Dr. Emily J. Faries has been selected as a recipient of the 1998 National Aboriginal Achievement Awards. This award is the Aboriginal community’s highest honour bestowed upon its achievers. Fifteen Aboriginal people have been chosen from across Canada for their success, commitment to their people and their high level of achievement. The official ceremony will be aired on March 26 on CBC television.
Dr. Emily Faries was born and raised in Moose Factory. She received her secondary education (grade 13) in Ottawa and North Bay, and proceeded on to university at Laurentian in 1972 where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology in 1975. Immediately following her first bachelor degree, she completed the Bachelor of Education program at Nipissing University in North Bay.
Dr. Faries returned to her home community where she worked as a teacher for several years and later worked as a school principal. She attained her Master of Education degree from the University of Toronto in 1984, and since that time has worked as an education consultant/advisor to various Aboriginal groups across Canada. Dr. Faries completed her last degree, Doctor of Education, at the University of Toronto in 1981.
She is currently a professor at Laurentian University in Sudbury and at the same time continues tobe involved in First Nations community-based work which promotes the development and
enhancement of First Nations in the area of education. Dr. Faries also works with the Cree School Board in the area of curriculum development. She is also an advocate and spokesperson for the Moose Cree Veterans of World War II in their outstanding land claim with the federal government.
Dr. Faries is truly a “James Bay Cree.” She is the daughter of Beatrice Faries (nee: Trapper), who is originally from Quebec, and late Edward Faries Sr., originally from Fort Albany. She was raised in Moose Factory and is married to Mr. Bill Constant, a Cree from Manitoba. They maintain their home in Moose Factory.
Ed. Note: The Nation congratulates Dr. Faries and Chief Abel Bosum of Ouje-Bougoumou for being honoured by National Aboriginal Achievement Awards this year. Chief Bosum was recognized as a community developer and chief of the community that received the United Nation’s Award for Human Settlements, Best Practices Designation.
Among the other winners: singer Buffy Sainte-Marie; Inuit leader John Amagoalik, one of thearchitects of Nunavut; Joe and Josephine Crowshoe, the last living Elders of the Peigan Nation;Georges Erasmus, former head of the Assembly of First Nations; NHL idol Bryan Trottier; andDr. Cornelia Wieman, the first female Aboriginal psychiatrist.
