2 minute read
46th Warrior Fund
Next Article
Launch day - setting sail!
The 46th Warrior is perhaps the most important warrior, even though they weren’t even there.
To fully understand the significance of the 46th Warrior, we have to travel back to the summer of 2017 when 45 Indigenous youth aged 15 to 24 from across Canada boarded the tall ship Gulden Leeuw and set sail on a once-in-a-lifetime journey from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Le Havre, France. Calling themselves the Warriors of the Red Road at Sea, the youth set out on a trip that combined sail training with a leadership development and healing program led by Indigenous people.
On this incredible journey, the youth often spoke of the 46th Warrior, the one who couldn’t make the trip, the one who should have been there with them. To honour the missing warrior and to support Indigenous youth, MSVU created the 46th Warrior Fund.
The 46th Warrior Fund provides financial support for Indigenous Canadians to attend MSVU and participate in Indigenous youth initiatives across Canada. This important fund supports students, regardless of circumstance, to develop their intellectual and cultural horizons. In addition to the fund, MSVU launched The Collected Stories of the Warriors of the Red Road at Sea in November of 2021. This is a compilation of first voice reflections on the youths’ tall ship journey and includes a chapter on what it means to be a Warrior.
Brennan Googoo of Millbrook First Nation represented the Warriors at the book launch event.
“What really made the trip was the other Warriors and the facilitators, and the community that everybody was able to build… If you were ever looking for a definition of a Warrior, you can just go down that list [of youth who participated], and if you followed their journey from birth to the ship, and then from the ship to now, you’d find some really remarkable stories and some really remarkable journeys,” said Brennan.
The 46th Warrior Fund is an important part of MSVU’s commitment to reconciliation and dedication to advancing work in support of Indigenous learners and communities. What started as a unique educational opportunity has turned into a legacy of supporting Indigenous students – and showing that they, too, have a Warrior within.
Pictured (l-r): Dr. Sarah Reddington (co-editor of the book), Fiona Kirkpatrick Parsons, Senior National Advisor / kā-nīkānīt, Deloitte Indigenous, Dr. Shane Theunissen (co-editor of the book), Raymond Sewell (who performed traditional singing and drumming at the event), Patrick Small Legs-Nagge (Special Advisor to MSVU on Indigenous Affairs), Jennifer Angel (President and CEO, Develop Nova Scotia), Dr. Ramona Lumpkin
