“I think my culture, honestly, completely changed my life when I decided that I wanted to wear it with pride,” says Anabelle Latreille. She is nineteen years old and originally from Iqaluit, Nunavut but she grew up in Carlton Place, Ontario, just outside of Ottawa. She is an entrepreneur, an artist, jewelry designer, a poet, a throat singer, and digital creator with an impressive reach.

Growing up, Latreille lived with her mother and grandmother who are both Inuk. As a very white-passing person and as one of the few Inuit people in their neighbourhood, she struggled to express her culture and was quite shy. In grade ten, her mom started sewing and opened her eyes to her mom’s pride in her culture. Her mom got her forehead tattooed and later she followed suit. “I walked out crying because I had never felt so beautiful in my life,” she recalls.

Latreille remembers how lost she felt in school when she lacked cultural confidence. After receiving her tattoo, she started wearing traditional clothing, sealskin earrings, her mom’s parka and she finally felt, “I’m enough, I’m not scared, and this is who I am and this is who I’ve always wanted to be.”

In her final years of high school, Latreille was a strong advocate for Indigenous students, fighting back against racism. She also finally got the help she needed for ADHD, anxiety and depression. In grade 12, she would hang out with the students at Nunavut Sivuniksavut (NS) and it was the only school she applied to.

Initially, Latreille thought NS would be easy, but it was an emotional rollercoaster. She moved out of residence into her own apartment in the first four months. It was hard not to go to vendor events whenever she wanted to but her business partner and her mom reminded her that education was important. She learned a lot about her culture and valuable life skills.

Latreille got to throat sing, drum dance, participate in cultural workshops and learn about the Nunavut land claims agreement. “I learned just so much about myself and about who I wanted to be. It showed me the leader I wanted to be in the future,” she reminisces. At the end of the year, she went to Norway and met the Sami people. After NS, she worked on a cruise ship and sailed from Greenland, through the Northwest Territories and through the Northwest Passage in Alaska.

When it comes to her business, Latreille started it when she was 16. She made her first set of beaded lashes for her best friend’s birthday. Her friend encouraged her to sell them at the powwow and her business partner, Denise, was her first customer. They sold out in an hour and a half. She named her business Queen of Ottawa after a nickname her grandmother gave her. Soon her lashes were on runways and companies were reaching out to her. “Beaded lashes aren't just beaded lashes to me. They're so much more,” she beams. She has been inspired by her mom’s business, which she started over the pandemic making sealskin earrings and jewelry.

When it comes to furthering her education, Latreille’s taking Business Fundamentals at Algonquin College. She was nervous at first as the only Indigenous person in her program. After graduation, she wants to take her second year of NS and then go into education. She would like to teach in Nunavut, either workshops or as a teacher. At some point, she would like to work for the government of Nunavut.

Inspiring her towards education is her big heart, her love for her people and her desire to help. “Inuit are some of the most precious, beautiful, creative people that you will ever meet,” Latreille shares. She wants to give back to her community and she thinks of all the youth she’s met through her business. She sees what her business partner has done with her masters of education and knows what can be accomplished.

Her advice for Indigenous youth considering leaving their home communities would be, “Your home is always going to be there, your family is always going to be there, and even if they don't support you, they're going to support you in the end, because you got that education.” Latreille remembers how the Director of NS told them nobody could take away the education they would be receiving and the opportunities available to them would only increase. At NS and Algonquin, there are opportunities to bond with other students from the same background and feel less alone, too.

As far as obstacles, Latreille struggled the most with advocates who say they support Indigenous youth when they really don’t. She has also struggled with hate from her own people who say she’s too white to be doing what she does. She’s shared some of her discomfort with feeling “not enough” because of her mixed ancestry on TikTok and has had a lot of views on her content.

If Latreille could give her younger self advice it would be to not be afraid of who she is and to say, “Always go to your culture, because culture heals you. Culture loves you.” Her advice to any young person is, “Wear your culture with pride and never be scared of who you are or where you come from, even when it's hard or if it hurts you, because at the end of the day, nobody can take your culture away from you.”

To balance her mental wellness, Latreille first sought out help as a teen for her anxiety and depression. She journaled and wrote poetry to heal and her team shared it with other Inuit families. She throat sings and sings traditional drum dancing songs when she is anxious.

“You can seek help in many different ways, and even if one way doesn't work, keep trying…it's never easy to get help, but in the end, it becomes a lot easier.”

When it comes to what motivates her, Latreille is always thinking about the future generation. She’s inspired by Indigenous youth. She’s currently trying to sew her own parka and looking to work with the school board to help build their curriculum about the Inuit.

“Indigenous youth are the future of our population.”

In closing, her advice to Indigenous people who want to start their own business would be, “Do it! Get out of your comfort zone… You never know where the direction of entrepreneurship is going to take you…entrepreneurship is so powerful and it's such an amazing circle to be a part of.”

As an entrepreneur, artist, jewelry designer, poet, throat singer, and digital creator at just 19, Anabelle Latreille has so much to share with the world. Queen of Ottawa was a nickname her grandmother gave her and it’s what she named her business making beaded lashes that has been a resounding success from the powwow circuit to the runways. Originally from Iqaluit but raised near Ottawa, she is an urban Inuk with a big heart for her people back home.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.