Snagging and suicide were among the topics in comedian Don Burnstick’s motivational speech on the reservation last Wednesday.
“I’ve learned how to use humour as bait, eh? I use it as bait to bring in a lot of people and to share,” Burnstick said.
“(Morley) is such a beautiful community and really good people, we just got to focus on our young people more.”
The Alberta-born comedian was invited to speak at the second annual Education conference at Morley Community School.
The conference was an open house invitation for families in the community to visit the elementary and primary school for meet and greets, community booths, a stew and bannock lunch, and presentations with keynote speakers including Canadian actress Michelle Thrush, and Burnstick.
“We had a great turnout today, I think it really helped having successful First Nation adults speaking,” said Cherith Mark, organizer.
For the two hours Burnstick took the stage, he used his comedy to touch on serious issues on reservations, including teen pregnancy, addiction, dropout rates, unhealthy relationships, abuse and suicide.
“We need to stop hitting our women … not all men are like this but many are,” Burnstick told the audience.
“And girls, you need to stop being so jealous … it really says something about your relationship if you are still giving your boyfriends hickies in your 30s.”
The comedian drew a circle on a whiteboard, discussing the crucial age when youth are between 11 and 17 years old and “trying to grow up too fast. Burnstick shared his own personal story of growing up in a home with alcoholism and abuse, and how he became an alcoholic and drug addict by the time he was a teenager.
After a homeless stint in Edmonton in the 80s, Burnstick finally sought treatment and said he has been sober for 32 years now.
“I look at young people here and see lawyers and doctors and success but it is all about choices, don’t be in such a hurry to grow up,” Burnstick said.
The comedian ended on light note, as he thanked the crowd again and (jokingly) said hi to his “ex-girlfriends” and thanked the Stoney men for taking care “of all my kids.”
“In my closing statements I said it was the parents responsibility for the kids education and I meant it. A lot of parents put it on the schools and the teachers but it is not, you have your kids for the other 16 hours of the day,” Burnstick said after the presentation.
“We are losing our young people and we aren’t losing them to death but we are losing them to teen pregnancy, drop outs, substance abuse – if we just focus on our kids, get them to school then we won’t lose so many.”
After a full day of events, the Education Conference ended with a Bingo in the school atrium.
“Today was about sharing food and knowledge and moving forward this is good to see,” said Wes Malo, principal of Morley Community School.
