SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Miranda Currie is an active individual or would be, if her brain would agree.
Miranda Currie, seen here working the entrance to the Snow Castle on March 13, suffered a traumatic head injury in 2011. Since then, she says she has had numerous issues with income support workers and as a result has been left without heat or food more than once. - Laura Busch/NNSL photo |
The 32-year-old transplanted Ontarian is an outdoor enthusiast. She was often seen kite skiing around Yellowknife Bay sometimes in her trademark tiger-striped bodysuit. In the summer months, Currie swapped her skis for a bicycle.
She was known as a talented musician. She was a member of the folk group Back Bay Scratchers and was working on her first solo album. She was self-employed with a number of part-time entrepreneurial pursuits, including teaching fiddle and outdoor recreation. She also served as executive director of the Taiga Adventure Camp.
All of that is in the past tense for now, after Currie suffered repeated concussions which literally stopped her in her tracks.
On the last Sunday of November 2011, Currie was kite skiing on Great Slave Lake when strong winds lifted her high into the air.
"I just remember thinking, 'Land well. Land well.' And I didn't. I fell on my head, I guess, and a dog woke me up licking my face."
On the advise of friends, Currie went to the hospital where it was confirmed she had suffered a concussion.
Three weeks after the initial fall, Currie was in Calgary celebrating a friend's birthday when she passed out getting out of a hot tub and hit her head again. Another trip to the emergency room revealed she had suffered another concussion and Currie reluctantly cancelled a planned solo bike trip through California's Joshua Tree Desert over Christmas.
By then, Currie was suffering from severe fatigue so she went to stay with her parents in Thunder Bay, Ont. However, she wanted to return to Yellowknife so shortly after Christmas, her father came with her and moved her back into her Woodyard shack.
In January 2012, she applied for Income Support. She says she never could have gotten through the amount of paperwork if not for the help from her dad.
The night her dad left, Currie sneezed and hit her head on a metal shelf. This small bump to the head threw her off balance and she couldn't shake the feeling that she was falling.
Suffering from dizziness, fatigue and occasional slurred speech, Currie's condition worsened.
She played a show with her band at the SnowKing festival last March but moments after exiting the stage, she collapsed into convulsions confirming something was very, very wrong.
Ever since, the simplest tasks have become challenging and Currie found herself in bed sleeping most of the time.
"I couldn't even walk for 10 seconds without shaking," she said. "I couldn't play fiddle anymore; I couldn't do anything."
Meanwhile, she was wondering why she wasn't seeing any money yet from Income Support. Unable to work, Currie again went in to the Income Support office in downtown Yellowknife to ask why she hadn't received a cheque yet.
Currie felt herself tearing up in the office. When the case worker noticed, the woman said, "Don't you start to cry. Crying won't get you anywhere with me."
"At the beginning, I was so embarrassed," said Currie, who said she has never collected any form of income assistance before.
"Usually, I'm so independent and I kind of pride myself on that. Usually I'm like, 'I don't need anyone to help me, I can do stuff on my own.' And to go in there and beg for money to eat and heat my house, that (just makes you wonder) how did I even get here?"
Finally, in April 2012, Currie received her first income support cheque.
However, the struggle with Income Support didn't end there. In October of last year, Currie was alerted that she had not filed the proper paperwork for the month before, which she said was untrue. This was the fourth time her paperwork had been lost by the office and Currie said she had learned to keep backup copies of everything.
She went to the office with copies of her papers to sort things out she needed the money to pay her rent and fill her heating fuel tank.
When the case worker saw her, she dismissed Currie and told her to return once she had made an appointment. Frustrated, Currie stumbled out of the office with her cane, crying. More than three quarters of her visits to the Income Support office ended in tears, she said.
"When people come to that Income Support office and they constantly get treated rudely, even if they're not drunk and trying really hard, there's no incentive," said Currie.
Since October, Currie's income support cheques have become so delayed she has been left without food or heat for her home. If not for help from her friends, she would not have made it though, she said.
To help deal with her anger over the situation, Currie decided to write a poem.
Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley read the poem, titled Income Outcome, aloud in the legislative assembly last Tuesday.
"To be fair, there are still people who mistreat the system and those frontline workers see that as well," said Bromley.
Since then, Currie has been the center of numerous news stories and the attention has gotten results.
The morning before News/North visited Currie at the entrance booth to SnowKing's castle where she volunteers, the deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment the department that oversees the Income Support program -- paid her a visit and assured her the department would do all it could to help her.
While she is happy she is finally getting the support she needs, Currie said she doesn't want all the attention centred on her.
"I just think about other people. I mean, not to be cocky but I'm a pretty smart cat and I have a good education behind me. I am aware there are a lot of resources because of the work I'd done previously. I just think of the people who have mental illness and grow up with a certain style all their life I feel lucky in a way."
