“You never leave your family. You are always connected through dreams; through knowledge and lived experience; you walk together. Laurentian and the North are my family. This is my circle, and we face the future together as familial friends that heal as a community within the circle.”
I am an Omushkego Cree woman from the North. Coming from a remote community, can present many challenges. I saw firsthand the strengths and resiliency in my community and the impact of intergenerational trauma. I wanted to help, but mostly I believe I wanted to create a healthy community for my people. Knowing I needed academic credentials, I registered in the School of Social Work (SSW) Program at Northern College and received my Social Service Work Diploma. I immediately began working in foster care and residential programs, primarily with Indigenous children and families. It didn’t take me long to recognize that my training, although well intended, didn’t allow me to do what needed to be done. I didn’t know precisely what was missing, but I knew I needed more.
Recognizing this, I applied to the English and Indigenous Social Work Programs at Laurentian University. My previous training was grounded in Western methodology and worldviews where people are seen as clients, nurturing their connection to community and culture was missing. When I arrived at Laurentian, I was unaware of the cultural differences between the two programs.
From the moment I connected with the Indigenous Social Work program, I felt like I belonged. There was no presumption that I would register in the Indigenous Program, just an authentic discussion on my aspirations and desire to serve the community. I registered for the Indigenous Social Work program that day.
My time at Laurentian influenced who I am as a practitioner and a person. The Program focuses on nurturing relationships, strengthening people holistically, and empowering them to facilitate healing in communities. These values resonated with me; I welcomed the opportunity to become part of a community that would prepare me to serve, empower, and strengthen the wellbeing of Indigenous people and the place they call home.
At Laurentian, I learned how to be well in the community and be part of a healing community. I was taught the fundamental skills of Social Work and how to be curious, kind, and view my practice from a circular perspective with no beginning and no end. I was encouraged to source traditional Indigenous knowledge and apply my learnings to my practice. Indigenous Social Work is “social work” in its purest form. Steeped in culture, tradition, and custom, it is relationship-based, at one with the elements known in Indigenous circles as the shared abundance and reciprocal respect of people, place, and planet, or in the Western World – as the social determinants of health.
Getting to a place of healing and service required me to continue my learning journey and discover ways to lead people from trauma to wellbeing. I attended University of Toronto and completed my two-year Master of Social Work (MSW) specializing in Indigenous Trauma and Resiliency. I am now completing the first year of my PhD in Social Work Ph.D. at the University of Toronto, while living in Sudbury and working in the North. My story may have been much different were it not for Laurentian University and its commitment to support an Indigenous Pillar of learning excellence.
Today, my life is busy and joyous. I am a sessional lecturer at Laurentian in the Indigenous Social Work program, a course instructor at the University of Toronto in the MSW Program I attended, a Ph.D. Social Work student, mentor, mother, grandmother, and entrepreneur. Love, respect, reciprocity, culture, and Indigenous world values have grounded my life and educational journey. My philosophy has always been to love people, all people, back into the circle, and now more than ever, as an Indigenous woman of the North – we need to wrap our supports around the Indigenous Programs at Laurentian University to strengthen the circle as we heal - together.
Human service organizations and academic institutions are especially appreciative of Laurentian graduates' knowledge base and how we are making a difference in our communities and throughout the North. Indigenous youth need access to authentic Indigenous education; it is the path that will lead to collective healing in Indigenous communities. Ensuring that Indigenous communities have access to culturally relevant social work education and the right to that education is upheld, is a responsibility for those walking the shared path to Truth and Reconciliation. As an educated Indigenous woman, I know there are incentives and professional opportunities for those willing leave the North, I remain, focused on my responsibilities to Indigenous communities in the north, and through education. Miigwetch.
