“I really want to live in a good way and share that with the world around me,” beams Cynthia Pavlovich. She is from Mayo, Yukon and she currently lives in Yellowknife. When she lived in Mayo, she dropped out of school and didn’t finish grade 12 when she was supposed to. She later went to Yukon College and got her administrative certificate and worked for the government. She also trained to be an ambulance attendant. She ended up moving to Yellowknife and worked in inventory control, HR, and marketing. Then, she had three boys who she stayed home to homeschool. After her relationship broke down and she was trying to decide how to support herself, her friends encouraged her to start a business selling her beadwork.  She started selling beaded poppies and rainbow earrings and that was the start of her home-based business which she calls Gwich'in Luxury, inspired by the matriarchs in her family.

Her grandmother created beadwork for her grandkids and her kids and her mom taught her to bead.

“Once it became my business, I decided that I really wanted to do my best to make sure that I gave back in whatever way I could, whether it was like working with youth or donating my time or just being open to anybody who'd taken a workshop to come to my home and sit with me anytime they wanted to come and craft or have a cup of tea and share some bannock and just really lean into those Gwich'in values of love and community and acceptance,” she explains.

When she first started her business, she just made beadwork and now she makes beaded and traditional slippers, grad stoles, purses, and she works with fur. Always on the lookout to try something new, she loves to learn. When she went to work in government again in 2022, she was trained to be a facilitator in Power + Systems for organizational design workshops and When Cultures Meet. She also trained through First Nations Health Authority to be an Indigenous professional coach and took Wellness Counselling through Cornell. She studied intergenerational trauma, somatic movements and vagus nerve theory, anything to help her break cycles and empower her kids to be present in their bodies. She also wanted to share that knowledge with friends and family. Growing up in Mayo, she also learned the language, arts and crafts and was part of the dance groups.

To give back through her business, Pavlovich provides art and language workshops. She was part of the mentor apprentice program for a year and that prepared her to write trilingual books. She also does traditional introductions. Pavlovich even recorded a workshop for the Native Women’s Association called Investing in Yourself, encouraging people to put themselves first, a lesson she had to learn herself.

“Once I started to get back on the land and learn my language and connect with my people and learn my stories and really lean into my art and my beadwork, my heart started to feel in such beautiful, beautiful ways and I've been on this amazing healing journey. Now I just feel the need to just share it with anyone and everyone that I can, because I want everybody to believe that they can chase their dreams and become absolutely anything they want to. Because I really, truly believe that every person has the ability to be whatever they want to be,” she shares.

Her advice for students who have to leave their home communities to pursue their dreams is, “Just have confidence in yourself. It was, by far, probably one of the scariest things I ever did, to leave my family and my community where I knew everyone, but moving to Yellowknife and having a fresh start all by myself was really the best thing I ever could have done for myself, because it encouraged me to be fiercely independent. It also taught me that the best person to look after me is actually me, and not to rely on other people for too much. I think that independence gave me, gave me a bit of strength and resilience. I think that people from small communities are able to do just about anything they want to do. We just sometimes don't believe that. Just be brave and get out there, go see the world, travel, go to school.” She advises to connect with people to overcome isolation for the sake of good mental health and to let new friends become new family. Reflecting on her own experience, she recalls how she met wonderful people, had good work experiences and how much she enjoyed the art scene.

If she could share a message with her younger self it would be to invest in herself more. Always a people pleaser, she didn’t have the best boundaries and she often found herself overextended. When she slowed down and lived with purpose instead of just doing what she was asked to do, it made a big difference. “Live in a positive and purposeful way, be a little selfish, and think about whether you're making decisions for you or for others, and make them for yourself first,” she would say.

To balance her mental health and wellbeing, Pavlovich leans into cultural teachings like moon water teachings and smudges. She also likes to pray and put down tobacco offerings before she goes out on the land. She’s been in residential school counselling for five years now. Her favourite thing to do is beadwork because it keeps her mind off of all her worries. She also likes to do Indigenous tarot cards.

When it comes to inspiration, Pavlovich is inspired by wanting to leave the world a better place for her children. She’s also inspired by her mother and grandmother, the strong women she comes from who she wants to make proud and break cycles for. She’s motivated to leave positive traditions for the next generations by teaching her kids to drum and now she teaches drum making. In closing, Pavlovich hopes to inspire young people to chase their dreams and be absolutely anything they want to be.

As a single mom, Cynthia Pavlovich created a beadwork business called Gwich'in Luxury to support her family but she’s branched out since then. Trained as a facilitator, a professional Indigenous coach, and a wellness counsellor she’s invested in helping others feel better and live their best lives. Wanting to live in a good way and share that with the world around her, she’s taking what she’s learned from traditional teachings and from school and putting it all into practice the best way she knows how.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.