Friends, according to the Dalai Lama, our communal font of wisdom, there are three different types of faith.

The first of these comes in the form of admiration that you have towards a particular person or of a state of being. I have always been drawn to people like the boxing great Muhammad Ali, who took his sport to undreamed of heights and whom, by taking a non-violent stance, elevated his personal beliefs to universal ones.

I have found that when you start to be regarded as a role model for your people it causes a lot of jealousy, mainly among your own people. It has been likened to a pail of crabs. When one tries to crawl out the rest find ways of latching on to drag the leader back. This also happens to our youth, who get involved with drugs and alcohol, many times simply because that is what everyone else is doing.

The second form that faith comes in is aspiration. Most times, the desire to do as someone else does or has done.

Three years ago I was simply very tired of just painting every day, having done so for so many years that it became a chore. When I saw that Alestine Andre from Tsiigehtchic had earned a master's degree I thought to myself that this would be the perfect way to inspire our youth.

Now this has given my life a new direction, which will hopefully result in a major work on the residential schools and its effect on our people.

As for today's world, so many times we simply tell our children to do things and end up living our lives in a different way by drinking or gambling.

Young people are not blind and can often see right through us without our knowing so.

The third and last way of this faith the Dalai Lama speaks of is one of conviction, born of belief. We often mistake this to have something to do with religion blindly follow what we are told is good for us. This has resulted in the residential schools which actually started by an act of Parliament, in the late-1800s.

A form of conviction does not necessarily have to do with any book like the Bible, for instance, but can be taught by example.

The word of God in the person of Jesus came at a time when the poor and helpless simply did not have a say in the way they could live, but could be inspired to believe in themselves. Of course no faith comes without a sacrifice and Jesus paid with his life to inspire the world.

When I see Europe's mighty churches, most of which took several hundreds of years to build I am reminded of what faith itself can do. Many were designed by brilliant artists and built by hundreds of ordinary people.

And, again, too, the words of a simple monk like the Dalai Lama, which shows us all of clearly what compassion, love of our fellow man can do.

Mahsi cho, Thank you.