12.1 Personal Narrative: Minnie McKenzie Personal Narrative: Minnie McKenzie Stanley Mission NORTEP, class of 1993 Some ambitions never truly die – they just reappear in a different guise – and some lessons never let go. Minnie McKenzie has learned both those truths in her professional life, as a result of her studies at NORTEP/PAC. Although employed since the age of 13, when she began working as a labourer at her brother Jim McKenzie’s fishing camp, “I wanted to get out of the rut of not finding employment other than what was offered in Stanley Mission. I always wanted to look for more,” McKenzie says.
Minnie McKenzie has found a career that enables her to juggle interests in teaching, Cree language development and administration.
That quest for “more” initially led her to NORPAC, then a brand-new extension of the NORTEP program. Having a vague idea that she might like administration, McKenzie enrolled in PAC’s arts program, and for her field placement, she was assigned to work with Gladys Christiansen, then the Lac La Ronge Indian Band’s assistant director of education. She sat in on job interviews for prospective teachers, did administrative work with the department secretaries, and worked as an assistant to Kitsaki School Principal, Larry Ahenakew, which took her occasionally into the classroom. As she watched teachers singing Cree songs with the children, something clicked, and that fall, McKenzie transferred to NORTEP. After graduating from NORTEP in 1993, McKenzie got a job at La Ronge’s Pre-Cam School as a Cree language teacher, working with up to 300 students in K-6. She moved over to the Northern Lights School Division head office to work as a curriculum developer, then to the LLRIB’s Sally Ross School in Sucker River as a teacher. And then, when her former mentor, Gladys Christiansen – now the Band’s Director of Education – decided it was time to revive the Band’s Cree curriculum unit, McKenzie got the call.
The staff’s high expectations pushed McKenzie to perform at her peak, in terms of completing assignments on time and being fully prepared for every class – whether she was a student or a teacher. Those learned attributes have served her well professionally, and she passes the same expectations on to her staff.
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