causes people to land in precarious, severely prejudiced, government-legislated losses of human rights from which there is no escape by any means, because it is race-based.
Patricia was put into a system of foster care where she grew up in a system of policies under Bill Vanderzalm, renowned and renounced as a form of zealot as then-minister of families, and Patricia lived in one of those 'foster' homes filled with frightful encounters, in Valemount, BC.
She describes endless days filled with assault and battery, deprivation, and insane rants and dictates about the problems caused by Indian people. These actions were apparently foisted upon dozens of First Nation kids wrenched thousands of kilometres from home. She was, for example, born in Metlakatla, BC, and is a member of the Tsimshian Nation.
She said then-minister of government Vanderzalm issued specific orders for social workers to look the other way, which permitted wider and more longterm abuse. The former premier gained a reputation from a lot of bad decisions and poor judgement. This incident, according to Patricia, paints a very dark picture of his period, as a former BC government minister.
She survived to raise a family and turn to a profession that provides hope of retribution, in other words, a highly noble cause for the creation in society of behaviour that treats everybody with the same justice, where justice prevails more than here and there.
Systemic racism is usually based in inhuman absurdities, like the system in Rwanda that sparked genocide of 800,000 Tutsis because they had been favoured by Belgian colonials who specified a structure based on light skin Africans supposed to rule over dark skin Africans. It worked that way until the day the Belgians departed and the Hutus took revenge.
Systemic racism in Canada has been no less absurd, no less arbitrary, no less cruel, no less obvious, and equally as destructive as any system of racism the world has ever seen.
Canadians are fortunate to live in an evolving society that has been proving capable of bringing about change. Patricia Jackson is one of those people who is able to lead the way. She has co-workers at the Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of British Columbia www.nccabc.ca who cover the territory by following the circuit court, meeting clients and pursuing the cause of justice.
Patricia has toiled in a Quebec Street office in downtown Prince George to bring about change in one life or hopefully one family at a time, working to salve wounds suffered either by hook or by crook. She is happy to report the NCCABC offices are moving to new quarters.
She has worked at 154 Quebec Street, Prince George, in a historic property. It may well be one of the first commercial properties in Northern British Columbia, indeed, may have been a trading post. It is quaint, cramped, creaky, a false front, and they are moving.
A woman of this stature is too busy to pay attention to false fronts and antiquated notions. Patricia is building a place in society for people, and sometimes she delivers unexpected landings for kids. For instance, starting last year she worked with the business manager for the WHL Cougars, Brandi Brodsky, to build a program with businesses to put hundreds of kids in arena seats, fed, clothed, housed, and often over the moon with joy to receive an invitation to the spectacle of world class junior hockey.
Disadvantaged, at risk, handicapped, or just lucky for once, some kids might to turn a corner through heartfelt endeavours. She knows for a fact it is worth the effort. She has been mentored by others and Patricia speaks about Gloria George, a Hereditary Chief , who inspired a program to create retribution and healing in the Prince George Provincial Corrections facility. This program is presently underway dealing with residential school trauma.
"This program is entering another phase," said Patricia, "and the trauma workshops are being funded by the Anglican Church for this next round." Patricia noted, "This is the first corrections facility in Canada to offer recovery assistance to residential school survivors," and the program owes its existence, she said, to Gloria George. The United Church contributed the funding for the first phase.
Patricia points out another essential ingredient in the association's success, the NCCABC is entirely First Nation operated and staffed. "My Regional Manager is Arthur Paul, and he works out of the 50 Powell Street, Vancouver BC office. He lets me do my job to the best of my ability.
He has been responsible for making me a better employee," where she has been at NCCABC for 2 years, "and on Dec 8, 2007, will be entering my third year of employment. The NCCABC," including Darlene Shackelly, Executive Director, "has empowered us," she said "by believing and supporting us."
