“Electricity is magic; it just works like magic,”Annie Buscemi thought when she first started studying her trade. Now an advocate for mental health amongst Inuit and women in trades, she was born and raised in Iqaluit. She was the first to win the Young Inuk Woman of the Year Award from Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada in 2021 and as a trained journeyman electrician, she works as an assistant plant operator.

Buscemi found herself in the trades because she loves working with her hands and she struggled through high school other than shop class. “The world of trades, it's really exciting, and the amount of opportunities are vast. There are so many opportunities, so many different doors are open,” she beams. Working in a power plant was something she never thought about doing but the opportunity presented itself and she took it. She finds her work fulfilling and she loves sharing the trades with youth and others. “Funding is available. There are lots of supports for Indigenous people in the trades, so it's really exciting, and it's really awesome!” she exclaims.

While it’s possible to start working and train after, Buscemi did an eight month pre-apprenticeship program in Rankin Inlet where she learned first aid, WHMIS, trades math and English, and how to read blueprints. Originally, she applied to the carpentry program, but it was full and she chose electrical instead, thinking it would be easy. It turned out not to be easy at all with all the math involved but she found she built confidence as things made sense to her in practice. After failing math in high school and being convinced she wasn’t good at it, she was able to believe in herself as she learned. She remembers being amazed about how cool it would be that she would be spending the next four years studying electricity and while it actually ended up taking seven years, she was okay with that.

“You're able to basically make something out of nothing, you're able to manipulate energy in a way that makes light or it gives power. It's pretty cool… I find that electricity is really fascinating, and I feel lucky that I get to learn about it all the time,” Buscemi reflects, grateful every day on the job is different. When she worked in construction, she worked with a variety of other tradespeople from all over Canada, having a chance to learn from them and about their career paths.

At this point, Buscemi is taking the Red Seal course so she can work as a licensed electrician all over Canada. She’s taken the exam twice and failed so she’s taking the course to increase her chances of success. She has a pension, benefits and is part of a union so she has enough work-life balance to pursue her dreams after work. She’s thinking about pursuing electrical engineering in the future though the number of years of school involved feels daunting. She also wants to complete a course to become fluent in Inuktitut. While she understands it fluently and it was her first language for the first five years of her life, she is not able to speak it fluently now. Fluency is important to her in case one day she decides to open her own business in Iqaluit. She would also like to participate in business training. With all of these educational goals, she knows she needs to take things one step at a time.

Moving between classroom learning and on the job training with each level of training in becoming an electrician has been a good thing for Buscemi. Getting a pay raise with each apprenticeship level completed is motivating and having the chance to connect classroom concepts to practical applications in the field is helpful for her learning. Given Nunavut follows the Alberta curriculum, she got to study in Calgary and Edmonton as part of her education.

Her advice for Indigenous students considering leaving their home communities to pursue their education is to remind themselves that it’s temporary, to focus and work to be able to come back home. She acknowledges the shock of moving to a bigger city from a small community but found that the government can be really helpful for funding educational opportunities and she knew that when she came back from school there was a pay raise waiting for her through her apprenticeship.

When Buscemi was away, she actively sought out Indigenous groups through her school, attending their Indigenous spaces at lunch and after school. She surrounded herself with people who shared her struggles and understood her homesickness. Participating in regular events, enjoying tea, studying in a supportive space and being around people was a big help to her.

To balance her mental health and wellbeing, Buscemi leaned into her creativity, painting, drawing, colouring and doing puzzles. She also likes to drink tea or coffee and watch her favourite shows. Working nearly every day in construction was hard on her mental health and she eventually had to change jobs to one that had supports available.

Her inspiration comes from her cousin and aunt who are both creative and she loves to spend time with them, watching them create, spending time in their spaces and admiring their creative practices. While she once felt ashamed her art wasn’t as good, now she delights in the fun she has expressing herself. She also draws inspiration from the people around her, being outside walking and being present in the moment.

If she could share a message with her younger self it would be, “you don't have to be so hard on yourself, and you don't have to put yourself to a level that you're not able to sustain.” She had to learn to enjoy life, soak up her weekends, pace herself, rest and rejuvenate herself, reflect on lessons learned in the quiet times and preserve her energy for when it's needed. “Be so patient and be so kind to yourself, and it'll open up so many other doors for yourself,” she would add as advice to herself and others.

After not getting into carpentry as planned, Annie Buscemi built a career as an electrician and assistant power plant operator. This Young Inuk Woman of the Year award winner’s interest in the trades was sparked because she loved working with her hands and there were so many opportunities. Getting to spend her days making something out of nothing, she encourages Indigenous people to pursue a future in the trades every chance she gets.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.