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“I would smudge lots at home with my dad in the morning, especially if I’m feeling stressed. Or if my buddies were having a really hard time I’d tell them just to come to my house and we could smudge and just talk about the things that are happening in their life.”

Robert Doucette, interim executive director with the Indian and Métis Friendship Centre, said students like Shingoose are breaking cycles of trauma left behind by previous efforts to strip Indigenous youth of their culture, including the residential school system and the Sixties Scoop.

“When you have a combination of traditional knowledge and a higher education, you see an individual that is strong in self-concept. And you also see that families are stronger, and they are in a position to help each other out,” he said.

Doucette said this year’s event at TCU Place was the most well-attended in its 35-year history, with 220 graduates and hundreds more family members and loved ones. An even bigger group is expected next year, which has him feeling positive about the future.

“How do we as partners — and I say partners — move forward, and build a stronger community? And there’s only one way to do that, and that’s to know who you are and to get an education.”

Official graduation numbers aren’t yet available for the 2018-19 school year, but Deputy Minister of Education Rob Currie said the number of Indigenous, Métis and Inuit high school graduates in Saskatchewan has risen from 1,550 in 2009 to 2,446 in 2018, an increase of 58 per cent.

Currie noted that only 44.5 per cent of First Nations, Métis and Inuit students in Saskatchewan complete high school within three years, while 59.4 per cent get their diplomas within five years.

“We’re pleased with that progress over the last 10 years. We know we have a ways to go, but we are trending in the correct direction,” he said.

The latest figures from the Ministry of Education show 86.5 per cent of non-Indigenous students graduate high school in three years, and 91.1 per cent graduate within five years.