Honor can be defined in several ways, which can apply to almost anyone. When a person has honor it means that they are respectful, honest, and have integrity in what they believe in. They will stick to their beliefs no matter what, even if some other person says different. Josie Augustine is from Elsipogtog, NB First Nations and I believe that she is the most honorable person that I have met in my entire life. I feel that she practices honor in her everyday life and shows it to our community and many other communities. She has taught many children to adults to elders on our culture.
Josie Augustine has taught me to give thanks and pray to the creator, plants, and animals. She has explained and taught me why we do such things and why it is so important to us. Not only has she taught me as I was growing up but she has taught people from the community. When I decided to fancy shawl dance and to jingle dress dance that was when I became closer with the creator, and she was there to guide me. When I smoke my language and mispronounced she would not judge me or laugh at me for speaking it incorrectly. Josie would simply say “it’s alright douce, try it again”.
She has travelled from Elsipogtog, New Brunswick to Potlotek, Nova Scotia to teach children at the Elementary School. She has introduced different dance styles to the children, and I had gone in one day to teach them how to fancy shawl and jingle dress dance. She has taught them to try and speak mi’kmaq, make their very own regalia’s to wear at pow wows, and also different crafts. She volunteers every other day to help teach children on our reserve and several others because she has so much belief in our culture. She will try and pass down as much to the younger generation because they are the ones that have to keep it going and pass it down to the next generation. She wants to keep our culture alive because that is who we are.
Josie Augustine and her husband Frank Augustine always host sweats on the reserve. They welcome everyone to come and pray and attend them. She encourages as many people to attend pow wows to sing and dance. She attends many conferences and gets asks to be there and teach but not always to teach she learns also at several conferences. She is high respected and a very honest person.
She is recognized by so many people from our home town reserve to many other reserves. These are some of the reasons why I believe she is an honorable person and she does it in her everyday life. She is a great community leader in so many ways; she is there for babies, teenagers, adults, and even elders. She will continue to keep teaching so we can keep passing it down from generation to generation.