Chief Rodney Brass gets attendees at the conference to participate in a group activity. Photo by Chelsea Laskowski
The recently elected Key First Nation chief says helping youth has been a growing cause in his life.
Rodney Brass just entered office as chief last month, and has worked as a suicide prevention and addictions worker in the past.
This week, Brass told a crowd at the Prince Albert Grand Council Residential School conference he remembers the first time he said he wanted to be a chief.
At the time, Rodney Brass was a teen, smoking weed with cousins and talking about their future. Brass said even though he had been young and addicted, he still had hope. In the past 12 years, he’s changed his life around and gotten job opportunities that led him to becoming chief.
He admits to a less than perfect past that involved addictions, and doesn’t hide that when speaking with youth.
“Every situation is sensitive but I do believe in being straight up,” he said.
Young people “can detect a fake from anywhere. They know what’s real, they know if you’re being real. I know it because I’ve been through it. I knew when people were trying to talk to me if they were real or just trying to fulfill their job.”
Brass said his suicidal, addicted, and broken past have helped him in jobs with young people.
“I knew that by experiencing it I’d be able to bring hope to their lives by sharing what I’ve been through. I’m hoping to impact their lives not just by words but to go deeper and actually mentor them, help them, and just follow up.”
Making sure you keep in touch instead of spending a short time with young people is key, he said.
He said his past job as a suicide prevention worker with Cowessess put him in contact with youth five times a week. His job was to give them hope and take them on outings to “just show them that there’s’ things out there to do that are entertaining and bring joy to our lives other than addictions and the peer pressures out there that have negative impact.”
Now, Brass’s message is to forgive those who hurt you in order to achieve your dreams.
He wants young people to know that they still have value, and with recent suicides he wants people to stand up and speak out.
He is already being asked to visit La Ronge to speak to its young people as well.