“I'm still a disrupter, I can't help it. That's just my blood. I'm not about the status quo,” Charis Auger says. Her traditional name is Old Lady Bear That Beautifies Where She Walks in the Bush and she is from Bigstone Cree Nation. She grew up in the urban Edmonton area and came to learn more deeply about her history when she became a student at the University of Alberta as part of the Transition Year Program. These days, Auger works in the Aboriginal teacher education program and considers herself lucky to be part of creating a safer space than she experienced as a student for future and current Indigenous students.  

Growing up in a small northern rural Alberta town, she struggled with being separated from her identity. Raised by two parents in a home with food and running water but without access to culture, language or traditions, she had a lot of love but not much money or sense of self. She would go home for lunch and didn’t bring lunch like her peers who had money.

Auger knew she was different but she was very white passing. At school, she was exposed to negative stereotypes that deeply affected her. She was labelled as having a deficit and was moved into lower levels academically due to her ancestry. She didn’t enjoy school and never had an Indigenous teacher.

Raised by intergenerational survivors, she didn’t know the history until she went to university. They both struggled with trauma and raised their family off reserve. They experienced racism and had to go to the food bank but made sure their family was housed and felt loved.

She ended up in an outreach school, an alternative learning environment, due to her defiance. Auger finished two grades in one year and met the man who would father her child. Her mom was diagnosed with mental health issues and Auger ran away, got pregnant and dropped out. She stayed with her son’s dad until the relationship became unhealthy and moved to Athabasca.

Auger got a job at Subway until a colleague encouraged her to go back to school at Northern Lakes College. She upgraded her education and instructors told her she was smart, helping her see herself in a different light. She took the Teacher Assistant Program, graduated with honours and worked as a teacher assistant, the only Indigenous staff member.

Working in the schools allowed Auger to honour her inner child and the youth responded to her. She wanted to keep going and become a teacher, something that required her to move to a bigger city. She went to MacEwan University and then the University of Alberta thanks to an Indigenous academic advisor who believed in her and encouraged her to keep going.

Starting with the Transition Year Program, she learned about colonialism, residential schools, truth and reconciliation. She ended up in Native Studies and finished her first degree. She was working with Queer youth when she was recruited into the Aboriginal Teacher Education Program. At first, she was reluctant, having been rejected before, but she was accepted and able to work towards her dream of becoming a teacher.

When it comes to Indigenous students considering leaving their home communities, her advice is around the importance of community and relationships. She talks about how she thought she would always live in Athabasca and be a teaching assistant forever but she had to ultimately trust the process because there was something more she had to do. She recommends accessing friendship and resource centres and knowing that it’s okay to ask for and receive help. She suggests doing research to find out what organizations can help, what housing options are available and even how the food bank can help.

‍

Auger’s biggest barrier was poverty and a poverty mindset. To overcome it, she remembered what she had going for her. She recalled how she reminded herself, “I'm really rich. I've got a son that loves me. I've got a partner that loves me. I have family that loves me. I've got a workplace that allows me to be rugged when I need to be rugged. A workplace that allows me to cry when I need to cry. I'm so rich in relationships. I've got access to ceremony now. I know that when I'm having a hard day I can light up my smudge. I can have my tobacco, I can go outside. I can make a tobacco offering. I've got safe drinking water. I've got snacks. I've got love.”

Being raised in poverty impacted Auger’s self-image and it’s meant that she’s had to re-imagine how she sees herself and all she has now as an adult. It’s also meant reframing how she sees the wealth of her people, their wisdom and knowledge. “We've got ceremonies that have been here since time immemorial. We've got medicines, we've got plant knowledge, we've got songs and stories and lodges and those deep relationships with the cosmos,” she beams. All of these things she learned at university through the relationships she fostered.

If she could give a message to her younger self, it would be, “You are so sacred. You are so loved. You come from a long lineage of ancestors that prayed you here today, and you are so worth being alive.”

To keep her mental health in check, Auger smudges, makes sure to get enough sleep, stays hydrated and eats well, avoiding fast food. She participates in ceremonies and has access to traditional medicines for her wellness and that of the people who come into her office and spend time with her.

When it comes to inspiration, Auger is inspired by waking up in her own home and feeling safe, knowing how she struggled to get here. She feels proud of the choices she’s made to get to this point.

She’s inspired by the people in her life and the chance to tell her stories, to cry and by all of creation. “I'm just so inspired by the resiliency of our people,” she beams.

She can’t help being a disrupter because she’s not about the status quo and so Charis Auger found her way to a career that honours that in her. She wasn’t raised with access to culture but she discovered the connections she needed to learn later in life. Breaking away from poverty and appreciating the richness of life and her experiences, she’s reframing how she sees herself and choosing gratitude every day.