Collection of Hope
Story and Photos by Lacey Yellowbird
A story about growing up surrounded by a community filled with drugs, alcohol, and gangs–and the struggles one community must face to pick itself back up.
Growing up in Hobbema was an enjoyable experience filled with so many fond memories. As a child, not once do I ever recall being ashamed or embarrassed of the place I called home. My dad openly spoke our language and practiced our culture. He also went to school to get an education and when he came back with two degrees, I knew that was what I wanted to do when I was older. And when it was my time to leave, I left my community being proud of where I came from and proud of the people there.
Then, a life changing event happened to my community. A young child was shot. That was the day my community was put in the spotlight for the entire world to see. As a people, we were very hurt by all the negative stories and assumptions made about us. My community, filled with caring and generous people, was labelled as evil and even as terrorists because of cowardly acts by a few kids calling themselves “gangsters”. Within such a vast short time span, changes quickly developed. I came home to a community that I did not know. Suddenly young people that I grew up with were involved with drugs and gangs. It was hard to imagine some of them, as I recall them so vivid in my memory as loving and caring kids. One question was always there: what happened? I could not answer this and it still continues to puzzle me.
The media portrayed my community and people so negatively that anyone from my community could walk into a local store and turn heads. I had never felt so unwelcome in so many places because of the community I came from.
Once a vibrant, ever changing and even exciting place to live, my community has in essence gone through some extreme growing pains of wealth, population and a stripping of national pride. So what do you do when the hope of a nation and people is almost gone? You pick up the pieces and move forward.
So here I am today, still standing strong for my community. My hope for Hobbema is to see their perseverance healed and their pride restored. When you gather peoples’ thoughts of hope most times those thoughts reflect very raw and true feelings. You know it is apparent that not all is lost.
So the question I asked my fellow community members is, “What is your hope for Hobbema?”
What is your hope for Hobbema?
- Restoration: Back to respecting one another and teach the young respect
- Pride restored. Protect our children because they are our future
- Better homes, walk around safely and to get the gangs and violence out of here
- That we are united even more. We need to focus on the preservation of our culture to support our youth in achieving their goals
- Everyone needs to deal with their anger because there is too much denial
- My hope is that we work for our younger generations
- I would like to see peace and harmony restored
- What I want for our community is Unity
- For everyone to get along and live well
