“All the money in the world doesn't matter if you don't know how or have the skill set to handle and understand your relationship with money,” declares Theodora WarriorHealy. She is from Blackfoot Confederacy and lives in Calgary, Alberta. In her free time, she teaches. “I am very passionate about financial literacy and bringing resources and connections to our people, and communities,” she explains. Warrior Healy does outreach, connecting on social media and becoming part of the community so people know where to go to learn about money through her program called Warrior Moccasins: Indigenous Financial Wellness. In support of her mission to educate Indigenous people about financial literacy, she was recently offered a gifted accreditation through the Accredited Financial Counsellors of Canada.

WarriorHealy herself grew up in poverty on reserve and she struggled financially until five years ago when she discovered financial literacy. Before then, she didn’t have a strong understanding of banking and how her finances impacted her and her family. Learning about credit, credit scores, debt, disability tax credit and other available resources changed her life. She sees giving that wisdom back to the community as a service she can provide given financial literacy was not taught in residential schools.

Looking at her mother who she cares for, a well-educated and smart woman who lacked a retirement plan and financial know-how, thinking about how she was raised in poverty, and seeing the poverty in many communities, families and the poor quality of life many elders experience, WarriorHealy became passionate about her work. With one in two Indigenous children living in poverty and having been raised as one of them, she delivers her programming in a way that aligns with her cultural values and gives hope for the future.

What motivated her on this path was finding out the information about all of these financial aspects and wanting to share it with her community. WarriorHealy was inspired to figure out how to get out there and spread the word. She started counting up how many Indigenous people there were because growing up she thought there were millions and she realized just how few there actually are in Canada. While that made her sad, it also represented an achievable goal of people to reach.

“I see this goal in my life of putting financial empowerment teams on every nation, as well as having the connection to the financial institutions that they must use and having a genuine positive relationship that they can feel comfortable and confident in making decisions with their finances,” WarriorHealy dreams aloud.

She shares her story to inspire others. Once a hydrovac operator, a class one driver, she was proud to be making $6,000 a month. When she didn’t realize she lost her bank card and didn’t report it lost or stolen, she was unable to recover the $7,000 in her bank account and she lost everything. From losing her home to her vehicle to maxing out credit cards, WarriorHealy soon found herself back on reserve with her daughter collecting welfare. It took her five years to climb out of debt and bankruptcy but she learned a lot.

Her advice for Indigenous students is, “We're very rare. So we need us to be there for us. Because we're the only ones who come from where we come from. So whatever profession you're going into, whether it's finance or health, you are very needed. Because that world just doesn't fully understand us the way that we do.” WarriorHealy encourages youth to explore finance as a career because there is a great need in that area and the earning potential in insurance can be up to $600,000 a year. That said, she urges learning financial literacy to manage that money. “Even just a few tools can take you a long way,” she explains.

One of the obstacles she faced along the way is in creating a safe space for her students. Because WarriorHealy only teaches Indigenous people, she does not allow non-Indigenous people in her classes. She finds the energy changes in spaces that are not Indigenous-only and she knows that talking about money can be hard. “Not everybody was born just knowing how to handle money. We've all learned from somebody teaching us or our own hard lessons. Give yourself the grace to learn a new skill and work towards goals, because you can reach them,” she encourages.

If she could give a message to her younger self it would be “Don't apply for credit that you cannot pay back. Watch Your name, watch your Social Insurance Number, and take care of your credit.” She teaches about money and credit as forces like fire and water that need to be balanced and respected. Looking back, she wishes she understood how interest worked and that credit is lifelong.

To keep her mental health in check, WarriorHealy remembers a Blackfoot expression which translates to, “There is no quitting, there's only trying harder.” She also operates with the belief that she is in control over her own emotions and that her environment doesn’t impact her as long as she is internally positive.

When it comes to inspiration, WarriorHealy looks to her mother. Having survived so many things like residential schools and dealing with sixties scoop with her children and losing all her toes when she was left for dead, she did not fall into self-pity despite her disability. She learned from her mother about personal choice in perspective in rising above difficult circumstances, watching her go through life and be a good person after hard times.

In closing, WarriorHealy wants to inspire Indigenous youth by saying, “Believe in yourself so much that it radiates throughout everyone else because we are rare. We're special. That self love that you're going to give yourself is going to radiate throughout your family and your community. If we all do that, imagine how much we can lift up together as nations in this Western world.

She’s learned firsthand that all the money in the world doesn't matter if you don't know how or have the skill set to handle and understand your relationship with money. Now Theodora WarriorHealy is taking those lessons and giving them back to Indigenous communities so they can thrive. In creating safe spaces for open conversations, she’s building foundations for brighter financial futures with Warrior Moccasins.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.