37 GEORGIANVIEW SPRING 2023
CAREER PIvOTS: ALUMNI STORIES
To be completely honest, it's been heartbreaking. There's
family history my mom wasn't willing to talk about, but
the more I learned through my program at Georgian and
asked those right questions of my mom, she's been willing
to share.
My heart breaks for her and for our people that went
through that.
Returning to school changes everything
It all started when I went back to school later in life
because I was working at a company where I couldn't get
any further without education.
I completed a business program at Georgian. It was
fantastic. I had very inspiring teachers – inspiring enough
that I went for the Human Resources Management post
grad, which was not even in my game plan to begin with.
Then after that, I got a position in the Wiidookdaading
Indigenous Resource Centre as a Niwijiagan, which is
basically a peer mentor.
Georgian program reconnects Sharon with
family history
I'm also Indigenous of Mohawk and Algonquin heritage
and a bit far removed from my culture, so through
working in that position, I really reconnected with my
heritage. I decided to come back for the Indigenous
Community and Social Development program, and it's
been wonderful.
It has also helped me become a lot closer with my mother.
Part of the issue is when it comes to intergenerational
trauma with Indigenous People, often nobody wants to
talk about it, including my mother, who didn't share many
details of her childhood.
But through reconnecting with my culture and being
in the Indigenous Community and Social Development
program, it was like suddenly I had the ability to ask the
right questions.
My mother started talking and suddenly I learned a lot
more about my family history, which includes all the token
markers: my mom's part of the Sixties Scoop, I had a
grandmother in residential school.
It's a common theme that you hear more and more often
now that the Indigenous community is ready to talk. It's
been heartbreaking, but I think I am now better informed
on how to be a supportive friend or ally for those people.
It's one of the many good things that have come out of
attending Georgian.
Another big one was that I did the Traditional Woman's
dance at the Georgian College Traditional Pow Wow this
year. They call it your "coming out dance."
When I told my mother I was going to do it, her eyes lit up!
Sharon's journey comes full circle at Georgian
Pow Wow
She was very big on saying I had to have a vision, I
couldn't just do it, so I worked very hard on having a
vision, as hard as anyone could possibly work.
All winter I worked on my regalia. I sewed a buckskin
dress and painted some things like turtles, in oranges and
greens, on my regalia.
It's a good reflection of me trying to be calm and
soothing, where I just feel like I have a balance inside
of me.
The Indigenous way is all about balance, and it just seems
so balanced that I found my way back to my culture. I've
come full circle.
Dancing for the first time at the Georgian Pow Wow
seemed so fitting. This is the school that has supported
me on my journey. They taught me what I didn't know
but, more importantly, Georgian taught me what I needed
to know.
The Pow Wow was awesome, and it was a glorious
coming out. I'm so proud of my Georgian community.
"Dancing for the first time at the Georgian Pow Wow seemed so
fitting. This is the school that has supported me on my journey.
They taught me what I didn't know but, more importantly,
Georgian taught me what I needed to know".
