Beausoleil First Nation citizen recipient Canada Post’s 2022 Awards for Indigenous Students
By Rick Garrick
TORONTO — Beausoleil’s Chett Monague was recently recognized as one of 25 winners of Canada Post’s 2022 Awards for Indigenous Students for his dedication to learning as a doctor of chiropractic student. Canada Post has been granting the $2,000 awards since 2004 to up to 25 Indigenous students from across the country who have resumed studies after being away from school for at least 12 months and have completed at least one full year of study.
“I’m currently in my second year in my doctor of chiropractic,” Monague says. “I was in a car accident when I was living in British Columbia and started to see a [chiropractor] there. I have a background in sciences and biology and a background in education and I was letting him know I was interested in applying to medical schools and to help people and he suggested looking into becoming a [chiropractor].”
Monague says he decided to study at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in Toronto after he suffered the loss of his oldest brother during the COVID-19 pandemic. He previously earned his Bachelor of Biology/Biological Sciences with Honours degree at Nipissing University and his Bachelor of Education degree at Lakehead University’s Orillia campus.
“A big part of his passing had to do with accesses to proactive healthcare, so I wanted to sort of make change from that loss,” Monague says. “I was travelling around Canada when I was working for the University of British Columbia and some of the recurring themes that I saw amongst the community or other Indigenous people was that there’s not only a disconnect in education, but there’s a disconnect in that proactive side of health and well-being and I want to try and combat that.”
Monague says his doctor of chiropractic studies include about 10 months of study per year over the first three years and a clinic year during the fourth year.
“It is a lot of information, all the time all at once,” Monague says. “We’re training to be experts in the muscular, joint, and nervous systems, so they’re teaching us to understand how these are functioning in the body and what dysfunction looks like and how we play a role in helping correct dysfunction within those three different systems.”
Monague says he plans to serve rural, remote, and urban Indigenous communities after he graduates.
“From the information that we have right now through the Canadian Chiropractic Association, Indigenous patients and Indigenous people represent less than one per cent of people accessing services through chiropractors,” Monague says. “And I want to try to fill that need and fill that gap.”
In addition to Monague, the other award recipients from Ontario included Aamjiwnaang’s Jessica Plain, Six Nations’ Emily Abrams, and Moose Cree’s Tara Hutchinson. Other recipients from across the country included Tannicka Reeves, from the Yukon; Cayla Gillis from the Northwest Territories; Alesha-Elijah Tiglik from Nunavut; Darryl Gray, Jeremiah Hyslop, Suzie Kimball, Samuel McDonald, and Mackenzie Vandale Roode from B.C.; Cole Crane, Chelsea Garbanewski, Cheyenne Hall, Vanessa Paterson, and Jona Sparvier from Alberta; Michelle Meeches, Colton Pratt, and Jacqueline Valois from Saskatchewan; Angel Lefebvre from Manitoba; Cynthia Denny from Nova Scotia; and Crystal Anderson, Madison Bennett, and Megan Dicker from Newfoundland and Labrador.
Information on how to apply for the Awards for Indigenous Students is posted online.