She first dreamed of teaching, but her educational career ended up on a different path… and it made her heart soar. Allison Savoie’s traditional name is Red Cardinal Woman and she is a member of the fox clan. She grew up and now works in Selkirk, though she lived in Winnipeg briefly. On her father’s side, she has ties to the Peguis First Nation and her mom is a European settler. Savoie works as a Divisional Social Worker in the Lord Selkirk School Division, a role that means she wears a lot of hats.

While an early mentor described the position as that of a “den mother” but she prefers to refer to herself as a “deadly auntie”. She does counselling, connects with parents and families, does classroom work, and is a catalyst teacher as part of the division’s treaty training plan. She decided on the career path because she has always loved spending time with younger people and she has always been playful. As someone who always babysat growing up and had a mom who was a helper, a psychiatric nurse, she was influenced early to this kind of work.

As far as her informal learning path, Savoie is a lifelong learner and she loves learning from the people around her, spending time with elders, knowledge keepers and wise friends. She also loves listening to podcasts. For her formal learning, she took child care and community development classes, then started off in the Faculty of Education at the University of Winnipeg and completed a couple years of student teaching before taking some time off to grow up. She waitressed and lived with friends until she returned and changed paths to take developmental studies and finish her Bachelor of Arts. Later, she went into the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba. Working as a social worker in schools gave her the best of both worlds.

Her advice for Indigenous youth considering leaving their community to go to school is to be authentic, put yourself out there to join clubs, get involved and meet new people. Some of the students she’s spoken to took their time letting people in but when they did, it was a good thing. Believing in yourself and not being afraid to ask for help from classmates and teachers is the other advice she passed along.

When it comes to obstacles, Savoie recommends learning to get around on transit to overcome transportation barriers. Also, even though she left school for a while, she was determined to return eventually. Not giving up on dreams and trusting yourself is her advice for overcoming a barrier like that. Now in her work life, hearing difficult stories and problem solving around them can be really hard so she had to learn how to take care of herself and attend to her wellness.

Taking care of her wellness looks like extending herself grace about making mistakes, meditating, spending time outside, walking her dogs, smudging, setting intentions for the day and sleeping well. Savoie tries to drink a lot of water and exercises to get her heartrate up. She likes to laugh a lot and even to laugh at herself. “I try to remember that part of the journey is to make mistakes and that we're not learning anything unless we make mistakes…I think this is just part of that human experience is to make mistakes and put up with lots of imperfections,” she reflects.  

If she could give her younger self a message it would be, “You are enough, you're smart enough, and you're good enough, and not to worry about trying to be perfect, or not to try to be somebody that you're not, but just to be your authentic self.” Savoie says, “I always think about that Maya Angelou phrase, and it's like, you belong, you belong everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and so just really, really be who you are and if people don't like that, that's okay, as long as you like yourself.”

It’s taken time, but she’s happy with where she is. When it comes to inspiration, Savoie shares, “I just feel like there's such a wisdom that that youth have today that I don't remember having so that I find really, really inspiring. I feel like lots of students that I meet, they believe that they can change the world and make a difference.” Otherwise, she is inspired by spending time in nature and connecting with the land.

As far as her advice for someone struggling with something, Savoie suggests finding someone they trust, even an animal, to speak to openly and cry with. “I think that tears can be so healing, and if you can't find somebody to talk to, don't give up. Keep looking, because there is somebody out there that will listen. I think that's really important,” she counsels. Play is something else she recommends, remembering fun and laughter, to find a balance between laughter and crying.  

Connecting with people is another suggestion Savoie made, offering, “There's wonderful people out there, and as humans, we're all imperfect. We're just doing the best we can with the tools we have. But those connections with other humans are so important, and that's what helps get us through tough times, being with other people.”

First dreaming of teaching, Allison Savoie’s educational career ended up on a different path… and her social work job now makes her heart soar. A “deadly auntie” wearing many hats, she took time away in university, came back when she was ready and found the place that fit her best in the school system. Sharing her wisdom with learners and families, she makes a difference every day, inspired by youth she knows will do the same.

Thank you to Alison Tedford Seaweed for writing this article!