Angelique Merasty Levac has done it again, achieved great things out of her faith in God, when the Individual Achievement Award was awarded by the B.C. Achievement Foundation, Jan. 27, 2009, at the Pan-Pacific Hotel in Vancouver, B.C..
"I flew up there and they paid all my expenses. Me and (my sister) Marie went. She was my helper and we flew inthere and they booked us at the PanPacific Hotel. It was themost beautiful place I ever stayed. I felt like a princess," she laughs.
Then she said, "We took a taxi to Value Village in East Hastings to spend three or four hours there on our first day. We walked all of East Hastings. I wanted to see where all the street people hang out. We went shopping in there and oh how our feet were sore. I was shopping for a skirt, and I got a nice like top to go with it.
"It was really sad," however, "My heart went out to people. It was really sad to see all the street people. It's like George Street in Prince George but a larger size. Seeing our own people living the life in the street was hard. We just prayed for them. I told my sister, 'Marie these are our own people.' You wanted to help. I wanted to give money to everybody. My sister kept saying, 'We got to keep going.'"
The next evening was the banquet and ceremony. "We had salmon with a sauce with wine and my little sister got a little tickled. They said I had two minutes to deliver my speech. I really wanted to reach these people. It's not all my doing. God is doing for me. I had a standing ovation. They clapped one minute, and when I turned around to look at the Premier's helper, he said 'Turn around,' and that's when I felt like a person from a trap-line."
But "You could hear a pin-drop while story. It was part of the story that I wrote for a book that I have written called Kisemanitow Peyowhten Iskwahtem -- God Opens Doors. I had to condense it into two minutes. I wanted to share my belief in what God has done for me. It was over 400 people (and they were only expecting 300). It was the the most beautiful room with crystal hanging from the ceiling."
"I began my speech with 'Tansi,'" Angelique said, and then she told how she proceeded in Cree: "I thank my Creator for blessing me with this gift of birch bark biting. This gift has given me opportunities I never would have dreamed of."
And she continued, "And now the great honour of receiving this award. With great respect I thank my teacher Angelique Merasty. I began birch bark biting in 1980. I knew it was the Creator who directed me to this ancient art work. . . And now here I am."
Angelique said, "I got a standing ovation for that speech. I prayed to God and I said I want to praise You in my speech. It took us two days to write it. I got a lot of help from a lady who walked in to my store a week before.
"She was the Premier's speech writer, and she told me "You know what the people want to hear Angelique? They want to hear your personal story." The evening went wonderfully, but "It was really stressful for whleuntil I did my speech."
She won the award for the success of running Angelique's Native Arts for 15 years in Prince George, B.C., which she started after learning to create one-of-a-kind birch bark biting art works, a tradition of the Northern Woodland Cree women.
During the speech, she said, "I touched a lot of people. When I was standing up there and receiving the standing ovation I was smiling and my face was getting sore from smiling. The Creator said this is honouring me."
"I had to raise my hand to Him when I was coming down the stairs. I had to give him the glory. And a lady sitting at my table said, 'Oh Angelique! You made me cry.' I had people from Prince George who came up to me to thank me. I felt overwhelmed."
She added, "I didn't know how to deal with the attention so I gave God all the glory. Can you imagine? If there were some people sitting there feeling down I probably encouraged them."
Out of this engagement Angelique received an offer, "I may be going and doing speaking engagements; motivational speaking is going to be in my future. I can encourage people. The lady who suggested it said, 'Angelique, you are a walking artist."
She relishes the motivational speaking opportunity, "I have a great outlook. You can do anything with God's help."
