Alderville First Nation teen participates in national youth panel

By Sam Laskaris

GATINEAU, QUE. – Chanelle Smoke had become accustomed to being a voice not only in her high school but also throughout her school board.

And now, the 18-year-old, who is a citizen of Alderville First Nation, can add another impressive accomplishment to her resume.

“Now, I’m representing Canada,” said Smoke, moments after speaking on Oct. 29 as part of the national youth panel at this year’s Cando Conference.

Cando is the organization that promotes economic development in Indigenous communities across the country.

Members of the national youth panel presented their stories on day three of the conference held at Hilton Lac-Leamy in Gatineau from Oct. 27-30.

The conference includes presentations from the six individuals chosen to be on Cando’s national youth panel. Those on this panel are aged 18-29.

Smoke, the only Ontario representative on the panel, was also the youngest member to speak at the event.

“I’m just happy I get to share my knowledge and happy I get to share it with all the others in the room,” she said.

Smoke only met the other five individuals on the national youth panel at a reception the day before their session. The panel included three young women from Saskatchewan as well as a young man from British Columbia and another from Alberta.

“It was like we knew each other for years,” Smoke said of her initial meeting with the other panelists. “We all have similar goals and interests.”

Smoke was an Indigenous student advocate throughout her high school days. She graduated from Cobourg Collegiate Institute this past June.

During her first year of high school, Smoke started an Indigenous advisory circle at her school. The group met weekly to determine not only what it wanted to accomplish at Cobourg Collegiate Institute, but also at the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board.

“It did mean a lot to me,” Smoke said. “I wanted to make changes in my school.”

Shortly after the advisory circle was founded, daily land acknowledgement announcements started being broadcast at Smoke’s school. Other schools within the board also started making similar announcements.

Besides being an advocate at her own school, for three years Smoke was also a member of the board’s Indigenous Student Advisory Group.

Smoke was also selected to be on the national youth panel in part because of her work within her own community.

This past summer, she served as an assistant to Alderville First Nation’s cultural coordinator.

Her duties included helping to organize her First Nation’s pow wow staged in July.

As for her future, Smoke is hoping to take the proper courses now to become a paramedic. She has aspired to become a paramedic for a decade now.

That’s because she was rather impressed with how first responders treated her father in his final moments. Smoke was just eight when her father passed into the Spirit World.

“I think I want to be a paramedic for as long as I feel young – so maybe another 10-15 years,” she said.

Smoke also has a long-term goal she’d like to fulfil. She has been speaking Ojibwe since the age of four. And she’d like to pass on her linguistic skills to others.

“I’ve always wanted to be a language teacher or an Indigenous language teacher,” she said.