NATIVE HUMAN SERVICES
STATEMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

 "THE PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS KNOW WHAT TO DO PROVIDED THEY HAVE THE CONTEXT IN WHICH TO DO IT" (Openheimer)

 Our Philosophy has always been and still is based on harmony with all of creation
 which means also with fellow human beings.
 We take hold of the present, and make the future what we want it to be.
 Our work is to empower the people where they live, not to create another bureaucracy.
 We are and must always be Helpers to the People.
 In healing ourselves, we heal our communities and our Nations.
 The people are the experts, they will always know what to do
 provided they have the context in which to do it.
 It is the job of Native Human Services to help provide the context.
 As a people, we are taking control of our own destiny.
 That is now an imperative, it is no longer a choice.
 We will now stand at our place in the sun
 along with God's other children of the human race.
 Like all God's children we have our own destiny to accomplish
 and we will not allow strangers to interfere in its accomplishment.
 That is why there is now a Native Human Services Programme
 at Laurentian University.
 We will heal ourselves. We will heal our communities. And we will heal our Nations.
 Because we have to help heal a very sick and troubled world.
 It has been known by us for centuries that part of our work
 was to teach the strangers who came to this sacred land
 how to live in harmony with creation.

 "Kesheyanakwan" (Fast Moving Cloud)
 Elder Dr. Art Solomon, L.L.B., D.D.
(Native Human Services Field Education Manual, 1992, Laurentian University Academic Calendar 2006)