LadiesCorner
BEING INDIGENOUS IN CANADA
C
with Chelsea Vowel
Chelsea Vowel is Métis from manitow-sâkahikan (Lac Ste. Anne) Alberta, residing in amiskwacîwâskihikan (Edmonton). Mother to six girls, she has a B.Ed, an LLB, and a MA, and is a Cree language instructor at the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta Chelsea is a public intellectual, writer, and educator whose work intersects language, gender, Métis self-determination, and resurgence. Author of Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit Issues in Canada, she and her co-host Molly Swain produce the Indigenous feminist sci-fi podcast Métis in Space, and cofounded the Métis in Space Land Trust. She has been published in the Huffington Post, The National Post, and The Globe and Mail. It is important that our magazine lends a voice to those who are doing important work in the community. Chelsea is one of those people whose posts on her website and Twitter handles cause you to reflect upon how the content you are reading is changing your views and perceptions. It takes courage, post after post to be courageous and true to one’s core. This is the refreshing voice that Chelsea brings: a reminder that all voices are important, essential, and true. We feel very honoured to have had a chat with her. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I am from the Métis community of Lac Ste. Anne, and grew up close to Lake Isle, west of Edmonton. My mom is Métis and my dad is Ukrainian and probably Irish. Growing up I was a metal head who loved fantasy and science fiction novels, and adored Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek the Next Generation. I wrote terrible stories and even worse poetry. I am a first-generation University
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For the first time, social media allowed Indigenous peoples direct access to media outlets, and to the public, in a way that had not been possible before. LadiesCorner.ca – Summer 2021
student and had no guidance or people to help me through, so I made a lot of expensive mistakes. I knew early on that I wanted to be a teacher, and that I wanted to work with Indigenous youth. After I earned my Bachelor of Education, I began teaching in Inuvik, where I also had my first two daughters. I have a bit of a love/hate relation ship with the academy. I keep coming back even though we do not always get along. I pursued a legal education
