L: Animator Steve George working on his short film at the Aboriginal Youth Animation Project. R: A-YAP participants get a bit of downtime

For three years, the Quickdraw Animation Society (QAS) has been equipping Calgary’s youth with valuable life skills under the guise of animation. As part of their “community action through animation” mandate, QAS’s Youth Animation Project (YAP) has been assisting youth facing a variety of barriers, economic or otherwise, by hosting a 20-week animation program. Though the final aim of the program is the completion of a short animated movie shown on the big screen at the Plaza Theatre, the intangible results are many, and sometimes not so obvious.

QAS acknowledged that there were specific needs of the aboriginal community and specific community resources that weren’t being covered in the YAP program. According to executive director Julia Burns, that was their starting point. The vision for a program focusing on aboriginal youth was initiated by Keegan Starlight, a former YAP participant. Having completed the eight-week pilot project and witnessing the power of animation to enable individual and cultural expression, Keegan approached QAS with the idea of mounting an animation intervention that would address the unique needs of Aboriginal youth. Responding to Keegan’s request, QAS’s former executive director, Sharon Adams, and the former executive director of Urban Society of Aboriginal Youth (USAY), Tiffany Morning Bull, developed the pilot project, which became a fully realized program in 2008 — the Aboriginal Youth Animation Project.

Over the course of 20 weeks, A-YAP participants developed skills including learned teamwork, collaboration, planning, visualization, time management, project management and communication. Then, through the production process, participants gained fluency in a variety of computer graphics programs, along with skills that enabled a professional level of storytelling through animation. Couple that with access to a host of cultural- and life skills-related resources, and the result is what team leader Leigh George calls an absolute success.

“What we really wanted to do is explore what culture and cultural identity meant to us,” says George. “Because the one thing that I noticed with all my participants is that everyone was an artist, but they didn’t quite like the term ‘aboriginal artist.’ One thing that really impressed me was that participants truly explored themselves. That was probably the most beautiful part. Seeing participants turn internally and ask themselves why they thought and felt the way they did was really amazing.”

The decision to hold A-YAP at USAY was a big part of the program’s success, as USAY was a culturally safe environment for the participants to work in, and a space where they could flourish. According to Leanne Sicker, current executive director of USAY, choosing the program’s locations was not taken lightly.

“I think Quickdraw went about it in a perfect way in that they acknowledged the fact that they weren’t aboriginal,” she says. “They realized that they needed help from others. It really is a fantastic program, and what’s special about it is that it’s not just the animation. There’s a lot to the program that’s kind of in the background. These aboriginal youth took traditional cultural stories and made contemporary versions of them. They’re taking the traditions and stories of our past that our elders tell us, and making them relevant, hip and sorta cool. As well, because they are at-risk youth, they’re establishing all these great skills.”

Though the program focused on cultural issues affecting aboriginal youth, participant Steve George sometimes struggled with the fact that he was being asked to consciously express aboriginal culture and issues through his art. Rather than overtly expressing himself as a product of his traditional culture, he was more interested in expressing himself as a product of modern culture.

“It’s an interesting issue to me,” he admits. “This is something that I’ve noticed my whole life. The thing is, everyone wants to see native people draw feathers. The best way I can explain it is that I’m a native person. I come from a traditional background, and I am absolutely proud of where I come from. But the culture that I relate to is modern culture. It bothers me that I’m expected to do something that really isn’t me. Yes, I am native. I’m proud of that. I actually introduce myself with ‘Hi, I’m Steve George. I’m an Ojibway from Kettle Point, Ontario.’ The fact that sometimes people want to see that reference in my art does not necessarily express who I am — but the program allowed me to explore all aspects of that.”