1. Where did you do your internship?

I did three internships. The first two didn't count because I wasn't involved in the internship program. And the one that counted was a company now called Calgary Show Services. I started in 2013 and still absolutely love working there, even eight years later!

 

2. Knowing what you know now, what advice would you have liked to give yourself as you started your internship?

Bring and use your equalizer (proverbial and otherwise).

 

3. What is something that really stands out when you think of your time at MRU in journalism?

It was really supportive. Now, to put in much more eloquent terms, the support was there to ensure that I could pursue storytelling with my own community with integrity.

 

4. How transferable were the skills you acquired in your education?

I would have benefited more learning about methods for community collaboration. Other than that, it’s been awesome. Now, I make videos all the time. I work with audio all the time. My internship opened up the opportunity for me to be working with audio for seven years now. The skills were just immensely transferable towards supporting language revitalization and community work.

 

5. In your career, what type of work has most excited you and why?

Indigenous language revitalization and reclamation with communities connected to languages that I'm connected to, and working with one of the last generations of fluent speakers to grow up with these languages as their first language. So, this work is immediate, and this community collaboration needs to happen now. And it needs to happen with supports available at the community, nation, territory/province and individual level. And, relationships need to be fostered to enable that. So that's why I'm so passionate about that.

 

6. What is the most important but unwritten rule that you’ve learned on the job?

Be patient, be as patient as it takes. And sometimes being patient takes half a year or multiple years. And, if the conversation isn't meant to happen, then it might happen later. You’ve got to take your time with things and respect other people taking their time too. Be patient with yourself and others. Now, when you're holding politicians accountable, that's a different story.