Less than six months after it was first announced this spring, a program to train Indigenous pilots from Northern Manitoba close to home celebrated its first 11 graduates on Sept. 26.
Days before Canada’s second National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Atik Mason Indigenous Pilot Pathway program presented plaques, wings and epaulettes to its first cohort of northern flight school students, all of whom completed their first solo flights in the skies above Thompson since classes began in June.
“They took an airplane up in the sky on their own,” said Robin Jacuzzi, director of aviation program for Exchange Income Corporation, which counts Calm Air and Perimeter Aviation among its airline businesses.”What I’ve learned about these members of this program is that they are tenacious, they are smart, they are passionate and they’re ready to take on the skies and the aviation industry in a big way.”
Trained by instructors from MFC Training in New Brunswick, the first Pathway program class included students from Cross Lake, St. Theresa Point, Moose Lake. Wasagamack and Opaskwayak Cree Nation, among others.
Their achievements were lauded by the program’s namesake, himself a pilot from St. Theresa Point who got his licence at age 35 and became the first-ever Indigenous pilot from one of the First Nations Perimeter serves to work for them. Mason said that they were mimicking his path in more ways than one, as they would inspire others to follow their aviation dreams as he had inspired them.
“They are doing it as I have done it before,” he said, “and as others will do when they come and follow in their footsteps.”
Bringing flight instruction to Northern Manitoba removed barriers such as cost and isolation that might otherwise have prevented the 11 graduates from achieving their dreams of learning to fly, said MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee, who counted one of his own relatives among the first group to complete the program.
EIC says it will continue to work with each of the 11 students to help them further their aviation careers.
