A young woman from Snuneymuxw First Nation was featured in a recent issue of Maclean’s magazine in an article titled ‘The surprising optimism of Aboriginal teens’.

Nadine Good was one of hundreds of youth from all cultures across Canada who was surveyed as part of Project Teen 2008. The survey discovered that 84 per cent of on-reserve youth expect to get the job they want while 79 per cent said they would be more comfortable financially than their parents.
Here is part of one of the six articles about the survey that Maclean’s published:
Nadine Good is aware of how much better her upbringing was from that of her parents. After all, she belongs to the first generation of native Canadians who didn’t attend Indian Residential Schools.
Her parents, on the other hand, “were taken at a young age; they didn’t get the love, the protection and guidance,” says the 19-year-old, who lives in the Snuneymuxw First Nation near Nanaimo, B.C. The effects of the institutional abuse may linger, but the fact that Nadine didn’t experience it directly goes a long way in explaining why she’s so optimistic about her future.
“Since I was in Grade 7, I knew I wanted to be a lawyer,” she says. “That’s how I’m going to make a difference for First Nations people.”
Nadine’s surprisingly positive outlook isn’t unique among aboriginal youth. Data from Project Teen 2008 – which, for the first time ever, offers comprehensive insight into the experiences, values and aspirations of this group – shows that an overwhelming majority envision a bright future for themselves.

Of aboriginal teenagers living on a reserve, 89 per cent believe that anyone who works hard can rise to the top, significantly higher than the national average. Likewise, 84 per cent of on-reserve youth expect to get the job they want, and 79 per cent predict they’ll be more comfortable financially than their parents.
The results, says James Penner, associate director of Project Teen Canada 2008, “blow stereotypes in one’s own mind at the vibrancy, resilience and optimism of aboriginal youth.”
To read the full series of articles, go to:
www2.macleans.ca/2009/04/10/generation-tame/