Aboriginals taste military life during three-week program
Melissa Atkinson
Editor
September 25, 2006
A platoon of First Nations people in the Aboriginal Entry Program pause for a photo during a field exercise. There are 57 attendees currently at Work Point getting a three-week glimpse into the Canadian Forces and a possible career.
The Canadian Forces Aboriginal Entry Program has the look and feel of basic recruit training, but without the uniform or rank, or the commitment to the Canadian Forces.
Instead of signing up and heading to St. Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, for military training, Aboriginal men and women can get “a taste” of military training before making the CF a part of their future, says CPO2 Deb Eisan, Canadian Forces Recruiting Group Staff Officer for Aboriginal Peoples.
Fifty-seven Aboriginal men and women are currently at Work Point trialing service life for three weeks.
Dressed in a black T-shirt and combat pants and boots, each candidate has the opportunity to try drill, weapons handling, rappelling and field survival, and learn about military culture and rank structure to see if they’d like a career with the Canadian Forces.
“Many people live in remote areas and this is a chance for them to get a taste of the military,” says CPO2 Eisan, who came from Halifax to run the Work Point program.
The program is a regular force recruiting initiative designed to increase the number of status, non-status, Metis and Inuit people in the military. The percentage currently hovers around 1.4 per cent, or about 1,275 CF members.
Elements of the 13-week basic recruit training course taken at Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School in St. Jean-sur-Richelieu have been condensed into the three-week program. It introduces Aboriginal candidates to some of the mental skills and physical fitness needed to meet military operational requirements.
The course is normally held once a year in St. Jean-sur-Richelieu, but a rise in basic military qualification recruits has left no room to house the Aboriginal attendees.
Work Point was the next best option.
Instructors received a special weeklong Aboriginal cultural awareness training, which Chief Eisan says gives them background into First Nations, Inuit and Metis history, and sensitivity to their culture and religion.
Aboriginal counselors were contracted to help attendees deal with issues of culture shock and homesickness. Many attendees came from small, remote villages in northern Canada, and traveling to Victoria was their first time stepping outside North of 60.
“I told the recruits the bravest thing they have done will not be rappelling down 31 feet, but stepping onto the plane and coming here. Facing the fear of the unknown and leaving their families. Aboriginal families are tight knit,” says Chief Eisan.
The attendees, with ages ranging from 17 to 50, were divided into two platoons and housed in Work Point barracks. Graduation is next Friday at the Naden Drill Deck, at which time they can choose to join the regular force. Enrolment rate at the end of the program is between 30-35 per cent.
“The military is a good, viable career choice for aboriginal peoples. I couldn’t do this job in recruiting if I didn’t see this as a good career choice for Aboriginal peoples,” she says.
CPO2 Deb Eisan is an Ojibway woman with 32 years in the navy.
“I certainly haven’t looked back with any regrets. As an Ojibway woman from Batchewana First Nations in Northern Ontario, I never dreamed of travelling to Europe, or having the chance to make a presentation to the President of Antigua.”
Regardless of whether they choose a career in the CF, aboriginal candidates on the pre-recruit training course receive a $1,200 bonus for trying the program.
