Whitefish River’s Jordi Jacko recognized with award from Corporate Knights magazine
By Rick Garrick
WHITEFISH RIVER FIRST NATION—Whitefish River’s Jordi Jeremiah Jacko credits his work in the community for being recognized with a 2016 30 Under 30 in Sustainability Award from Corporate Knights magazine.
“One of the employers I used to work for — Right to Play — nominated me for the work I have done on the reserve, which was pretty much one-on-one work with youth and helping out youth,” Jacko says.
“They really train you to work on those skills. Their main thing is just to bring the youth up and boost their confidence and really get them to stand up for themselves and really help them move forward in their life.”
Jacko worked with Right to Play for about two years as a community mentor to teach resilience and life, leadership and communication skills to youth in the community.
“They do all this amazing training and amazing work,” Jacko says, noting that the youth are taught leadership skills, numeracy skills and physical literacy skills. “They teach these skills through play-based learning.”
Jacko enjoyed working with the youth through the Right to Play program.
“You could see that working with them closely was like bringing them up a bit and showing them different skills,” Jacko says. “You could see the light bulbs turning on. It was just amazing.”
Jacko also picked up certifications in Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) and Mental Health First Aid Canada while with Right to Play.
“Those were two aspects that I really focused on and really hope I can help people out with, just because of a few incidents in my life,” Jacko says. “I did have a few youth come up to me and ask for some more assistance with their mental health, like who I can get them in contact with. I’m on their list of people to call if they’re ever having a huge breakdown.”
Jacko also earned certification as a Wilderness First Responder during his year of study at the Outdoor Adventure Naturalist program at Algonquin College.
“They taught me a lot of stuff like swift-water rescue and how to read rapids and where to go and how to survive in the wilderness,” Jacko says. “But also learning about the different types of trees, what can help you, what you can eat.”
Jacko was one of 30 young leaders, ranging from social entrepreneurs to inventors and researchers from across Canada, who were honoured with the award by Corporate Knights magazine through support from insurance co-operative The Co-operators.
“My future goal is to start up a program of my own,” Jacko says. “It’s built around bringing youth into wilderness settings and teaching them leadership skills and all of the skills that they need to get through life and really focusing on mental health as well. It’s just to show how nature is one of our medicines, because when we go in [the wilderness] we have that sense of home and feel like we are okay. It’s a calming sensation.”
Jacko is currently training in the San Francisco area of California to be an instructor in guardian art, which is based around First Nations culture and includes many teachings in the classes.
“It’s a mixed martial arts fighting culture with an aspect of spirit running,” Jacko says in early November.
“So far I’ve been down here for a month. It’s been going awesome — the people here are great and they’ve been showing me all the nice spots in California.”
Jacko says one of the instructors plans to do a GoFundMe fundraising campaign to bring the guardian art program back to his home community in the Hopi Nation in Arizona.