For many Indigenous children and youth in Niagara, an Indigenous friendship centre can be more than just a place to go and hang out — it can be where they first feel seen.
During National Indigenous History Month, the Niagara Regional Native Centre is celebrating that legacy, and so is director of programming Michael Buck: He grew up in its programs, started playing lacrosse there at just three years old and now helps lead the next generation, including coaching the sport himself.
The Niagara centre has served the region for more than 50 years and currently serves about 2,000 Indigenous people annually. Buck began his journey there nearly 30 years ago.
As a child at the centre, Buck played lacrosse, a sport deeply embedded within Indigenous cultures, and was in the Li’l Beavers of Ontario Program at the Niagara centre — a program he says shaped his life.
“The generosity was there to explore who you want to be,” said Buck in an interview.
“When you feel safe and you feel comfortable, then you can be confident in who you want to be,” he said. “And I think that foundation came from Li’l Beavers.”
The program gave Indigenous children and youth the opportunity to build relationships and celebrate cultural identity through group-based social, recreational and cultural activities, he said.
It was more than just a program, Buck said — it was a foundation of belonging, free from stigma.
That foundation is something he’s passionate about maintaining, he said.
“We just want to give them the confidence to navigate the spaces that they already belong to,” he said. “They just need the confidence to explore them and be themselves.”
Buck said the centre stopped offering Li’l Beavers in 1995 due to a loss of funding. Over time, more structured programs were introduced, including Akwe:go, for children aged 7 to 12 and Wasa-Nabin, for youth aged 13 to 18, offering one-on-one support and other services.
“I am excited for my child to start to be at the centre,” Buck said.
“My grandmother was a big part of the centre growing up, so we were always there. My mother, and now me, and now my child.”
The centre runs a suite of other children and youth services, Buck said, including the Indigenous Child & Youth Mental Health program, the Healthy Babies, Healthy Children program and the Healthy Living Kids program.
Programs differ from mainstream programs because of the access to Indigenous culture and tradition, “teaching folks, at the start, just to be proud of who they are and see other folks who are proud of who they are,” Buck said.
“And then eventually start to decolonize some of their own spaces,” he said. “I think that’s the core to our programming.”
He said the children and youth team also actively participates in and organizes community events, like its youth and elders conference, March break and summer camps.
The centre also works with EarlyON and Family and Children’s Services advocates to ensure wraparound support, he said.
The focus on children and youth shapes the centre’s broader offerings since it emphasizes the life cycle approach, Buck said, naturally fostering intergenerational engagement.
“There’s constant coordination and collaboration,” he said.
Buck said the youth and elders conference is designed to foster this intergenerational engagement to create ongoing relationships beyond the centre itself.
“So that when they see each other out, or they’re at another event, or they’re just at the grocery store — they can say hi and it’s a little bit more casual,” he said.
Buck left Niagara for Toronto in 2010 and later served as senior program advisor for children and youth at the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres from 2019 to 2024.
“There was a lot of folks (at the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres) that were in Li’l Beavers as well,” he said. “You can see yourself and your own success there.”
Still, his connection to Niagara never faded — a bond that played a part in bringing him back to the region and the centre, he said.
“There’s this real opportunity for four generations of people — just from my family — engaging with the centre,” said Buck.
Now back in Niagara, Buck is proud to support Indigenous children and youth, helping them find the same sense of belonging that shaped his own path.
“We all are there together, working together, ultimately for good. I think that’s what most people want when it comes to job satisfaction,” he said.
Buck said jobs can sometimes make you feel like two different people — one at work and another at home or with friends — but he’s found something different at the centre.
“At the centre, it really lets you just be one person. I don’t have to disconnect,” he said.
“I’m an Indigenous man working at an Indigenous organization in my own community. I think there’s something beautiful in that.”
