“I'm very grateful for my learning journey, which will never end, and for those people that have shared their knowledge with me, so that I can share it as well,” shares Mindy Henyu. She recently became the Senior Manager of Indigenous relations for Aecon Group and has been working in the field for 25 years. She’s worked with regulators, a global oil and gas producer, service companies and serves on the Tahltan Central government as an elected official for her traditional family. Outside of her work in politics, government and industry, she’s a mom of three.

When she first started working in Indigenous relations with the BC Oil and Gas Commission, Henyu started in finance, before exploring a role in the newly formed Aboriginal relations department. She was mentored and started exploring consultation as important legal cases were coming out. “How do I engage with First Nations in a good way?” was a question she was starting to dig into. In her experience, she was often welcomed into communities with stories of her family and everywhere she went she seemed to have a cousin. Community members shared about their own communities, too “It was starting to just invoke a fire in me that was always lit, but I didn't know how to nurture it,” she recalled. 

She received more mentorship and guidance and continued on to work as an external relations advisor at an oil and gas company for eight years. In her new role, Henyu did consultation, workforce development, Employment and Training and social investment. The work was about creating opportunities for Indigenous communities and ensuring the concerns of communities were considered in decision making.

As far as education, Henyu has been the first in her family to graduate high school. She took a gap year and then took office management at the local college before working at the oil and gas commission. She went on to take project management at NAIT with her employer’s support, opening even more doors for her. The Interdisciplinary Studies program at Royal Roads was her next adventure, though she has not yet finished given the challenges of single parenting three kids in hockey. That said, she hasn’t stopped learning, taking programs in conflict resolution, negotiation and internal programs at work. She learns from people, online, and from reading.

‍

Her earlier learning years in high school in Fort St. John were positive, with good friends. Henyu learned about technology, something that helped set her up for success. She dropped out for a semester in grade 11 but found her way black and doubled up on courses to graduate on time, earning a scholarship for her efforts. Her perseverance and the love and belief in her from her family helped her through hard times.

Growing up without an understanding of the context of intergenerational trauma, without knowing the history of residential school, Henyu was grounded in the love, kindness and sense of humour of her mother but still had a lot of expectations she put on herself. While she struggled with school, academics came easily. She felt she had to have a family and buy a house and do everything she couldn’t do when she was growing up. As she built her personal and professional life, she found she needed to learn more about herself as both a Cree and a Tahltan woman. She went back to her Tahltan territories, reconnected with her land. “It was the strangest feeling to go somewhere that I had never been and to feel at home,” she recalls. She became more involved with her government, committees, attending events and all of those experiences reshaped her worldview. Her new perspective was more positive, believing everything happens for a reason and that it all brought her to where she is now.

Her advice for youth considering leaving home to pursue their education is, “Be gentle on yourself, and gentle how you speak to yourself.” Her own son is away for school and that’s what she would tell him. She also suggests enjoying your surroundings, finding resources that support Indigenous students and connect with other Indigenous people. She recommends going to friendship centers and going to the land to give thanks to the ancestors. “You can go away and you can come back and you can bring that wealth of knowledge that you learned back into your community,” she encourages.

If she could give her younger self a message it would be. “You’re enough.” Growing up, she questioned if she was enough and now she knows that we are all enough at any moment. Thinking about what she wants to share to inspire Indigenous youth, she continues, “Something I think about often in my daily life is that our ancestors prayed for us to be here. We're not supposed to be here according to colonization. But here we are. So I'm giving gratitude for that; our ancestors prayed and fought for us to be here. I hold that in my heart, and it gives me strength.”

Always grateful for her learning journey, Mindy Henyu has learned from others and she’s passing those lessons forward in her work every day. Finding ways to partner with people in a good way and finding her way back to herself, she’s been on a path to uncover wisdom and truth. Learning she is enough and who she really is, she got to go back where she’s from and chart a course for the future for herself and her community.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.