Stephanie Thorassie
Stephanie holds up a caribou hide. (Photo Credit: Stephanie Thorassie)
Stephanie Thorassie is a Land Advocate and Executive Director of the Seal River Watershed Initiative - an initiative led by the Sayisi Dene First Nation to protect the entirety of the Seal River watershed for our future generations in partnership with their Cree, Dene and Inuit neighbours.
A proud member of the Sayisi Dene First Nation, Stephanie is also a Mother, Hide Tanner, Caribou Eater, Esthetician, Award Winning Makeup Artist, Jewelry Creator, Vegetable Gardener, and Dog Lover.
We sat down with Stephanie to explore her personal journey from her 10-year career as an esthetician to leading a collaborative effort to create the largest Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) in what is now known as Canada.
Stephanie shares the story of the Seal River Watershed Initiative and how four Indigenous Nations and Governments are coming together to protect, revitalize, and share this special place with the world.
With her connection within the Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership, Stephanie has found a community of like-minded leaders in conservation who are facing similar challenges and opportunities.
Listen to our conversation by clicking the white ‘play’ button below.
Download this episode by clicking ‘download’ in grey.
Full Transcript
Kristy Tomkinson
Hello, kwe’, boozhoo, taanishi, oki, atelihai , chachim hihak kwaa, bonjour and welcome to Community Connections – a collection of stories from the Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership that explores relationships that strengthen our work to support and elevate Indigenous-led conservation across what is now known as Canada.
My name is Kristy Tomkinson and I will be your conversation guide.
In this episode, I am speaking with Stephanie Thorassie, a proud member of the Sayisi Dene First Nation. Stephanie is a Land Advocate and Executive Director of the Seal River Watershed Initiative, and a Mother, Hide Tanner, Caribou Eater, Esthetician, Award Winning Makeup Artist, Jewelry Creator, Vegetable Gardener, and Dog Lover. So, make yourself some tea, get comfortable, and join us.
So, thank you, Stephanie, for joining us for the community connection series.
I thought we'd start with you providing a brief introduction to yourself.
Stephanie Thorassie
Okay, (introduction in Dene language).
Hello, my name is Stephanie Thorassie. I'm from Tadoule Lake Manitoba. I am Sayisi Dene First Nation. I was born in Thompson, but I was raised in Tadoule Lake in the middle of nowhere. I went to school there in a one-room school until we got a school built for us and I stayed there until grade 12. I moved to Winnipeg when I was 17 for university and I didn't know a soul, and I still live in Winnipeg, but I work for the Seal River Watershed Alliance.
So, I was actually an esthetician for 10 years, but I fell and broke my, both of my wrists 2 years ago, and so my career then changed very drastically. And I was sitting there, putting it out manifesting into the world, I’m like "ok. What can I do for myself?" you know I’m so passionate about my culture and my language and my family. I really want to work for home and do good things for our communities, and I have such a connection to the caribou and hide tanning, and all these really awesome things that are a huge core and being for myself. And I basically was called in for this job that started changing and growing very rapidly as I was more and more involved and two years later, I’m sitting here as the executive director of the Seal River Watershed Alliance.
We are pushing forward the biggest IPCA submission in Canada right now. So it's 50,000 square kilometers of space that crosses territorial boundaries that are written on the map by colonial people, it encompasses and includes 3 different languages and cultures, it extends beyond the territory of Nunavut and Manitoba border, it includes the habitat of the caribou, it includes space where the polar bears roam, it includes the beluga estuary, where the belugas have their babies, we are home to millions and millions of birds in the boreal. It's really an amazing space that we really want to preserve for future generations of our peoples to be authentically ourselves, but also to be able to share with others; other Canadians; people around the world. Because we know how special and unique this space is. There's not a lot of spaces like it in the world anymore and we're here to bring a voice to that space, and to say that we this is what the space needs is needs to be: protected and shared and saved. You know it's there's not a lot of space like it in the world. So, that's what we do.
Kristy Tomkinson
That's amazing, that's quite a transition from an esthetician to working on this, the largest IPCA in the country.
What was that first job that that you got? Was that within the initiative itself, or was it something that led to that?
Stephanie Thorassie
Oh well, it was, I was going to school for a paralegal. Our project senior advisor messaged me saying "we're having a youth summit. I'd really like for you to be involved. There's must be something you can do. Contact this person." so I contacted the person, and she was like "oh amazing! This is great. You can be one of the youths that attends" and things like that right? And I’m like "no, no no, I’m not a youth anymore. Thank you very much, but I think, I’m almost 40 and I don't really qualify as that age category." she's like, "oh, oh. Ok yeah, you have to be like 30 and under." I’m like, "I know", but I really enjoy high tanning and other skills like that, that I’ve learned from my grandmas. And so, I suggested that I come up to the youth summit that happened that was put on by CPAWS and the project initiative when it first started. And so that was when I met a bunch of people that were working on the project then, and then after that I was offered a position just part time while I was going to school for the paralegal job as just an assistant just to help with whatever I could. And then once I was done school, I got full time hours and then honestly my responsibilities just really kind of grew and grew and grew as I was getting more and more involved.
I was, I’m very motivated, I guess, in just wanting to learn everything I could about the project. And so, uh, I just immersed myself in it and attended all of the strategy meetings and really tried to make sure that I knew what I was talking about in learning about this project and learning about this new type of work that was, that is really new to us. And as I was kind of growing in the in the job the project was changing and also kind of incorporated and then ended up changing from its original shape and form to what it is now.
So now we're so proud and we're so excited to say that our project is run 100% by community members. We no longer have outside organizations kind of coming in and telling us what we need to do for our communities and our space and that's also really important for work like this. I know that it's something that we see that's often been the narrative for our lives historically, you know? There's so much time when other people are telling us where we need to send their kids to school, what that needs to look like, how we need to live our lives. You know?
I come from a family where, and a community where, the federal government told us that we needed to move from where we were living, and we were nomadic and moved everybody to Churchill. It was a forced relocation and a third of our population died. My parents survived by literally going to the garbage dump and eating food from the garbage dump and pulling frozen bananas out of people's garbage cans in their backyards in Churchill, hiding under buildings to hide from polar bears and to hide from intoxicated people, and witnessed murders and suicides, and rapes and all these really, really bad things that happened to the people because of the outsiders telling you, telling us what was good for us, you know? So that's a really big reason from lived learned experience why we needed to do this project for ourselves, because we've always been stewards and listening to the land and existing out there. Like the sub-arctic is not an easy place to live, it's not a kind place to live, but we thrived there, you know? We did it since time immemorial.
So, I think now is the time for that narrative to change and for us to stand up and say like "we know what needs to happen out here and we know how we need to work together and how we need to create this space so that it stays this way." it's what's, I think, most important for us.
Kristy Tomkinson
That's so inspiring to hear and then happy to hear that, I was about to ask you, where the project stands now. But it sounds like it's in a very good place. It's made the right shift to where you'd like it to be.
Stephanie Thorassie
Yeah, it's been really, really, really inspiring, you know?
COVID-19 happened, and we were all really scared and really worried about what was gonna happen to this project because that's when things really started. That’s when we incorporated, and that's when, like the direction was made by our leadership, that this needed to be a shift in how the project was run, and then COVID hit. Then we like kinda just dug our heels in and we created these 13 working groups to tackle all of the different strategies that needed to happen for the project to move forward.
And we were on zoom all day, every day, probably for four months. We met, we had community members, we had Elders, we had project staff. We also had partners from all over North America, helping us with these strategy calls; people in Seattle, people in in Yellowknife, people in Winnipeg, from all over, you know? Like people that were really helping us with answering some questions on things that we think we needed, how do we need to get there, right?
So, we had all these strategy calls and just last month, I suppose two months ago now, at the beginning December, we were able to have an in-person meeting in Thompson and we were able to come up with a draft declaration of Indigenous rights to protect the area, which is really, really amazing. It was so inspiring and so, it just felt really, really good. People cried. People were happy and excited, and people were so supportive of the work we're doing for so many different reasons. And we also created the terms of reference for our advisory groups that we want to have. We are extending some of the membership of for our some of our board to some other neighbors in the province, you know? There's like, despite these really big obstacles, we've managed to still get a lot done with the project, and it's been really exciting.
Last year, in the fall, we were able to do a tour and we visited the four nations in the province, in Manitoba. We haven't been to Arviat yet, in a long time, we've been there once. But we visited Barren Lands First Nation, Northlands Denesuline First Nation, Sayisi Dene First Nation, and O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation and we were able to conduct interviews with Elders and land users and youth and we engaged about 260 people and we really just.... I just got the draft of this really amazing report of all this really amazing information that was shared. And there's these maps that showed the land usage and traditional territories, and all this overlap, and it's just amazing at how networked these different cultures and languages and people are and that make a really large space actually really tiny.
Kristy Tomkinson
So, it sounds like you've really done well, despite COVID, being able to make connections you know across geographies, even into the United States and other areas. So, you've built this really large community in support of your initiative. So, I’m curious to know how you got to know about or hear about the Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership.
Stephanie Thorassie
Steven Nitah asked me to join this past summer. There was a meeting that had happened, and he kept saying, 'cause he's one of our advisors, he's saying "you know, Steph, I think you'd really like it" because I share sometimes about what it's like to carry the weight and responsibility of the work that we're doing and how heavy that can be sometimes. It's not something a lot of people understand, what it, what that feels like. And so, he said that it would be really great for me to start joining.
And the one, the meeting that I did get to join, or the call that I did get to join, it was a Saturday I believe. And I was sitting on my steps cleaning a caribou, cleaning the hair off of a caribou hide. And I was sitting there and then he messaged me and says, "are you joining?" and I’m like "oh my god I forgot I’m so sorry". So, I joined right? And so, I had caribou hair all over my hands and yeah, I was just I was working while I was listening to everybody and it was just really really nice to be there and to hear different songs and to hear different people from all over Canada, like talking about the same real kind of like ideas and thoughts and processes that we were currently going through.
So, it was after that that I started receiving kind of more emails and then I got the official invitation to join, and I thought "you know, let's see what this is like". And I felt, I really appreciate being able to hear other people going through the same things that we're going through. Yeah.
Kristy Tomkinson
I remember that moment actually, when you joined that day. I think it was our, the anniversary to celebrate the partnership and it was one of my first times seeing the wider community because I had just joined them in February. So that was a special moment to see everyone come together despite the pandemic and sharing their reflections and their hopes and vision for this work.
I'd like to know if you've been able to connect with any new members or any new individuals through your connection with the Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership. Have you been able to broaden your community?
Stephanie Thorassie
I have had some people reach out and ask some questions and really, I guess, share their excitement for our progress and share encouraging words and thoughts. That's been really, really nice. As I said when you feel like the future of your culture and language and space and habitat for caribou are all dependent on work that you do on getting down that task list and is really dependent on like this huge big working wheel of things that need to happen, and when you really start thinking about all those really huge big picture things that can be really, really overwhelming and it can get really heavy sometimes and so I’ve really felt like attending and just listening and sharing what we've gone through so far has helped disperse that weight a little bit amongst other people who I feel like are also going through the same thing.
Sometimes I think it's a little bit lonely to do this work when you feel the weight of the responsibility so heavy. So, it's been really nice to share some of that, and not necessarily in a negative way, you know? Like it's been really exciting to hear the progress of some other places and to, without really talking about the weight of the responsibility, just being able to, just knowing that there's other people out there and other projects out there that are kind of going through these same things is a has been really beneficial to myself.
Kristy Tomkinson
That's lovely, it's great to hear.
Are you finding that there are more learning opportunities as well? In addition to being able to just share your experiences, are you able to find any learning opportunities through the partnership?
Stephanie Thorassie
Yeah, I actually, I was reading a book on law and Indigenous rights just before my first real meeting with you guys, or after the anniversary, and then Dr. Roger I think his name is came on and he started talking about the exact same thing because he was actually a part of this whole process. And so, I was able to really kind of ask some questions about that and 'cause I’m always kind of interested in like the legal side of some of the work that we're doing and the different designations and how people, how different protected areas were able to achieve these things. You know? 'Cause that's always the, you always have to think about like, well "how are some of the ways we can strategize and what are some of the ways that this could happen?" or "what are some of the ways that has happened?" which has been really intriguing and interesting to me. I really, the last get together we had we were talking about financing and the future and different, I guess, ways that this could happen or ways to look at other resources. I thought that was really great. And there is some new language and words that were being used in that last call that I really thought were so fitting to the work that we do, and I really liked that. I really enjoyed hearing those different new terms and things.
Kristy Tomkinson
And so, what do you hope to gain from your participation in these circles and from participating within the partnership? Are there relationships you'd like to build, for example?
Stephanie Thorassie
Yeah, you know, I think it's, I think networking is really, really important. I think that that's one of the main things that we talk about with the Seal is inclusivity and cooperation with our neighbors.
You know historically, the Dene people and the Cree people or the Dene people and Inuit people have never gotten along. We've never had real good relationship other than here and there, right? But like if you look back in history and things, and this is something that we've really tried to look past for this project, right?
There isn't any other project like it that encompasses 4 different nations plus a hamlet in Nunavut. This is very unique in that, and I think that really exemplifies what we think and what our goal and our vision is really that, you know? The most important part is this area of land and if that means we do this with our neighbors and with our friends, and with our allies, you know this isn't just about one person or one nation or one group. I think it’s really important that that we utilize everybody that can be support to make this happen, which is like, I think, the real end goal is seeing that there's this space that's for the future, and I really do think that you know, the more we talk about the work we're doing, the more we share with our allies and friends, and the more we can learn, the more safe places like this we can create, and that's what really needs to happen.
There's so much happening in the world that's destroying that's there's all this climate change and all these really bad things I think it's really good to work with each other that are all going through the same thing and to learn what strategies are working for them and to what things might not be working for them and to really try to almost be lifting each other up at the same time, I think that's really important.
Kristy Tomkinson
Yeah, I think I think you've just expressed kind of the spirit of the partnership, which is as Eli reminds us, “We Rise Together”. We have to stick together on this and there's so many divisions going on right now, and it's important that we come together and build relationships, connections, and share knowledge and experiences and we can get to where we need to be.
I have one final question for you, and that is around what are your hopes or vision either within your, your specific initiative with the Seal River Watershed or for Indigenous-led conservation overall?
Stephanie Thorassie
Well, my dream, I guess, and hope is that we are able to find ways to be self-sustaining and to exist on our own, with our own terms and our own rules and our own kind of traditions guiding us I think that creating these spaces is really, really important for us to have access to, being ourselves authentically, without having to worry about society in general, you know? Like place to not feel nervous or worried or concerned about doing things that are culturally important to you and to celebrate those things. I think that that's really important. But also, you know it's exciting to share some of that with the world that might be ready to participate and witness and yeah, I think it's time to really celebrate our cultures and our differences.
For so long we were told that our cultures and our languages weren't good and weren't the right thing to be doing, and they weren't anything to be proud of. But I think you know there is an awakening happening of younger people who are starting to realize that it's ok to be ourselves and to stand on top of a hill and let everybody know that this is who we are, and we're not scared to say it. It's I think that's something that I’ve been doing for a long time.
As an esthetician, ,as a student, as a Dene tzekwi woman, I’ve kind of always been that person that's been saying "no, we need to do this and this is so important" and explaining to other people the injustices that our communities and our people have faced for so long, and I think that having a safe place like this like this for ourselves and others, I think is a is a really important part of grasping on and holding on really tightly to ourselves and our cultures.
Kristy Tomkinson
That's beautiful. Thank you, Stephanie.
Stephanie Thorassie
You're welcome.
Kristy Tomkinson
That concludes this week’s story on Community Connections. New episodes will be released biweekly and you can find all episodes on our website at www.conservation-reconciliation.ca.
We would like to extend our gratitude to all of our community members who have made this series possible, including Heather Patterson and our guest contributors. The music for this series is called Moonrise and is produced by Reed Mathis.
If you are enjoying this series and are interested in sharing your stories of connection, please email us at crpinfo@uoguelph.ca
Thank you and tune in next time to Community Connections.