Growing up, she longed to go out on the land and she found a job that made it possible. Stephanie Behrens is originally from Behchoko, Northwest Territories where her grandparents are from. She’s a Tłı̨chǫ woman who moved around to different areas in the territory. She’s now a wildlife biologist with the Tłı̨chǫ government, a role she’s held for six years and she’s now transitioning into a management role. Her new title will be manager of lands protection and renewable resources.

Behrens is a biologist and after she graduated, she moved to Norman Wells. She advanced in her career within the territorial government moving from a wildlife tech into a biologist role until she moved back home. She first moved away from home to go to school in 2005 and returned home 14 years later. She’s so happy to be working for her own people.

As far as her education goes, Behrens started off as a nursing student in Yellowknife. One semester in, she pivoted into a pre-tech program through Aurora College in Fort Smith, upgrading her sciences and prerequisites for the environment and natural resources technology program in Fort Smith. She knew about the program growing up and wanted to get into it, intrigued by the opportunity to go out on the land, an opportunity not encouraged for women in her culture. She wanted a career where she wouldn’t be behind a desk all the time, where she could be out on the land, and the environment captivated her.

Behrens had to go to Fort Smith to take programs which was hard as a single mom. She ended up taking management studies and then natural resources technology program, then took advantage of the transfer agreement they had with University of Lethbridge. She got her bachelors of science in environmental science. Going to college and transitioning to university was a good way of doing things for Behrens because if she only finished the first two years, at least she had the diploma to fall back on. Her degree took an extra year because she was a co-op student. After university she went into the internship program that the government of Northwest Territories offers, jumpstarting her career.

Reflecting on her experience going to school while raising two kids, Behrens shares, “You just have to put your mind into it. Have that dedication. Just don't give up on yourself and go for it. I always find that the scariest things in life are the most worthwhile. You just gotta take the risk and jump in and go for it.”  Being a single mom and a student was hard, she recalls. “It brought challenges, many challenges, but it's just a matter of persevering over those challenges and figuring out a way to get through those challenges in order to achieve your goals, and always having that goal in mind, never giving up on those goals,” she continues.

As a young person, a teacher gave her the motivation to leave an abusive relationship telling her, “you can't think about having that family, the perfect family. Don't stay with the father just because you want your kids to have a father, because if you're not happy, your kids are gonna see that, and it's just gonna continue that cycle of abuse, and you're gonna allow them to think that it's okay to treat people in the way that you were being treated.” Her late grandfather also influenced her to go to school and she’s always wanted her kids to have different experiences and the ability to make choices based on what they’ve seen in her journey.

To maintain her mental wellness, Behrens has learned to take a moment and breathe. She also likes to spend time on the land monitoring the caribou in the summer. She loves the time without cell service or technology.

When it comes to inspiration, Behrens looks to her late grandfather who was such a strong advocate for education. She also looks to her elders and the simple life of survival they led. From getting wood to gathering water, they had to do so much to meet their basic needs and their stories of hard work and hardships are so inspiring. They also make her realize how spoiled she is to be so comfortable in a warm house. She appreciates being with them but wishes she spoke her language so she could understand more of their stories. She has hope for the future to return to traditional ways and sits on council for her community. She wants to give her granddaughter the best life and to see her community move away from drug and alcohol addiction.

“It's at the back of my mind every day, when I'm going to bed it's the last thing I think about, what can we do to help our communities? It is a really trying time, and just hearing of all the losses that we're going through in all communities. It's not just one community in particular. It's everywhere. It's a pandemic that we're going through right now and I think the more that the community leadership takes on taking their communities back and stop relying on government, then maybe we can help our people and really take our communities back and get them out on the land and but it's also it's up to those people to actually take those resources and use it, and most of the time they don't. But I have hope!” she confides.

As a young person, her heart longed to go out on the land until Stephanie Behrens was lucky enough to find a job that made it possible. Being a single mom didn’t stop her from getting her degree, she raised her kids and her level of education at the same time. She started off in nursing but found her way to where she belongs eventually, in natural resources technology and later, environmental sciences and it’s the best fit.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.