Jason

“Learning about my culture has taught me how to live, and not to just survive.”

Jason has a deep love of, and belief in, education, even though his journey with it has not been linear.

"I never completed high school. I did not like school very much. It was just a lot of systemic racism and discrimination… For me, I was just made to feel like I was really stupid. That really took a toll on my self-esteem, my self-image.”

Born and raised here in the Yukon, Jason always loved to read.

“I'm so grateful that my mom got me into reading even before kindergarten….I think it just really helped me get through all the negativity.”

His younger years were complicated. He was born into a community and family that struggled with alcoholism. He was taken away from his family as a child and spent many years in and out of group homes, youth detention centres and then adult corrections.

“All systems, in the end you know, they never really taught me anything. They are pretty much a set up for failure.”

As he got older, he learned more about the residential schools his relatives had attended.

“The schools, you know, they had pretty much stripped your human dignity here…severed you from your language, your culture, the traditional parenting skills, your critical thinking skills, your self-image, your self-esteem, your self-concept. Everything was pretty much taken away.“

Throughout this time, however, he also started to re-connect with his culture, through learning from a few select elders, self-education, research and listening to everyday conversation.

“A mentor said to me there are two things needed for wisdom; teachings and life experience. Teaching without life experiences are just words, life experiences without teachings is a life of chaos. When you put those two together that’s what makes for wisdom.”

Jason has been sober for 15 years, and graduated from Thompson Rivers University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a major in Psychology.

Education, both from his degree and life experience, has opened up so many avenues for him. It has taught him critical thinking skills, new perspectives, and has inspired him to try to pass this knowledge on to others in his community.

“A mentor said to me there are two things needed for wisdom; teachings and life experience. Teaching without life experiences are just words, life experiences without teachings is a life of chaos. When you put those two together that’s what makes for wisdom.”

“I just wanted to be that example for the younger generation.”

Portrait by GBP Creative