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Elsie Basque, nee Charles, was born to Margaret Labrador and Joe Charles at Hectanooga, Digby County, on May 12, 1916. She was the first Mi’kmaq to earn a teacher's certificate from the Provincial Normal College in Truro. Photo: November 1999
Click on the Link to read a Halifax Herald column I wrote honouring Elsie: October 6, 1995 Quoted from a Halifax Herald Story - December 31, 2009 Four Nova Scotians join Order of Canada
Named a member of the Order of Canada on Wednesday was Elsie Charles Basque of Saulnierville.
“I was very, very surprised," Mrs. Charles Basque, 93, said in an interview. “I still can’t believe it."
Mrs. Charles Basque was honoured for her pioneering contributions as an educator and for her voluntary work on behalf of seniors and aboriginal people in Nova Scotia and the United States.
In 1937, she became the first native person in Nova Scotia to earn a teaching certificate. She taught in one-room schools in Cape Breton, Indian Brook and other locations in Nova Scotia, and in Boston after moving there in the 1970s. She also became an advocate for issues affecting the elderly in the American Indian community.
Mrs. Charles Basque wrote a report on those challenges in 1974 and it was sent as a position paper to the U.S. Senate.
While she appreciates the honour of being named to the Order of Canada, she said her greatest satisfaction came from her students.
She recounted a 1993 reunion of students she had taught in Indian Brook between 1939 and 1947. Many had gone on to university and professional careers.
“They came back to say thank you," Mrs. Charles Basque said. “It’s the greatest gift a teacher could ask for."
http://www.danielnpaul.com/Col/1995/ElsieBasque-MicmacPioneer.html