Quick correction before we start!

In my last newsletter, I discussed facilitation and my training at AJ&Smart, and how there is still so much to learn even after getting professional training.

I tried to joke by saying, “they’re not paying me to say this,” yet I actually wrote, “they are paying me to say this.” - So, for clarity, AJ&Smart doesn’t pay me anything, and it wasn’t an ad of any sort.

Unfortunately, once I send an email, I can only edit the web version, so I wanted to clarify that.

Moving forward, I read the Indigenous Youth Roots Barometer 2024 over the weekend, and it made me want to write this edition focused on the limitation of advocates living on reserve.

I feel like a knee-jerk response I see is that we tell young Indigenous advocates to advocate through their nations (aka Rights Holders), yet people saying this don’t know how impractical that would be.

So let me break it down for y’all using some quotes from young Indigenous advocates.

The above quote shows that this young advocate is limited by their geography; they lack employment opportunities and have poor internet connection in their community.

They will struggle to make money from lack of employment and miss out on opportunities to move into higher-paid work from lack of experience.

Poor internet connection will limit any remote work, I don’t know about you all, but strong internet is the expectation, in my opinion. No one wants a meeting where we can only hear every third word.

So we have a young advocate engaging in online circles, but they can’t find employment in their community, so they end up leaving to live in a city like Vancouver.

They arrive in Vancouver, get employment, build skills and start making money. Great, but they want to see their community grow and be reconciled; that’s why they were in the online circle in the first place.

So they engage the Vancouver Municipal Government about their advocacy items and informed that they take a “distinctions-based” approach meaning they only serve First Nations, Metis, and Inuit communities.

Our young advocate from a remote community once lived in a First Nations community via a reserve, but now they live in the urban setting which does not recognize them as a Rights Holder.

Moving out of their community as a necessity to pursue life opportunities removes them from the policy discussions about their home. Sounds a lot like assimilation to me. 🤔

Reservations across Canada lack the infrastructure that would encourage young leaders to stay in the community, so they tend to leave their community to pursue education and employment.

Yet once they get higher education and audiences with political leaders, they are brushed past because they do not represent a nation that the government is obliged to serve.

And that’s just the political part of it; we can’t forget that practicing culture for Indigenous people is a source of healing. It’s enjoyable and fulfilling to attend ceremonies, learn crafts, and speak one’s native language.

So now our young leader has left the community, they’ve acquired the education and are making some money, but they're missing the richness of culture they once had in their life.

Maybe they will consider moving back, but how will they manage to stay in their higher-paying job with an unstable internet connection?

What about all the relationships they’ve developed while living in the city? Should they be expected to remove themselves from the place where they started building careers?

These are all incredibly difficult decisions to make, and youth are forced to make them all the time.

Here are some of my observations: 

• Young leaders are nearly always limited by living on a reserve to connect with other young leaders - Most of the meetups happen off-reserve.

• Young leaders I meet in an urban setting often have the motivation to move back to their reserve but need something from the urban setting first, like education.

• The policy sector in B.C lacks a clear understanding of this push and pull experience young leaders are going through to leave their reserve or not.

• Urban living young leaders can feel ostracized from both communities because one tells them they're a traitor for leaving, and the other tells them they must go back before they listen to them.

Thank you for reading this edition of the Frayed Feather Newsletter. I’ll create some resources from the IYR Barometer 2024 this week and will share them with you all in the next edition.

I underestimated how challenging it would be to upkeep new reports while starting a consultancy because I spend most of my training and reading time learning about business.

Nonetheless, I recognize the importance of connecting my anecdotal experience with data, and I’m committing my next campaign on content to be more evidence-based.

Happy to have you all for the ride! 🚗