TEDx Aklavik speakers share big ideas in small hamlet

Jordan Peterson hopes speaking to youth in his community about building a legacy will inspire them to take the reins of their own future.  

He wants them to be able to look back at their lives in 20 or 30 years and say "that you made every decision yourself ... that you built your life the way you wanted it to be."

Peterson, a community development officer for the Gwich'in Tribal Council in Aklavik, is one of the speakers at tonight's TEDx Aklavik event. The evening features a collection of short talks on a range of topics meant to inspire learning and provoke conversation in the Arctic hamlet.

The event is an independent offshoot of TED, the American non-profit dedicated to spreading ideas. 

Shayla Snowshoe, a first-year indigenous studies student at the First Nations University of Canada in Regina, Sask., was invited to speak tonight because of her commitment to culture and education. 

"I'll be talking about my culture — being Tetlit Gwich'in — as well as my photography and how I incorporate the two into my life." 

When Snowshoe left Fort McPherson to attend university, she planned to become a nurse. Then she took an indigenous studies class and "got hooked." 

"Taking this indigenous studies class really gives me a sense of pride in being aboriginal," she says. It has inspired her to incorporate her aboriginal culture into her portrait photography work, by adding bead work or a piece of traditional artwork to the shot, for example. 

Snowshoe hopes her talk will help young people see that they don't have to choose between their culture and their education.

"They can succeed in both ways," she says. 

Many of tonight's talks will highlight the importance of education, including Peterson's.   

After travelling to other communities in Canada and around the world, Peterson was inspired to return home to Aklavik to work with youth and help develop more community initiatives for them. He wants young people to see the value of working hard in high school and hopes his talk will make some students realize they could be doing better. 

"The North isn't ever holding you back — it's yourself," he says. "And if you think that you're never ever going to go anywhere, then you're never ever going to go anywhere. 

"In the end, it's all you, it's no one else."

Other speakers tonight include Inuvik singer Leanne Goose and literacy advocate Inga Gardlund and school principal Velma Illasiak from Aklavik. 

The free event starts at 5:30 p.m. at Moose Kerr School.