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RAD DARBYSHIRE IS HAPPY TO SERVE AS A ROLE MODEL FOR SASKATCHEWAN’S ABORIGINAL PEOPLE. JUST DON’T ASK HIM TO BOAST ABOUT HIMSELF. “I’m no different than most,” says the successful – but modest – 38-year-old, who grew up in Saskatchewan’s remote north, first in Buffalo Narrows, then Big River. “You’d never have picked me out in high school as most likely to succeed.” Darbyshire won’t brag, but his track record speaks for itself. Eleven years ago he took a leap of faith and signed on as the first manager of Points Athabasca. The young general contracting company was founded only two years earlier, in 1999, to engage Saskatchewan’s First Nations people in the province’s growing economy by providing skilled Aboriginal workers for Athabasca Basin’s construction and mining companies. The company had just two big projects under its belt at the time. Points Athabasca’s website isn’t shy about Darbyshire’s role in its current success. As the company history section points out: “In 2001, with a manager in place to market Points Athabasca full-time…the company started into its growth phase.” Today Points Athabasca proudly promotes itself as Aboriginal owned and operated. It’s structured as a collaboration between First Nations and non-Aboriginal people, with 75 percent ownership by the Athabasca Basin Development group of seven Athabasca municipalities, which includes three First Nations communities. The remainder is owned by The Graham Group. Operations have expanded into northern Alberta and Manitoba, and, in 2011, the company received the ABEX Aboriginal Business Partnership Award. Darbyshire finds his time has increasingly shifted from management operations to strategic planning and long-term business development. He frequently travels across Western Canada, where, as the Aboriginal initiative manager of The Graham Group, he actively encourages other Aboriginal people to pursue rewarding careers. His message is simple: “You can open doors and do what you want. If I can make it, so can others like me.” But even a role model needs a role model, and Darbyshire knows exactly who his are. “I always looked up to my mom and dad,” he says. “I saw how they made a good life for themselves and decided that’s what I wanted too.” FIRST FAMILY: the Darbyshire family has roots in Saskatchewan and SIAST, (L-R) brother Kyle, Brad Darbyshire, mom Diana and dad Leonard, and brother Devin.
His parents, Leonard and Diana Darbyshire, currently live in Îsle-à-la-Crosse, and both have successful careers that began with SIAST training. Leonard, the son of a Norwegian immigrant, is a journeyman welder who trained at SIAST Palliser Campus in Moose Jaw in the early 1980s. He’s originally from Big River and is now a maintenance supervisor at Cameco’s uranium mine in Rabbit Lake. Diana, a treaty Cree originally from Buffalo Narrows, received her Certified Nursing Assistant diploma from SIAST in 1977, back when the program was offered in Saskatoon. She later completed her Registered Nursing diploma, graduating as one of northern Saskatchewan’s first Aboriginal nurses. Her 35year nursing career has spanned the gamut of acute, emergency, surgical, pediatrics and long-term care in Big River and Îsle-àla-Crosse. The pair’s influence on their three sons is obvious. Brad Darbyshire, who originally planned to make family history as the first to graduate from university, decided after two years at the University of Saskatchewan it wasn’t for him. “I’m a very practical guy, and there was too much theory,” Darbyshire says of the experience. So he reset his sights on learning a trade, like his father, and graduated from SIAST’s Heavy Duty Mechanic program. Inspired by his older brother’s success, Devin decided to follow in Brad’s footsteps. Now 26, Devin is a lead mechanic with Graham Construction in Saskatoon, after also completing SIAST’s Heavy Duty Mechanic program. At 23, Kyle is the youngest of the three brothers and currently works as a welder, like his dad. “Kyle tried heavy duty mechanics for a couple of years in Fort McMurray but didn’t like it,” says Brad. “He decided welding’s his trade, and he’s now working on his apprenticeship in Alberta. We’d all love him to be closer and attend SIAST too, but Alberta’s where the work is for him.” Mom Diana laughs when asked if she thinks her sons looked to their parents’ pursuit of education as a model for their career paths. “I didn’t give them much choice! I said they had to go to school. Today it’s get an education or have a life of low wages and hard labour. I’m proud of them; they’re all doing well.” Continued on next page >>
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