“I don't think it all happens for a reason, but sometimes it does,” shared Cassandra Blondin Burt. She was raised in BC by her father’s family. She works as a storyteller, artist, published poet and journalist and has a storytelling lineage in her family. As a young single mother, she worked in the service industry as a bartender, server and barista before going back to school. She started writing down and sharing her thoughts and feelings and finally published a book. In retrospect, she sees her experiences have culminated in her professional and personal presence in the world.

“When I really started honoring these stories, they started taking me on amazing journeys”

Thinking back to what inspired her poetic beginnings, it’s all a bit nebulous for Blondin Burt. “I don't look back at a time when I was like, I want to become a poet… Calling myself an artist or a writer or a poet like that's an amalgamation of many different previous career paths, but I think back to those initial years [in the service industry] and some of the people that really influenced me, and what I'd say got me here was that same determination and self respect,” she reminisces. The practice of continuing to show up with grace fed her artistic practice and she learned so much about that from veterans in the service industry who mentored her and modelled self-respect and love.

Her advice for Indigenous students leaving small communities to pursue their education is, “to believe in the possibility, to really invest in your own hope”. She urges towards openness to make mistakes and learn lessons along the way. Blondin Burt also encourages, “Everything that you bring is exactly what the world needs right now, your stories, determination, whether you get the chance to be on the land or whether you have skills that are developed in different ways. There's so much that the world is hungry for, and students coming out of remote communities have so much to offer the world. Believe in your own visions and your own dreams, because you never know how far they'll carry you.”

“I think the narrative that we sometimes get is that we're going to school to get educated, right? But I think the truth is that we're all born with our intelligences, with our brilliance. Sometimes, I think a great way of looking at going and seeking an education or trades or any sort of development of your skills is taking that innate brilliance and learning to share it with the world,” she continues.

‍

To maintain her mental health, Blondin Burt does yoga twice a day, eats as well as she can, and integrates traditional medicines into her wellness practices. She considers herself a spiritual person. She likes to converse with nature to ground herself, spending time with berries and roses, internalizing lessons from them and finding healing in those connections.

When it comes to inspiration, Blondin Burt looks to her elders and ancestors and their journeys, challenges and contributions. She’s inspired by the academic work of her aunt and grandmother around educational reform, language and culture and how radical and progressive they were. Thinking of what all is possible based on their legacy, she is inspired and heartened to think of what is possible down the line and encouraged to think, “None of the activism, none of the things that we do, none of the things that we vision for our own children. We don't necessarily have to get it right right now, because it might be our granddaughters, or our grandchildren who think back to the work that we did now, and they go, we get to do this because of what you did, our activism, especially as Indigenous peoples. It's not realized two years or 10 years, it's realized intergenerationally.”  

Blondin Burt has found in that reflection hope, the strength to keep showing up and patience to be in the presence as things are. “There are so many moments where we feel, especially as activists, but just as learners, as human beings, we want to see change now, or we feel like we haven't done a good enough job if something doesn't change now, and this reflection has really allowed me to see, we don't necessarily even know the impact that we're making. But every effort is worth it,” she affirms.

She doesn’t think it all happens for a reason, but sometimes it does. Cassandra Blondin Burt went from serving meals and drinks to sharing poems, tales and art. Continuing the lineage of storytelling in her family, she’s found herself on amazing journeys in honouring the stories - the teachers- she’s received. Inspired by her ancestors, she’s hopeful for what the next generation of activists will bring to life and the chance to share brilliance with the world.