“I kept going, and that's why I’m where I am today,” Sheryl Yakeleya beams. She was raised in Fort Providence, Northwest Territories. In her early career, she worked as a pre and postnatal program coordinator, supporting women in Fort Simpson. She also worked with elders in the community, bringing them in to teach self care during pregnancy. Additionally, she did nutrition counselling life skills work. Later, she worked as a residential school program coordinator, community wellness program coordinator, a justice coordinator, a family mentor worker before finally becoming an MLA. She’s in her second year as an MLA.

Motivating her to become an MLA was the kind of work she did as a mentor worker, conducting sharing circles and advocating for people on housing, health care and personal development. Prior to that, she joined a campaign school for women. The training she took let her go to communities and teach women how to run campaigns. She was working with a woman who was a former MLA and with her husband who was also a former MLA. People approached her and asked her to put her name in for the territorial election and she did, successfully winning half the votes in her region.

As far as education goes, Yakeleya finished her GED at Aurora College in Fort Smith in 1994 and then twenty years later she took Business Administration. Prior to that, she took a year of social work but it didn’t feel aligned for her.  She’s also been trained in hypnotherapy, NLP, and other forms of therapy and energy work.

Her advice for Indigenous students who have to leave their home communities to go to school is “It's very important, because … we don't have the facilities in the Northwest Territories, like universities they have down south. When you go, you get to experience many different things. It's going to be new, but it's also going to be exciting, because you're going to meet some pretty good people that will help you on your path. It's taking the opportunity and believing in yourself. If I could do it, and other people could do it, you can do it too. It's just amazing what could happen. You don't know until you go and you'll create a support system over there. You'll meet other students. You will get to do different things, not like we do in the small communities here. It's so important to go out and get an education, so that way, when you come back, you can help your communities. The way it is up North here, we really need people to come back and help us.”

When it comes to obstacles Yakeleya has faced, she didn’t finish high school and she started her family young. Having daughters so young, she didn’t feel motivated to go to school because she was focused on her kids. It was hard to figure out how to go to school later on. Ultimately, she decided to just go, moving to a different community. “It seems like any obstacles that were in front of me, I just kept going… I just kept doing the next thing…until I finished,” she recalls. She leaned into her support team, talking to her family and relying on their support. Everyone encouraged her to continue and she did.

Yakeleya also had her husband and son to lean on. Her advice is that if you don’t have people to support you, to find people who can by visiting with an elder or talking to an older person.  “You might be facing some challenges, but an older person or elder might help you get through that. There's always somebody in the community that is there to help, never feel you're alone,” she urges. She suggests talking to your support people or finding someone you can trust.

If she could share a message with her younger self it would be, “You are worth it…. Believe that, carry that with you.” Another message would be, “You are more than you think you are. So stand in that light and believe that you can do anything you want to do. You can have and be and do anything you want to do. You just gotta get up in the morning and go look for it every day, if that means going to work, making some money so you could save money to go to school, put the money away, keep working through to your goal. If you decide you want to go to school, do that. Amazing things will happen because you decided to do something today.”

To help balance her health and wellbeing, Yakeleya talks to support people like her old counsellor. She also rests by watching a movie. She goes to see a psychologist, visits with people and takes time to get pampered by getting her nails done. When she’s in community she attends Women’s Sharing Circle to say what she needs to say. Going on the land and spending time in her cabin are things she does when she has the time.

When it comes to inspiration, Yakeleya looks to her grandfather who was one of the first traditional chiefs of Fort Providence. She is inspired by the way he worked with people, resolving conflict without policing, according to Dene laws. Her grandmother also lived a long life and her parents lived their life out on the land. They lived a good life, staying together no matter what and were always there for their kids. Family is very important to Yakeleya.

In closing, Yakeleya says to today’s youth, “Just continue. Sometimes life gets hard, but just keep going. Have the belief in yourself. It's not easy sometimes, but you can do it. Find that support system and keep going.”

She trained other women how to run campaigns and ended up running one of her own, becoming an MLA. Starting a family young, without having finished high school, Sheryl Yakeleya had many barriers to overcome in her life but she kept going and that’s how she got to where she is. Inspired by her family and with their support, she has had the opportunity to keep moving forward and give back to her community.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.