THUNDER BAY - When Ardelle Sagutcheway was only 14-years-old, she left her home community of Eabametoong First Nation to continue her education beyond grade 9.
“It was a terrifying experience,” she said. “I was so young. I was just trying to figure out who I was, but at the same time I had to go through this huge experience with no other choice.”
Sagutcheway shared her story of leaving her home community and the challenges she faced during the first annual SHE Conference, hosted by the Redwood Park Church.
The two-day conference of women of all ages and backgrounds was an opportunity to share stories of hope, encouragement, and purpose.
Annika Pretchuk, a pastor with Redwood Park Church, said the conference has been in planning for a long time and she was very excited to see more than 260 people register.
For the first conference, Pretchuk said members of Redwood wanted to reach out to Indigenous students attending Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School.
“We have a vision at Redwood to never be just about ourselves, to live beyond ourselves,” Pretchuk said. “Dennis Franklin Cromarty is two blocks away from here, and there are many students and many moms and our hearts go out to families where parents have to send their kids off at 13-years-old to go to school.”
Sagutcheway was one of those students who left home to attend school in Thunder Bay. She enrolled at Sir Winston Churchill High School and one of the biggest challenges she faced was the social isolation.
“It wasn’t easy,” she said. “It took a while for me figure out what I wanted to do and who I wanted to become. I think it was just having the support of a few people, unconditional support with no judgment. I had a teacher I really enjoyed having and she was really supportive of me. Having people like that helped me.”
Now 28-years-old, Sagutcheway is a student at Lakehead University and she has also worked on several anti-racism projects in the city, including releasing the film, Coming Together to Talk.
From her talk during the SHE Conference, Sagutcheway hopes other young women and students will take away a message that they are not alone and there is always a way to overcome the challenges we face in life.
“There’s always hope,” she said. “When you’re in that situation or when you are in that moment, you often can’t see beyond that. I think it’s empowering for them to see what that hope can bring.”
As a way of showing support for Indigenous students who are away from home and attending school, donations were collected during the She Conference to craft care packages that will be handed out to the 80 students attending Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School. Everyone was also asked to write messages of encouragement and hope to the students that will be included with the packages when they are handed out in the coming weeks.
“We just wanted to do something to help show support for students at DFC who are far away from home and their families and even to show love and support and care to the parents who are leaving their kids,” Pretchuk said. “We want them to know there are people in Thunder Bay that are safe and love and care for students even if they don’t have their parents around.”