As a teacher, she thought she would be the one inspiring her students, but teaching them inspired her to chase her own dreams. Tessa Weeksuk is from the Thunderchild First Nation in Saskatchewan and is also Cree. She grew up in Edmonton, Alberta and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She now lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. After graduating from high school, she pursued an education degree and taught for five years before deciding to pursue a geology degree. When the pandemic hit, she moved across the country and didn’t get a chance to complete that degree.

Professionally, Weeksuk transitioned from education to working with the homeless. She worked across Canada, living in Edmonton, Lloydminster, Saskatoon, Ottawa, Halifax and Winnipeg. She also worked with children in group homes and youth in foster care. In Halifax, she had the chance to be part of the North American Indigenous Games. Now in Winnipeg, Weeksuk works as an employment counsellor with the Center for Aboriginal Human Resource Development, helping Indigenous people pursue their goals.

When Weeksuk was teaching grade 5, she was instructing a unit on self care and pursuing formal and informal education. One of the students asked if she always wanted to be a teacher and she told them she had wanted to be a geologist. Inspired to follow her own lesson of encouragement, she applied to a geology program and got in. She opened the acceptance letter in front of her students and cried. “I always learned that I need to go for what I dream of. Doesn't matter how far it is. It is so possible. It's just that it doesn't matter how you get there. You just got to do it, and you have to try. Even if it's unknown territory and it makes you shake or cry, you just go for it,” she explains.

Her advice for Indigenous youth thinking of leaving their home community to pursue their education is that if they are coming off reserve into an urban community, they are going to experience culture shock. Loneliness can be a big deal and Weeksuk has made friends through gaming but whatever your interest, she urges seeking out social connections. She advises to budget money wisely. She encourages them to pursue joys that don’t cost money like going to the parks, exploring sand dunes, making friends, or going swimming. She advises against buying new furniture through high interest loans when you can find things for cheap on Facebook Marketplace. She recommends shopping around for food to get the best deals. Also, she says will have a lot of access to fast food which is not good for them so she suggests learning to cook for yourself on TikTok even.  She says to take care of your mental health to avoid wanting to go home without reaching the goals you came to achieve, and that you can even get support online if you need it. Finally, she urges finding elders and knowledge keepers in your new city.

To stay balanced in her own mental health, Weeksuk has traditional medicines like sweet grass, cedar, tobacco, and sage and smudges before she leaves home and when she returns to stay safe and keep bad energy out of her home. She smudges her feet, not knowing what path she will take, her heart to keep it in the right place and her mind so she can think straight. She likes to game and stream her gaming and she also likes to garden. Gardening lets her connect with the earth. She also likes to spend time near the water or with an elder or knowledge keeper.

When it comes to inspiration, Weeksuk is inspired by youth and elders. She aspires to be a caring, loving, empathetic, sympathetic and mindful elder when she grows up. Looking at youth, she loves their energy and belief that anything is possible, reminding her to be more active, to live more, smiling, joking, making friends and being a child at heart.

Her advice to someone struggling on their path would be, “I know we come from all different walks of life, and I know a lot of us are going through intergenerational trauma, and maybe you have learned about it, maybe you haven't yet, but I feel that sometimes we just are always looking to be loved the way that we love others… We're always giving 1,000% and we make sure we're there for everybody else and somewhere in there, you forgot about yourself, the me part. I think if you're not taking care of me, which is you, yourself, then we can't really see what goals that we want for ourselves.”

Otherwise, Weeksuk suggests self care, self love and self acceptance. “The more that you tell yourself that you love yourself, the more that you can accomplish in this life, because that energy that you have that is really good in your heart, you'll attract anything that you dream of, as long as you always make sure you love yourself,” she continues.

When she became a teacher, Tessa Weeksuk thought she would be the one inspiring students, but one of the lessons she taught inspired her to chase her own dreams. Pursuing her childhood dream of geology taught her so much about following your goals, now she helps Indigenous people in Winnipeg realize their goals as an employment counsellor. She travelled across Canada working with children, youth and the homeless and now she’s found a new place where she can give back.

Thank you to Alison Tedford for writing this article!