[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":181},["ShallowReactive",2],{"activist-section-sister-dorothy-moore-csm-practicing-social-activism":3,"activist-sister-dorothy-moore-csm":108},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"description":93,"extension":100,"meta":101,"navigation":102,"oldPath":103,"path":104,"seo":105,"stem":106,"__hash__":107},"activistSections\u002Factivists\u002Fsister-dorothy-moore-csm\u002F02.practicing-social-activism.md","Practicing Social Activism",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":92},"minimark",[9,14,18,21,24,28,34,37,40,45,48,52,57,60,63,67,70,75,78,81],[10,11,13],"h2",{"id":12},"first-nations-identity","First Nations identity",[15,16,17],"p",{},"For Sr. Dorothy, language is at the core of identity. To this day she continues to serve on a committee to promote the Mi'kmaq language, believing that the loss of indigenous languages signifies the loss of cultural identity, in Cape Breton as elsewhere.",[15,19,20],{},"Language is just one of many interrelated elements of identity that Sr. Dorothy advocates. Another core component is tradition; she related the custom at the time a death occurs and the entire community comes together to help the family prepare the home to receive the body, bring food, and conduct a vigil. After the burial, a social event called a salité is held in which community members share food and donate precious items to be auctioned off to raise money for the bereaved family.",[15,22,23],{},"Now that she is an elder herself, Sr. Dorothy has gained a deeper understanding of the traditional regard for elders as sacred people, a designation she associates with honour and great respect. Perhaps because young people do not have the same sense of sacredness for elders today, she is committed to demonstrating the power in this tradition through her interactions with other elders, women in particular, and in the way she holds respect for the men.",[10,25,27],{"id":26},"the-call-of-religion-gods-doing-not-mine","The call of religion: God's doing, not mine",[29,30,31],"blockquote",{},[15,32,33],{},"I don't know how to describe my spirituality except that I love God, and in loving God, I love everyone.",[15,35,36],{},"Describing herself as a renegade, Sr. Dorothy recalled the reaction of community when she decided to join the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Martha. In response to being asked how one who had suffered, as she had at the hands of nuns at the residential school, could choose the very call that had \"caused so much hurt and cruelty and misunderstanding of First Nations\", she said simply that she was called by God. It was a summons that came within a context of spiritual life that had sustained her during many hard times growing up. The choice to enter a religious life was \"God's doing, not mine\".",[15,38,39],{},"Being a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Martha has provided Sr. Dorothy with lifelong support for all her activist ventures and provided inspiring role models as well:",[29,41,42],{},[15,43,44],{},"They were the ones who educated me, they saw my potential and they saw my potential to be an educator myself. In Eskasoni, the Sisters worked with us, they walked with us. They were so accepting and friendly, and I wanted to be one of them.",[15,46,47],{},"Sr. Dorothy maintains that her religious life forms the core of her contributions to society. Having dealt with racism and cruelty at residential school and the pain of taunts and beatings, she found strength even then in her spiritual life. For her, it is the practices of prayer, meditation, and reading that form her spiritual identity and anchor all her actions, and she credits wisdom as a direct gift from a spiritual life that is the \"carrier of today and tomorrow\".",[10,49,51],{"id":50},"education-and-empowerment","Education and empowerment",[29,53,54],{},[15,55,56],{},"I am well versed in who I am as a First Nation person and that has carried me. That has been what has moved me to help others because I know the struggles. I've had those struggles, and I know how to overcome them and help other students to overcome them. And to keep in mind always: ‘don't go off the path in your journey, keep to your Mi'kmaw path'. I would like to leave that as a legacy in the same way as I speak of my father. I'm so grateful for the legacy he left which was the gift of my language.",[15,58,59],{},"The focus of Sr. Dorothy's activism has been educational. Her aim has always been to help others to reach their potential and encourage them to draw on their traditions and values and to be present to them when they need help. A key task here is is to maintain their inherited principles and values: \"keep in mind our culture, keep in mind our language, keep in mind our traditional ways\". She wants Mi'kmaq people to learn their language and understand their traditions to preserve their unique identity and enable them to educate others.",[15,61,62],{},"Early in her career Sr. Dorothy encountered the motto of \"sink or swim\" from Father Greg McLeod, a mentor at the University College of Cape Breton (UCCB)(Now University of Cape Breton), which she felt demonstrated his trust in her and therefore was empowering. As a result, she promotes self-reliance in others through the use of encouragement and humour. \"I see myself as someone who continues to affirm others and to encourage them never to give up on themselves. I see myself as using my sense of humour – Mi'kmaq have a wonderful sense of humour\".",[10,64,66],{"id":65},"forming-her-leadership","Forming her leadership",[15,68,69],{},"With a reputation for being charismatic, intelligent, and intuitive, Sr. Dorothy proved herself as a strong assertive leader who can argue effectively. In her own view, one of her greatest assets as a leader is her ability to speak her language. Others recognize her for being able to make a connection through language:",[29,71,72],{},[15,73,74],{},"To go to someone of my age, sometimes younger, and break out into my own language, I think that's powerful. I'll ask a little young child, Elnuisin? -- which means, \"Do you speak our language?\", and if they say, Ayay! (\"Yes\"), I am so happy. Here is our future generation keeping us alive!",[15,76,77],{},"Her vigilance on this issue was demonstrated when she sat on a committee to draft a racism policy. The language claim for French as the first language in Nova Scotia was put forward, but Sr. Dorothy maintained that Mi'kmaw was the first language. No-one representing the relevant government department would agree to her claim until she said, \"If you can't accept the true fact that we were here long before the first French vessel arrived, well then you can't accept me, and if you cannot accept me as a Mi'kmaq, then I don't have a place at this table\".",[15,79,80],{},"Respected for her spirituality and strong connection to her culture, Sr. Dorothy's wisdom has been recognized by many people, First Nation and others alike. She acknowledges the energy of being recognized as \"supportive, and keeps me going\".",[15,82,83,84,91],{},"Her self-declared motto is, \"Link to the past, focus on the future as we deal with the present\" – a motto that has guided all her actions from helping students to developing First Nations curriculum, teaching, and building a ",[85,86,90],"a",{"href":87,"rel":88},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.membertouheritagepark.com\u002F",[89],"nofollow","heritage centre",". It is a deliberate means of keeping focused, \"always being present and knowing who we are, always, always connected with the past, linking it with the present in order to prepare for the future… the word \"present\" I'm using in a different sense\".",{"title":93,"searchDepth":94,"depth":94,"links":95},"",2,[96,97,98,99],{"id":12,"depth":94,"text":13},{"id":26,"depth":94,"text":27},{"id":50,"depth":94,"text":51},{"id":65,"depth":94,"text":66},"md",{},true,"\u002Fsister-dorothy-moore-csm\u002Fpracticing-social-activism","\u002Factivists\u002Fsister-dorothy-moore-csm\u002Fpracticing-social-activism",{"title":5,"description":93},"activists\u002Fsister-dorothy-moore-csm\u002F02.practicing-social-activism","KpurYQ8b7sx571hKKXZTf7qjcqBg8mIp0ZK8PS8Y3Qs",{"id":109,"title":110,"body":111,"description":115,"extension":100,"links":147,"meta":151,"navigation":102,"oldPath":152,"path":153,"pictures":154,"portrait":161,"portraitAlt":162,"province":163,"quote":164,"sections":165,"seo":177,"stem":178,"summary":179,"__hash__":180},"activists\u002Factivists\u002Fsister-dorothy-moore-csm\u002Findex.md","Sister Dorothy Moore, CSM",{"type":7,"value":112,"toc":145},[113,116,131,134,137,140],[15,114,115],{},"The house in Sydney, Nova Scotia, where members of the Congregation of Sisters of St. Martha of Antigonish live, was a warm beacon in the damp rain of a late August morning in 2008. When Liz Burge met Sister Dorothy to conduct the interview from which this summary was derived, she was taken, teacup in hand, to a comfortable room where she settled into an inviting chair beside a window that featured a now sunny outlook. That window served as a metaphor for glimpsing the qualities needed for a life of sustained commitment, perseverance, and warmth. The conversation provided a frame for understanding such a life, as Sister Dorothy spoke with quiet confidence and an occasional twinkling of the eye.",[15,117,118,119,124,125,130],{},"Sister Dorothy Moore was born in 1933 in ",[85,120,123],{"href":121,"rel":122},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.membertou.ca\u002F",[89],"Membertou",", a Mi'kmaw community located near Sydney, Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island. In 1954 she entered the ",[85,126,129],{"href":127,"rel":128},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.themarthas.com\u002F",[89],"Sisters of St. Martha",", and made her vows in 1956. Her activist work covers an impressive span that includes First Nations preservation of language, education, and human rights. Sr. Dorothy has been widely acclaimed for her significant success in helping to improve the lives of Mi'kmaq First Nations people.",[15,132,133],{},"She began her career as an elementary school teacher in Cape Breton and for most of her 22-year tenure as a teacher, Sr. Dorothy taught at schools in Nova Scotia and Alberta. In 1980, she became the Principal of the Eskasoni Elementary and Junior High School. From 1985 to 1995, Sr. Dorothy served on the faculty at the (then) University College of Cape Breton (UCCCB) as Native Education Coordinator, Native Studies counsellor and advisor and classroom lecturer. In addition, she was appointed as Director of Mi'kmaq Services for the Nova Scotia Department of Education. Today, she continues to serve on numerous boards and committees in Nova Scotia. As an educator, Sr. Dorothy has made many presentations on racism, First Nations' education, and Native Spirituality throughout Atlantic Canada.",[15,135,136],{},"Among her many honours are the Order of Nova Scotia, Member of the Order of Canada, and honorary doctoral degrees from Mount Saint Vincent University, Cape Breton University (previously the University College of Cape Breton), and Saint Mary's University which recognized \"[her] devotion and achievements in education, her service to community, and her ongoing efforts to defend and promote the rights of First Nations' people\".",[15,138,139],{},"On October 21, 2003 when she was invested into the Order of Nova Scotia, the citation praised her seminal part in establishing a provincial Mi'kmaq language curriculum that was developed and adopted for the province. Invested into the Order of Canada as a Member on November 18, 2005, her citation states:",[29,141,142],{},[15,143,144],{},"With conviction and determination, Dorothy Moore has championed the Mi'kmaq Nation. Throughout her long career as an educator, she has created learning opportunities for Aboriginal youth and promoted the inclusion of Native history in Nova Scotia's curricula. At Cape Breton University, she was instrumental in developing the Mi'kmaq Studies Program, which helps to preserve the community's traditions by offering courses in their language, as well as on their history and on their culture. An advocate for social justice, she has also fought against racism and intolerance as a member of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission and the Aboriginal Rights Commission.",{"title":93,"searchDepth":94,"depth":94,"links":146},[],[148],{"url":149,"title":150},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.danielnpaul.com\u002FCol\u002F1996\u002FSisterDorothyMoore-HumanRightsAdvocate.html","Native Nova Scotian effective advocate in human rights struggle",{},"\u002Fcontent\u002Fsister-dorothy-moore-csm","\u002Factivists\u002Fsister-dorothy-moore-csm",[155,158],{"image":156,"caption":157},"\u002Fimages\u002Factivists\u002Fsister-dorothy-moore-csm\u002Fpicture-1.jpg","Photograph courtesy of the Secretary of the Order of Nova Scotia, N.S. Protocol Office.",{"image":159,"caption":160},"\u002Fimages\u002Factivists\u002Fsister-dorothy-moore-csm\u002Fpicture-2.jpg","Her Majesty The Queen is accompanied by Sister Dorothy Moore during the visit to the Mi'kmaq Cultural Village on the Halifax Common on June 30, 2010. Photo courtesy of Communications Nova Scotia \u002FLen Wagg.","\u002Fimages\u002Factivists\u002Fsister-dorothy-moore-csm\u002Fportrait.jpg","Portrait of Sister Dorothy Moore, CSM.","Nova Scotia","Link to the past and focus on the future as we deal with the present.",[166,169,171,174],{"slug":167,"label":168},"forming-her-activism","Forming her Activism",{"slug":170,"label":5},"practicing-social-activism",{"slug":172,"label":173},"navigating-highs-and-lows-lifetime-helping-others-learn","Navigating the Highs and Lows: A Lifetime of Helping Others Learn",{"slug":175,"label":176},"creating-change-lessons-and-advice","Creating Change: Lessons and Advice",{"title":110,"description":115},"activists\u002Fsister-dorothy-moore-csm\u002Findex","Sister Dorothy Moore's activist work covers an impressive span that includes First Nations preservation of language, education, and human rights.","uHv3AQ-dR3nAnLRYBiQzG3ICh5iOjRFV6G7yAS5QZ8s",1789062652198]