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About me

When I started my post-secondary educational journey there was nothing in the K-12 curriculum that reflected who I am as an Indigenous person. I want to see change. When I started my post-secondary studies I wanted to be the next Wab Kinew; to inspire the next generation, and bring awareness to Indigenous history. I still want to be that person, and I believe that we can amply our voices by teaching inclusivity to future students.  

In the fall of 2015 I decided to go back to school. I started taking a lot of political science and history classes, I wanted to be a politician. To bring change from within. All the classes I took were Indigenous driven, which is how I successfully achieved a certificate in Aboriginal Studies. I did this in tandem with completing my Bachelor of Arts degree at Thompson Rivers University, and now I have a recognized double concentrated studies in English and Anthropology.

I love to study literature, film, and culture.

I also love to write. Writing is a huge passion of mine, and I would love to share that passion with my students.

In my spare time I enjoy getting out on the land. It is where I feel most at home. I love to climb, and I love to disc golf. I am also an indoor plant enthusiast, and I love taking care of things. I like that plants do not show immediate successes or failures when it comes to how you care for them, you need to have faith that you are doing right by something until you see the tangible evidence of your success. I believe that to be true of children as well. They may have their moments, we all do, but despite that I believe that having faith that we are doing the right by them is an important skill to have. I also make dreamcatchers and casually bead.

I am a thankful father to a 12 year old daughter. We go on annual camping trips during the summer to Vancouver Island, and we love finding waterslide parks. I hope to take her abroad one of these days, probably to Ireland. It has been a great joy to me to help guide her through life. My biggest aspiration is to provide her with the life she deserves. As an Indigenous person I know that she will face the same challenges as I did when I was a child. I think that creating safe, inclusive spaces is the greatest asset that a school can provide for a child. That is something that I am adamant about taking forward with me in my journey.

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TRU Undergrad Conference 2020

In 2019 I submitted an essay called “Peter Pan: The Boy Who Tried To Grow Up” for the 2020 TRU Undergrad Conference. This was an important moment for me because it was one of the first times that I felt like I really excelled at something. I was proud of my work and I felt confident enough in its quality that I was willing to put it on display. I found a new passion in writing after this, and since then have wrote and shared my writing with others; including, the students in my first practicum.

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Child Care Resource & Referral Professional Development Certificate

In March 2022 I was privileged to attend a seminar hosted by keynote speaker Dr. Kevin Lamoureux. The focus of the seminar was on how to talk to children about Truth and Reconciliation. This topic is so important for us moving forward. I believe that we can start talking to our children about Reconciliation and Indigenous history early on in their lives. In fact, I think it is essential. This seminar offered ways to make this achievable. One thing I took away from this experience was emphasising the importance of family and community.

This was the second time I was able to hear from Dr. Lamoureux this year. I was also honored to hear him speak in February 2022 as apart of an sd73 professional development day. I feel like the big takeaway from that seminar was how we can implement teaching about truth and reconciliation into our practice respectfully and and appropriately.

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Bachelor of Arts Degree 2020

After enrolling at TRU in the fall of 2015 I successfully achieved a Bachelor of Arts degree with double concentrated studies. One in Anthropology, and the other in English.

This was a great honor for me in my life. I had tried to do post-secondary studies right out of high school in 2005, but with no direction I did not get too far. Being able to come back to school 10 years later with a clear direction, and to achieve a double concentrated study was more than I could have dreamed of. It showed me that with proper guidance and motivation we truly can achieve things that we may believe to be out of our reach. I did not have that kind of guidance when I was young, which is one of the reasons why I want to teach. I would love to pass this feeling of pride and gratitude onto future students. To help give them the self-confidence and motivation that they need to give themselves the best chance to succeed in their future would be a truly humbling experience.

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Aboriginal Studies Certificate 2020

In the fall of 2019 I successfully achieved the Aboriginal Studies Certificate. I was able to plan my BA around this certificate by enrolling primarily in courses that revolved around Aboriginal content. This played a large part in the reason why I came back to school in the first place. I could see the suffering, and the fight on social media surrounding Indigenous history in Canada. I knew that I could not affect change by arguing with people on social media, so I came back to school with a renewed sense of purpose; to educate. To be someone who can confidently teach people in a good way. I have so much hope for where we are going, and what the future brings. I have hope in the next generation.  I would love to be a part of their growth, and I believe that education and awareness is the way to do that.  

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Dean’s List – Fall 2020

The fall semester of 2020 was the first semester that was required to be done completely online due to COVID. During this time I was finishing my last year of my BA studies, and was enrolled in four upper level English courses; including, Advanced Poetry Writing, Poetics of Indigenous Drama, Queer Identities and Sexualities, and Empathy in Literature.

This was truly my last semester in my BA, it was a full circle moment for me because it was the end of my BA, but the start of my journey towards teaching. In the last two years of my BA studies I had started to branch out and take classes that encompassed more than just Aboriginal disparity. I started taking classes on the disparity of woman, and the strength of the LQBTQ2S+ community. This was me truly trying to diversify the way I thought about inclusivity. Being aware of my Indigenous students, and wanting to bring awareness to their history is only one piece of the puzzle for me. I want to be sensitive and aware to the needs of all my students. I want them to feel safe, and I want to understand the reasons why they have not felt safe historically. To be able to take these classes and finish them with excellence shows me that my commitment to learning all ways of knowing and being was not a superficial endeavor.

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Dean’s List – Fall 2019

In the fall of 2019 I was enrolled in a mixture of upper level Anthropology and English courses; including, Indigenous Peoples Comparative Perspectives, Ethnography of the Plateau, Children’s Literature, and Studies in Canadian Literature.

This was the last semester that I had to do to fill the requirements for a concentrated study in Anthropology. Making the Dean’s list, for me, signified a strong finish to the end of the first leg of my journey. It showed me that I did not sell myself short in the end. It is an amazing feeling to be recognized for your hard work; especially when you are not expecting it. I was not working hard to get these little recognitions, I just wanted to learn how to effect some change around me. This was a lesson for me. A lesson that said, I see you. That is what I want for my future students. To let them know that they are seen, and that they are appreciated.

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“The Princess of The Little People” – Metaphor Lesson Plan – English Language Arts (grade 5)

This lesson was part of a mini-unit on poetry. This lesson (along with the others) used Indigenous lore to provoke the students to think critically about the world. We discussed poetic devices; such as, metaphor and simile, to dive into Indigenous symbolism. We construct meaning through multiple lenses, and consider new possibilities of expression.

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Turtle Island Lesson Plan – Science (grade 2)

This lesson plan is part of a larger unit on physical and chemical changes. I have included this particular lesson to widen the students scope of knowledge on landscapes. This lesson primarily focuses on physical change, and introduces students to the conception of “Turtle Island” and “The Woman Who Fell From The Sky”. Done respectfully this lesson is meant to decolonize the students thinking about how the land was formed. It confronts with with notions of Indigenous epistemology and asks them to be respectful of all ways of being and knowing.

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