Stark differences between First Nation home and neighbouring towns sparked a lifetime of scholarship – UCalgary
Betty Bastien one of nine outstanding alumni to be celebrated at signature Alumni Weekend event Sept. 22
The setting was perfect: the hoodoos and majestic cliffs of Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park on a beautiful June day. It was the summer solstice and Faculty of Social Work professor Betty Bastien, along with honoured Elders, students and other interested participants were holding a ceremony that hadn’t been performed in the park for more than 75 years, in a location sacred to southern Alberta’s Indigenous Peoples.
During the Thunder Pipe opening to the ceremony, Bastien says something happened that made her feel her career path was the right one for her, and for her people.
“You had to have been there,” reflects Bastien. “It was a beautiful June day, clear skies, nice and warm. It was just wonderful day. Not a breeze. As we opened in the middle of the ceremony — and keep in mind it’s a thunder pipe — the thunder roared! Just roared. A little bit of rain, but then it was gone and the sun quickly dried the people who were outside. That’s one of the most memorable moments I’ve had that validates what we do. There’s many, but that’s one of them.”
