Gracew's blog

Well. She’s gone, and I’m still a little sad. I remember when I first met Grace Winter. It was at a strategic planning meeting between all the newspaper staff in Sioux Lookout almost five years ago. We had gathered to discuss the future and direction of the company. She and I stood on a balcony overlooking a beautiful lake during one of the breaks. We introduced ourselves to one another. It was then she told me that she’d wanted to work at Wawatay since she was nine. At that time I thought her revelation was odd in a pleasing sort of way because

a) you don’t often find nine-year-olds who already know what they want to do in life, and
b) she never strayed from her goal.

She was quiet when I first met her. I laugh now when I think about it, because she’s not at all a quiet person. She loves to joke and laugh and is fiercely loyal to those lucky enough to call her “friend.” Her other lifelong dream, she later revealed to me, was to start up a magazine for our youth. Again, here is a girl who never strayed from her dream even though she hit one obstacle after another in her journey to get there. Needless to say, she went on to make her dream a reality. Congrats girl!

On a recent training session trip involving myself and Chris Kornacki, we ventured up to Sandy Lake First Nation during their Muddy Water Music Festival, this was their 26th festival. Which involves workshops, sports, and most importantly music. Our job going up there was to train youth who were interested in learning about photography, writing, some video editing and the SEVEN Youth Media Network overall as well as the SEVEN Youth Advisory Committee.

When I arrived at the airport in Sandy it was a cloudy day and I heard it was supposed to rain all week and weekend, it was a little cool but kept changing from cool, to somewhat muggy, a constant battle with keeping the sweatshirt on and taking it off. As I was standing on the airstrip waiting for my luggage or Cherish, there was the awkward moment of trying to figure out if one of the women standing outside the airport was Cherish or an employee for the airport. After being told I had to go inside to get my items which consisted of 3 boxes, a stand up sign, 2 cameras, my bag and laptop, I finally asked a young woman if she was Cherish and indeed she was, after laughing at our delay to ask sooner (as she was there as soon as I got off the plane,) we proceeded to load up her vehicle and head into the community.

I was to drop off my personal items, and pick up my co-worker Chris Kornacki, then head into the band office to meet the Chief and stop by Cherish's work place to pick up some items and her two summer students.

As we were waiting for the Chief, I met Willow Fiddler who I had also been corresponding with before I left Thunder Bay, and helped coordinate the training session.

On Tuesday June 9, 2009 I went to the Matawa Youth Empowerment Conference at the Nor' Wester. The theme of the conference was "What is your dream?" the three day event included: inspiring role models, speakers and various workshops encouraging youth to pursue their dreams, whatever they may be. Along with letting them know what their options were and how to achieve their dreams.

Now we have so many native/non-native organizations and options for our youth that I could understand that it could be overwhelming to decide what you would like to try. Even if you don't know what you want to do for the rest of your life.

I got lucky, I knew what I wanted to do and be when I was 9 years old (work for Wawatay, and later start a youth magazine) while others are still trying or just recently figured out what they would like to do for the rest of their careers, but this is just a normal part of life.

It was a good experience to participate at this event, because I got to see all the youth who are interested and eager to continue their education and pursue their dreams. While also letting them know about SEVEN and how they could contribute.

There was an air of enthusiasim and curiosity in the air, even if it was a field trip and they were out of the class room, they were many youth that asked me what my job was, did I like it, what did I have to take in school to get to where I am today.

My answers were easy, I am the Director of SEVEN Youth Media Network, I take care of content, getting youth to contribute, layout, and oversee the whole project, and I LOVE my job, its been my dream since I was 13 or so. I took some Graphic Design in school at Sault College in Sault Ste. Marie, ON.

So, yesterday was the second time I was on WRN, the first time I was asked to do a radio commercial, at the time I was asked I was completely OK with recording it, but the night before I had to go record it I started to freak out quietly in my head.

Kind of like that episode where Elaine Bennes from Seinfeld freaks out mentally on the subway on the way to her friends wedding when the train gets delayed in the tunnel. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyq9MMcLsv4)

Except I was telling myself I made a huge mistake, what if I somehow forgot how to read? Or I suddenly became one of those people who just stopped doing whatever it was and ran out of the studio, my throat became dry and closed up. It was official I was blowing this out of proportion.

Then telling myself it was 10 min of my life, it would be a learning experience, whats the big deal, its radio its not like going on live t.v. and messing up for the whole world to see.

Like that poor woman who forgot the national anthem (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeBrjaohiJU&feature=related) before a hockey game and kept trying to return and fell on the ice. (I admit I admire her strength or shear will to keep on trucking)

Long story short I did the commercial, it took a couple of takes but it was fine.

But this time I wasn't doing a commercial I was talking about Residential school survivors and youth and their opionions or what I have gathered from doing SEVEN over the past over 2.5 years.

I wrote everything down, that I was going to say, it sounded better on paper, then when it actually came out, I think its easier for me to speak in public in front of people. Speaking in front of people you can judge if they're bored or interested.

We had our first softball game last week. This will be my second year playing, much to my reluctance. But after some convincing from my boyfriend I decided to go ahead and do it.

But only if I absolutely had to play and the team was short a girl lol, I sound so excited to play. My thought was that I would only play if it was desperately required, but now after the first game, I would like to try to play a couple innings per game.

I love softball/baseball, I used to play when I was in elementary school but that was just in gym and at home during high school. Some of my team mates have been playing for years and are REALLY good. I am not so good LOL, to be perfectly honest and I haven't even practiced or thrown a ball since our last game which was around the end of August last summer. I can throw alright, but I still need practice, but I was hitting a lot better than last year.

The weather for our first game was beautiful, last year it was raining, cold, and some lighting just for some extra doom and gloom. If I remember correctly it was a good game, we came close too winning.

I wasn't amused though being back catcher during that game, with a huge puddle to kneel in and the occasional ball splashing water in my face. If there was ever a time I looked or felt 'beautiful' it was then. just kidding. But I still played the whole game, I guess that's all that matters.

This year we have new members on our team, it should be a good season.

Well I'll keep you posted as to the state of wins/losses for our team.

-Grace

Boozhoo

I haven't been keeping on top of my blogging as I had hoped I would, but I have recently committed to doing one, once a week. Sometimes they will be work related while others will be totally random. I don't think anyone really wants to read about my work, every single week.

Anyway the other day our power was out in the evening for a couple of hours after work around 4:45 to 8:45, and I realized how used to watching some t.v., catching up with Grace-Lin (my daughter) about her day, did she finish her homework?, making dinner and all of the other run of the mill family things.

But doing these things without power is so much harder than with the much ";beloved power";. I continually found myself walking around trying to turn lights on knowing the power wasn't working. Opening the fridge expecting the light to turn on, again knowing that it wouldn't work, but still finding myself disappointed.

While my daughter and I were reading, in the back of my mind I was thinking if I was in the bush, or outside of the city I could just build a little fire make some dinner and we would be warm, or if we had a wood stove. That is all you really need and some candles if your hell bent on seeing or doing something in the dark.

I was also surprised that we had candles, tea lights, and two of those lights bulb things you can stick up anywhere ";as seen on t.v.";, and we had batteries. That is only thanks to the xbox 360 controls, we are equipped with many batteries. So after lighting a bunch of candles, opening the curtains, arming the bathroom with the stick em up lights, and getting some food from a sandwich place by my work, we were all set.

Well, only for a couple hours.

HI. I haven't written anything here in a long time. I have been busy working with Bryan D on revamping the website, so that it is more interactive and easier to add/comment/update. I have a lot of ideas for the website and hopefully we can make them possible.

I hope more youth can send in or add to the website as we go along.Anyway this is the middle of our second year and we have made some changes such as my role now the Director of SEVEN Youth Media Network, and expanding SEVEN to the website, and soon it will involve radio.

Working with Wawatay (since I was 21) and NAN Decade for Youth over the year +, has been...how can I say this....well a dream come true. Even though I have been with WWT for a long time now which in itself is a dream come true as well because I have wanted to work with WWT since I was nine years old. Funny how one organization can change a persons life.

I was telling my BF a couple of weeks ago how 9 was a big year for me, might sound odd, maybe unbelievable but this was the first time I saw an issue of Wawatay News, had my first close encounter with suicide, another little girl who was the same age as myself. Along with my own thoughts of depression, which at the time I told no one about. Getting teased at school almost everyday for being different, and feelings of not being wanted, feeling like it didn't matter if I came or went.

We have completed the first year of SEVEN on june 30, it has been going extremely well, usually each issue has to pull at least 2 stories b/c of too much content and not enough space which is really good, this means we are getting a lot of interested youth who want to share their stories.

we also secured our first ad which is going in two issues which also ahead of schedule as far as time lines/goals go.

we also just sent out the sixth issue, and are starting the second year off.

thanks

We have just completed the 5th issue of SEVEN, we had 13 contirbutors/participants this time!  But sadly only 11 could make it in this issue which is also a good thing.  Because this means we had TOO much content instead of scrambling for content, and scrambling for anything is never good.  Our next issue is coming out in August near the end of the month.  

This summer is going so quickly it seems, busy with work, meetings about SEVEN, baseball and getting ready to take a trip at the end of the month to Sault Ste. Marie, ON.

This summer has begun with a great start alot of my friends have just had babies or are going to be having thier little bundles of joy arrive shortly!  They are all too cute.  

Then there's baseball, actually slo-pitch softball.  This year started off rocky for me and my so called "game"  I was thinking to myself "oh no here we go again, going to be one fumble after another" But about 3 or 4 games ago I actully started to catch the "crazy" throws to home from the guys in outfield.  By "crazy" I mean "man can the guys on the team throw fast, and far."  Our defence has gotten SO much better from last year as well.  I think we are going to win one soon, i can feel it, however if we don't, I'm having so much fun playing this year.

Well that's it for now.  

if anyone reads this I hope you have a safe and amazing summer

Grace

Hello, boozhoo

I’ll start with telling you a little bit about myself, so you can understand why I worked so hard to get to where I am today.

My name is Grace Winter I’m 27, Ojicree and originally from Big Trout Lake, after I was born I was adopted over to Kingfisher Lake. Where we stayed for about 3-4 years. I grew up in downtown Toronto and moved to Thunder Bay when I was 17.

After moving to Thunder Bay it hit me like a ton of bricks, something I thought I had gotten over from when I was a child, which was issues with my identity and culture. I didn’t know any “Nish” people in Toronto, all my friends were of different cultures. The more I thought about it, I noticed all my friends in Toronto were very involved in their cultures wherever they came from, China, Egypt, Israel. It seemed to me, that they could all speak their languages, knew their cultural ceremonies, history, and had a solid foundation of who they were. Or at least where they came from.

It made me wonder why I wasn’t like that. I had always wanted to have more education and knowledge of being anishnawbe. At that time I wasn't able to answer questions about my culture when asked. I am still, and will always be learning.

I look at our young people today including myself and a lot of us don’t know how to speak or understand our language. However some may know how to speak or at least understand. But now we are reviving our culture and knowledge. We are not letting it disappear, or become a story of “there was a time we used too….”