"Education is the key to success of our young people moving forward with their post-secondary journeys," says Ethel Jean Gruben. She was born and raised in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, the eighth of fifteen children. Of Gwich'in, Cree, and Alaskan Inupiat ancestry, she's registered under the Inuvialuit land claim.

For the past nine years, Gruben has worked for IRC where she is the manager of the cultural center and also provides language and culture support to Inuvialuit communities as well as beneficiaries who live outside the area. Before that, she worked for the government of the Northwest Territories, first in the health authority, then in HR as a human resource officer until she moved up to work as the regional manager of HR and recruitment. Before her time in government, she lived in Tuktoyaktuk and worked for a transportation company for ten years as an office manager. She describes it as one of the best places to work because she loves the people. She handled the payroll, GST, year end accounting, accounts payable and receivable, tenders and with the people, a staff which grew to up to 100 people at times.

Working in the transport industry and working in government HR prepared Gruben for her current role, helping her to be a good manager and provide a positive employee experience. Her organization delivers language and storytelling as well as gender-based workshops, too. They fund sewing programs, workshops to make traditional sleds, and other activities where language learning can be blended with traditional skill development.

While participants are connecting with language and culture, they are also participating in a traditional economy and are better able to provide for themselves and their families. Funding is provided to communities and the communities decide how to allocate it based on what works best for them, recognizing their uniqueness. Communities are accountable for their spending and report back on the choices they make.

Gruben's advice for students who have to leave home to pursue their dreams is "Home will always be there when you get back. You're not going to miss out on very much." She encourages students to connect with their families through zoom and Facetime and says, "Education is the key to your future. It's key to your freedom." She suggests connecting with Indigenous supports at university and in their new communities and to see what supports are available to them. "Quitting is the last resort," she asserts.

Something Gruben recommends is preparing students early, in grade 9 and 10, for when they finish school, the way the Beaufort Delta Region takes grade 12 students to Edmonton-area universities. Preparing students for the responsibilities of being on their own when they go to school, getting themselves up, getting themselves to class and being committed to their studies. She also suggests sharing information about grants, funding and subsidy programs to avoid financial stressors. Learning budgeting skills is also important for helping students thrive. She hopes to see students succeed so they come back to the North as future leaders. "They are our future," she beams.

To balance her mental health, Gruben spends time on the land year round, picking berries, harvesting food, and spending time at her cabin. She works with traditional foods, bakes, sews and reaches out to friends when she needs to. She encourages people to reach out to available resources if need be and to their families. She loves spending time on the water, too.

When it comes to inspiration, after being raised in residential school and with so many siblings, then moving away to Tuktoyaktuk where she met and married her husband who was very traditional, Gruben saw many young people with so many traditional skills, baking bread, drying meat, plucking and gutting geese and she wanted that for herself. "What inspires me is seeing other people who live a rich, traditional lifestyle, who could speak the language, and enjoy the culture without being ashamed of it. Being proud of who they are and where they come from makes me want to be more of that person because growing up, we weren't taught to be like that," she reflects, thinking about the assimilation she faced in residential school. Immersing herself in culture, she was able to pass those skills on to her children who now enjoy the land, the food from the land and cultural activities.

In closing, she shares, "Never allow residential school to be a reason for you to fail in life. Use it as a reason why you're going to be successful, because if you let that system destroy you, they win. You do what you can today to get on your feet, to get well, to take advantage of any kind of healing journey, and it's never too late to go back to school, and show those people who tried to destroy us that they never did by being successful in life, by getting well, and letting that past go because it's in the past now… Don't let it destroy you. Learn from it and show them that you're better than that system ever was."

After facing assimilation in residential school, Ethel Jean Gruben found her way back to culture and now helps people reconnect with language and traditional activities as part of her job. Using the skills she learned working for the government and in the transportation industry, she's better prepared to help her people thrive in her new role. She learned the traditional skills she longed for and passed them on to her children, now she's helping other communities learn them, too.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.