Mental Health Masterpieces: Jossée Bernier Creates Artistic Opportunity for Youth in Schools

“I've always known what I've loved and what I've wanted to do, but I've also always just loved expanding my horizons and not tying myself down to one path,” Jossée Bernier explains. She is mixed Innu, as she says, or French mixed with James Bay Cree. She’s from the James Bay region of Quebec and now lives just outside her home community. She grew up in the States for the first half of her life before moving to Canada with her mom. For six years she lived in Ontario for school before moving back.

The driving forces in her life and work are art and mental health. Bernier develops alternative learning art programs where students can earn credits.  “It's the best work that I've ever gotten the opportunity to do in my life,” she beams. The program runs in the Cree Nation and works with artists who have art residencies in schools. Building relationships, confidence and self esteem, it’s more than learning art.

Before this, her resume was eclectic as Bernier was always looking to gain experience, skills and to learn and try new things. She worked as a landscaper, substitute teacher, administrative assistant, youth activities coordinator, cashier and waitress. She’s always jumped on opportunities and explored anything she’s been curious about.

For her own education, Bernier went to post secondary at North Bay for three years, starting off in a general arts and science program, to see what she liked. She excelled in courses in personal development and a friend encouraged her to apply to an Indigenous wellness and addiction prevention program. Outside of school, she participated in a lot of informal training around mental health as she had been fascinated by it since she was a teen. Seeing the many issues in her own community, she felt more resources, support, education and information were needed.

Some of the obstacles Bernier faced along the way were in the way school taught relative to how she learned as an Indigenous person, though the program she took was well structured from an Indigenous perspective. She struggled as a person of mixed ancestry, feeling like she had to validate her identity to others and even herself. Coming from a different territory than where she was learning was also a challenge, and at times she didn’t feel like she belonged in her classroom or program. She sometimes felt the barriers were coming from within herself.

To overcome those obstacles, Bernier worked through them, being honest about her journey, family, and ancestry. It’s taken time. Without the opportunity to grow up in her community or learn her language from her parents, she didn’t have that sense of belonging. She’s struggled with not having as deep roots as others but in the end has found a path to acceptance in interrogating her own doubts.

Thinking about her advice for students leaving their home community to pursue their dreams, Bernier affirms the importance of adaptability given how overwhelming a new environment, surrounded by new people, new cultures, and new languages can be. She also reinforces you don’t need to go to school to leave, it might be best for your mental health. She moved at 17, struggling with alcoholism, knowing a change was needed. Growing up, she changed schools and moved a lot, so it wasn’t as intimidating and she could manage the discomfort, despite homesickness. “Even when you make it where you are, there's something about community and there's something about being surrounded by our people. It's never the same anywhere else,” she muses.

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If Bernier could give a message to her younger self it would be, “The bravest thing that you can do for yourself is stand in your truth and honor it, and defend it and protect it and figure out what that truth is so that you can live your life according to that truth.” Lacking direction, she struggled to see her own value and vision for her life, adopting instead other people’s ideas of who she should be and making her life choices accordingly. She wishes she could tell herself, “What I'm going through right now doesn't have to be my reality forever.”  

To keep her mental health in check, Bernier practices mindfulness daily to tune into her feelings and respond accordingly. She practices selfcare in a more genuine way than she did before the pandemic, when the connections she relied on were stripped away and she was forced into solitude. Now her self care involves nourishing her body with good meals, drinking herbal tea, and getting outside to connect with the land. Otherwise, she loves to enjoy art and music and believes in grounding herself in the present.

“Self care is just anything that makes you feel connected to yourself in a good way. It's anything that brings you back to yourself”

When it comes to inspiration, Bernier is inspired by a future where youth are healthy, included, safe and feel valued. She’s also inspired by the land, her home, and culture. Other artists inspire her, too. “Probably the most powerful thing you can do for yourself is surround yourself with people who share the same visions who are passionate about the same things,” she confides. People inspire Bernier in the way they create impact, embody their values, treat other people, and give back. She loves being able to fill a community need.

To inspire Indigenous youth, Bernier would like to say, “Just know that you are valuable and needed. There's something so deeply special inside of you that you are here on Earth, to embody and bring into this world, whatever that is, whatever that looks like. You have the complete and total capacity and potential to do so much good. Not just for yourself, but for your friends, for your family, for your community, for everybody that you come into contact with. If there was a piece of advice I could give that would definitely be to just be mindful of how every single thing that you do has an effect, whether it's big or small… I always try to make sure that wherever I go, whoever I come into contact with whatever I do is better after me.”

Expanding her horizons and not tying herself down to one path, Jossée Bernier found a way to do what she loves and what she wants to do. Pursuing her passions of art and mental health, she’s empowering youth in schools and having fun at the same time. Knowing what it’s like to struggle as a youth, she’s able to make life better for young people and do the best work she’s ever had the chance to do.

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