by Carl BR Johnson
May 28, 2013
Photo by Carl BR Johnson — Theresa Gladue at the Northern Lights College. She won the Women of the North Aboriginal Woman of Distinction Award in 2013.
Theresa Gladue is as self-effacing as a person could be. This Dawson Creek woman’s journey from the baby that was left at a hospital to the recipient of the Aboriginal Woman of Distinction award is a monumental trek that few would have the bones to attempt.
And even fewer would actually achieve.
“When I was younger all I wanted to be was a bum,” she says with boisterous laughter.
But things were not always so joyful for her.
Gladue was born in Grande Prairie and grew up with her grandparents, and then she was moved to the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation Reserve near Valleyview.
Alcohol and drug abuse were common problems that plagued her people while living there and she said she still fights to steal herself away from the memory.
Those years of confusion continued until she was 12 when her grandfather moved with her to Dawson Creek to be closer to the rest of the family.
With no one to guide her schooling she “got into a lot of mischief” going back and forth from Dawson Creek to the reserve, and did not attend any formal educational institutions for many years.
“I was just going back and forth to the rez (the Cree Nation Reserve),” she says.
Her first measure of employment came in Fox Creek at a Husky restaurant as a dishwasher when a manager took pity on her, because she had never received any formal training of any kind nor did she have any previous job experience.
Her work life took on a myriad of working-class jobs including dishwasher, waitress, barmaid and chambermaid.
“I had such a nomadic existence,” she said.
This nomadic existence continued for many years, simply working to live, when one day she found herself back in Dawson Creek where her choice of profession graduated into playwright.
The play, entitled The Cab Ride Home, which she wrote on her own, played at the Kiwanis Performing Arts Centre on April 29, 2006.
Two years later, her life took off in a dramatic series of directions.
She was hired to the position of Aboriginal Education Coordinator at the Northern Lights College in September 2008 after demonstrating her leadership in her community.
This is a job she thoroughly enjoys as she teaches the Cree language and drop-in drumming.
She also takes students to sweat lodges – a Cree, spirituality-based ritual where, “you go to pray and to be purified.”
She also organizes “pipe teachings” where band elders come to offer peace-pipe instruction and an arts and crafts class where her students manufacture “dream-catchers, talking sticks and medicine wheels.”
And only two months later after starting her job at the college, her legacy as a City Councillor would also begin.
“I didn’t want to become a City Councillor at first,” she says.
“But one day I went to see the wall at City Hall where all the past City Councillors’ pictures were and all of a sudden, I felt the presence of my great grandfather beside me.”
At that moment she felt strongly compelled by the memory of her great grandfather to apply to be a Dawson Creek City Councillor.
“As I looked at all those pictures, I thought that one day, my picture will be up there too.”
After her desire became galvanized, she started campaigning for the job and eventually was voted in as Dawson Creek’s first aboriginal City Councillor in November 2008.
“I was overwhelmed to be chosen.
“But it was a full time job and I was getting worn out and I didn’t have any free time.”
She continued in the position for three years, while still working at the college.
“I just wanted to take back my life – I just had no free time.”
Winning the Aboriginal Woman of Distinction award has been, “the greatest honour I have ever received.”
The elders in her aboriginal band nominated her for the prestigious award and she collected it this year at the Civic Centre in Prince George – the identities of her nominators are still unknown to her.
“When they phoned me they told me I was nominated for three categories: Community Enrichment, Aboriginal Woman of Distinction, and Influence and Impact Woman of the Year.”
The award she cared about the most was the one she is now most known for – the Aboriginal Woman of Distinction.
She has so far won seven awards from various organizations since 2008, all for her tireless community involvement.
Her immediate concerns are to stay sober, which she has been for 19 years now and to continue living in Dawson Creek and enjoy the respect she has earned in great abundance in this community.
“I’ve always felt that my life was guided by a greater force, whatever comes to me, I will accept.”
Cheap kamagra online allows a customer to choose from a wide range of factors. viagra tablets online Mast Mood oil: best tadalafil This unique herbal massage oil is prepared with number of potent and pure natural herbs. The dosages are suggested by the professional as per the need of the patients like 50 mg, 100 mg, and viagra pill for woman 200 mg. Rather than having an essential oil candle containing only single oils, it may be best to use blends of oils specifically created to treat a condition. purchase generic cialis
© Copyright 2016 Alaska Highway News