06/19/2026
President Brendan welcomed Hailey Peters and her Dad, Colin, to our club meeting on Tuesday. Gary Holt, visiting from RC Dartmouth East was also a welcome visitor.
Hailey, our guest speaker, is very active both at school and in the community. Last week she was awarded the prestigious Lt. Governor’s medal for her community engagement, academic accomplishment and exceptional leadership. Congratulations Hailey!
Hailey spoke to us about her experiences in attending last year’s HIP Y2Y (Honouring Indiginous People, Youth to Youth) event at Six Nations in Ontario. The aim of her presentation was to tell us about the group’s activities over the course of the six days. She had had an amazing week, and had made numerous friends. Among several notable experiences, she mentioned that an interesting, (if rather scary), experience had been listening to the Ghost Hunters of Grand River. (The story follows a group of Six Nations ghost hunters, as they try to gather evidence from stories, paranormal encounters, and the unexplainable!).
She gained important insights into her cultural identity and her indigenous history, and also a better appreciation of the real meaning of Truth and Reconciliation. There had been about 50 attendees, about equally split between indigenous and non-indigenous. She circulated various artifacts that she had collected at the event, including some pine tree pieces that had certain healing qualities. They had paid a visit to what was declared to be the last residential school, a visit that, for Hailey, generated a great deal of emotion and sadness. They did lots of dancing together, something she especially enjoyed. She found that dancing brought the indigenous/non-indigenous much closer and strengthened the connections in the group. It was one of the high points of the event.
Following a number of questions and discussion, Brendan thanked Hailey for her very fine talk, and wished her well in the future, adding that there were clearly important leadership roles in her future.
