Young people at the expo. Photo by Chelsea Laskowski.
A career expo in Saskatoon is zoning in on helping young Indigenous people succeed in the workforce.
The “Future Is Yours” career expo got underway at Prairieland Park Tuesday morning, with more than 1,200 young people in attendance.
The event is hosted by Saskatoon Tribal Council and PotashCorp, with a focus on inviting Indigenous people between the ages of 16 and 29.
The six panelists in a morning session on education provided a frank look at the struggles Indigenous people face when heading into post-secondary schooling.
Panelist Dallas Fiddler of Waterhen Lake First Nation is a political science student at the University of Saskatchewan and is president of the Indigenous Student Council.
“It’s scary to leave a community, it’s scary to leave home, it’s scary to leave the Elders in a community because you’re really unsure of who’s going to be there when you return,” he said.
Fiddler is the first of his siblings to go to university.
“One of the things that inspired me to go is looking around and noticing that my people and also my community needed help.”
Education panelists Candace Wasacase-Lafferty, Dallas Fiddler, Janelle Pewapsconias, Darcy Fontaine, Creeson Agecoutay and Chantel Buffalo. Photo by Chelsea Laskowski.
Panelist Janelle Pewapsconias of Little Pine First Nation grew up in a home where domestic violence was present, and where basic things like running water didn’t exist until she was six years old. She touched on the culture shock she experienced when she went to school off “the rez” at the age of 15.
“It’s going from primarily being one of many brown people to being one of two brown people graduating from that high school,” she said.
Now Pewapsconias is in her final year as a business administration student at Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies, and is the founder of a board game company.
“But it wasn’t always so easy to get to this point, to find what I have, I think, as my purpose in life,” she said.
“Throughout my life I’ve learned that those hard times really made me who I was. So there’s this term that we hear… that means resilience, and that means you struggle and you overcome.”
Pewapsconias, the six other panelists, and keynote speaker Cadmus Delorme, who is Chief of Cowessess, said the struggles they’ve been through were formative experiences that have pushed them to succeed.
Grade 12 Oskayak student Lyndon Ernest said he expects some challenges once he graduates.
“I think one of my biggest struggles would just be time. Myself, I have a family – I have a child – and I know a lot of other students in my school do too as well so that can really affect you going forward, going into school and stuff like that. And a lot of people are really interested in going into post-secondary but are really, really held back by certain things like that,” Ernest said.
He said Oskayak has been a huge help in providing childcare while he’s in school, and in providing guidance on how to figure out what to pursue once he graduates. After that, he’s interested in taking psychology at the University of Saskatchewan.
“I always wanted to look for a career in mental health, I’ve always been fascinated by it and I’ve always wanted to help people out,” Ernest said.
Booths were set up to help guide students interested in everything from the trades to entrepreneurship.
The expo also included workshops and panels with experts in their industry.