Speak up, educate yourself and organize
Gwich’in youth worker leads by example at home and abroad
Daron Letts
Northern News Services
Monday, March 16, 2015
INUVIK
Young people separated by more than 10,000 km of tundra, desert and ocean have more in common than some may think, according to Inuvik-based youth worker Jordan Peterson.
Jordan Peterson, originally from Aklavik, was appointed as a community development officer with the Gwich’in Tribal Council on March 2. In January, he was appointed co-chair of Our Voices, an emerging leaders group of First Nations youth in the NWT, the Yukon and Northwest British Columbia. - photo courtesy of Jordan Peterson |
Peterson traveled to Norway to talk about Gwich’in self-governance and the importance of protecting Arctic land and water with Nigerian and Scandinavian youth this past fall.
"The trip to Norway was primarily based on bringing the Canadian North to Norway and to Nigerian youth to speak to high schools about environmental issues in our respective areas," he said.
Partnered with a Nigerian activist, Peterson, 27, traveled to eight Norwegian high schools in his
role as an NWT delegate with the Youth Arctic Coalition, an independent international organization formed in 2013 to amplify young circumpolar voices.
Peterson saw familiar themes in stories shared by Nigerian and Norwegian youth.
"Right now there’s really a big movement of young people taking on big roles and trying to make change in their own countries and their own regions and their own communities," he said.
Peterson spoke abroad about First Nation resistance to U.S. oil and gas exploration in the Porcupine caribou calving grounds and the campaign to protect the Peel watershed in Fort McPherson and his home community of Aklavik.
The trip served the Youth Arctic Coalition’s mandate to bring together circumpolar youth who otherwise would not be brought together, explained Toronto-based executive director Kass Yaneev Forman.
Peterson worked with the association executive to help develop the group’s constitution, Forman added.
Elders and youth
Locally, Peterson is working in the Gwich’in Settlement Region to help young people speak out for themselves, their land and their people.
This past August he organized a five-day elders and youth forum in Inuvik. About 20 youth ranging from ages 11 to 28 and 20 elders took part in the workshop series, designed to build relationships between generations.
"It was also trying to build leadership skills among the youth and I think when you see the comparison from day one to the last day and how they were able to talk in front of a group of people, let alone their peers, you could really see the progress that especially the younger ones made," he said.
"Being able to speak in front of people and to a diverse amount of people is the only way you’re going to get that experience – to actually go and do it."
Peterson worked in the southern construction industry after attending Moose Kerr School in Aklavik, but he continued his education by keeping informed about the Gw’ichin Tribal Council and by participating in the organization’s activities and programs whenever he could.
He was appointed to a community development officer position with the council on March 2.
He encourages young people to graduate from high school and to pursue post-secondary education in order to build their skills to make a difference in the world.
On March 20, he is scheduled to accompany 10 Gwich’in youth to St. John’s, N.L. for a tour of Memorial University.
"Don’t wait to get an education, go out and do it. Get it done with now, because when the Gwich’in Tribal Council gets self-government we’re going to need to train people to be able to run our own government," he said.
