On what inspired her journey

Growing up, I remember watching a lot of Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter. He got so much joy out of running out on the land and catching different things. I never thought that was a possibility in my life. I thought that was a different part of the world and I never thought it was like a career or anything I could pursue.

So, I ended up going to school for esthetics. I knew immediately it was the wrong program for me. As soon as I graduated, I took Fish and Wildlife at Sault College and that seemed to be more working in the outdoors. I was getting closer to what I wanted and liked. I was figuring it out. For my Co-op, I worked in forestry with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and anytime we had a spare moment, they’d let me run out and look for reptiles and amphibians, getting closer and closer to my dream.

I kept sending my resume to the Toronto Zoo because Turtle Island Conservation [one of the zoo’s programs] visited my community once and I thought what they did was amazing. I never thought they would ever hire me, but I kept sending my resume. I got the call. I did the interview. They told me I got the job. Working in a swamp and getting to track turtles was like dream come true. Since then, that’s all I want to do. I just get so excited being out there. I feel like a kid again. Even when I did the bio blitz and my partner had to push my kid in the stroller because I just took off into the woods. I get the same excitement as when I was four years old, and I’m turning 32 now and I love it. I love being out in the environment.

Now I’m living back in my community, Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation, and I want to create employment like that for others and I just want to share that feeling I get with everybody else.

On the resilience of turtles

I remember when I was working with Magnetawan, we were hoping to find turtle eggs for the head starting program. We ended up finding a painted turtle and she’d been hit by a car. She was… yeah, not alive. I’d never had this experience, but I could feel there were eggs inside of her. So I used an old hunting knife and I managed to get them out. They felt really hard, so I didn’t think they were developed, but we got them back to the incubation station at Magnetawan. Seven babies hatched and I was like, “Oh my God.” I felt so great, and I got to release them into the wetland. So that was probably my one turtle moment where I felt like I really contributed.

And even like another nesting time, I got to see  a female blanding turtle going to nest. Her shell was completely caved in. It was an old injury, but she’d clearly been hit. It was a tire that had caved in her whole shell. But she was out nesting. It really showed me how tough turtles are. I couldn’t believe she would have walked away from that and healed somehow. I can’t believe she was out nesting again, and it was like she’d healed from this.

On reviving language on the land

My grandma, even though she went to residential school, was a really big advocate for speaking the language and really wanted me to speak the language so that’s something I’m trying to pass on to my son and learn myself. So I kind of felt this need to have my son know it as early as possible, just so it’s easier for him to know.

My son loves being outside and he loves the animals. He’s not talking, like having conversations. His whole thing is just naming off animals right now. He knows every name for everything.  I got him so many nature books and while we were reading them, I bought a label maker and I was putting Ojibwe names onto everything I could find. I’m constantly researching and finding more names that I can label his books with. That’s been the real source of my motivation and inspiration for all the words I’ve been finding. He makes me say them every day. He’ll go through my field guides from college and point at every single bird and I have to say it’s a name [in Ojibwe] or he gets really mad.

I find a lot of the names for wildlife are descriptive of their appearance or their behaviour so the names for animals are really intriguing and interesting to learn in Ojibwe. Recently I was reading about the name for leeches, which is “it draws blood through its mouth.” It’s very descriptive and there’s a lot of words in there. I feel like it’s an interesting way to learn the language when you’re also learning about  wildlife. I’m able to go out on the land with my son and we can name everything out there.

I just really love incorporating the land and the language and trying to bring back the language and help other communities. I sent my list [of species names] to the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority and they were able to make that the bird series with graphics and I love those. I’m hoping to continue working with them and work on a new series. And the Magnetawan colouring book  was  a dream come true. Like I would have loved to have had that colouring book when I was a kid. I have a few copies that me and my son get to colour and I get to read it to him. And there’s some of my photography in there as well. It’s really nice to share it with my son and I’m so grateful to Magnetawan for creating that resource.