A woman from Prince Albert will be featured on a TV show that challenges stereotypes about Indigenous people.
Laurianne Bencharski, a former corrections officer, is on the second season of First Contact.
Season two of the show follows six non-Indigenous Canadians as they travel to Indigenous communities.
“The biggest thing that I learned from this experience is white privilege,” Bencharski said. “I did not know the actual meaning of white privilege until I was on the show. I wasn’t rich. I didn’t have it easy when I was young and that’s how I defined it. I didn’t know that actual definition.”
Season two premiers Tuesday night on the Aboriginal Peoples’ Television Network.
Episode two airs Wednesday and shows participants visiting Thunder Bay and meeting with residential school survivors in southern Ontario.
Segments of the third and final episode of the season take place in Saskatchewan which airs on Thursday.
The participants spent time with Colten Boushie’s mother, Debbie Baptiste, and elders from Red Pheasant Cree Nation.
“I’m the only one that is from Saskatchewan,” Bencharski added. “All the issues that we have here are very real and fresh to me. It was very welcoming to talk to the elders at Red Pheasant. They were very kind and we had a good discussion. It was nice.”
Eleanore Sunchild, legal counsel for the Boushie family, and Becky Sasakamoose Kuffner, a race relations co-ordinator in Saskatoon, will also be featured on season two.
“My view towards Indigenous people has changed a lot from going to all kinds of different communities,” Bencharski said. “It was the opportunity of a lifetime.”
(PHOTO: Courtesy of Randy Frykas and APTN.)