“My source of inspiration is creating healing spaces and healing art for myself and for others,” explains Veronica Johnny. Born in Fort Smith, she is a Cree woman who identifies as Two Spirit and she was featured in Canadian Geographic. A multidisciplinary artist and hand drummer who has a rock band called the Johnnies, Johnny was born and raised in the Northwest Territories. Johnny is a mother who lives in northern Ontario and has a business called IndigenEd which creates understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, hosts retreats and lifts Indigenous female voices through music, art and film. One of her gifts is gathering people for healing through art.

“I believe that, that we're all here for a specific reason, that we're all born with a gift, and to share that gift.”

Something she had to heal from was her one and a half year residential school experience in Fort Simpson. Her mom was watching over and then her family moved away to Edmonton where they became part of the local Indigenous community until they moved back to Fort Smith. She finished high school there and attended Aurora College. She also became a mother at just 17, raising her daughter with the help of her family.

Her daughter stayed with her mom and sister, though she remained involved and she lived and worked in Yellowknife. She worked with Indian Affairs as an Informatics Officer trainee and later with the Department of Transportation as an informatics systems officer. She learned to fix computers until there was a change in government and she went back to school. Johnny studied electronics engineering at DeVry in Calgary for a couple semesters until she found an option in Vancouver to become an audio engineer and technician. Her daughter moved with her and took acting classes until they returned to Fort Smith.

Back home, Johnny worked as an audio engineer, mixing live shows and sounds. She met her partner she’s been with for two decades and also worked with the Wood Buffalo National Park. She had the chance to work as the Cree Language coordinator. With her partner, she started the band called The Johnnies and became active in the music scene. They remained there happily for years until returning to Edmonton so she could study business.

She credits her long relationship with its start as a friendship and their work together as colleagues and bandmates, blooming into romance. He supported their family so she could make art and she managed the band. They moved to Toronto after her daughter’s graduation and worked hard in day jobs for a decade while making music. Now, they live in Manitoulin Island, commuting to the city monthly to remain connected with the Toronto arts scene.

Funding her art was one challenge she overcame. Another was culture shock and living in Toronto’s heat waves after being raised in the subarctic. She got to know her new city gradually on transit. 

“Music is everywhere, art is everywhere, right? If we were to remove it all, life would not be the same.” 

Her advice for Indigenous students looking to find a career in the arts is to find community, reach out and show up. “The way to get into the arts is just to start,” she continues. She learned guitar at 25 as a later bloomer, musically speaking, and thinks it’s never too late to start learning. Johnny believes in learning your craft and putting the hours in to improve, the ‘10,000 hours’ conventional wisdom suggests leads to mastery. It sounds overwhelming but is manageable when approached incrementally. Funding your art practice is the next challenge, something most artists do by working jobs but she suggests looking into the many new funding programs for emerging artists.

"Art, as we are seeing through this time, is a really big part of our healing, of our mental health, of our daily life."

Working day jobs and building up experience in the arts, Johnny believes Indigenous youth can build an impressive resume. She’s had amazing opportunities through The Johnnies and as a hand drummer, a practice that was actively discouraged as part of colonization. With hand drummers in her lineage, Johnny was fortunate to have been gifted three hand drums and to have found teachers, elders and drummers who taught her how to hand drum. She’s been drumming for well over a decade now. 

The advice she wants to give young people is to trust their intuition and to believe in themselves. “I wish that I had believed in myself, sooner in life, and more deeply in life. A lot of the trauma that I suffered myself comes in as self-sabotage a lot of times,” she advises. Her grandmother used to tell her to be careful what she thinks, knowing all we can control is what we think, say and do. Johnny also advocates for self-forgiveness because we all make mistakes. Recently she’s had to forgive herself, apologize and make changes in her life.

In closing, Johnny encourages practicing gratitude, focusing on breath and breathing deeply, getting at least fifteen minutes of sunlight a day, drinking enough water and also having respect for water. “Water is a great amplifier and so water has memory,” she shares. She encourages everyone to participate in solving the climate crisis and breaking away from business as usual. “It is time for a great transformation and we can do it. I think that if we all put our imaginations together and we imagine the world that we could have, I think we can have it. I really do,” she muses.

Creating healing spaces and healing art for herself and for others, Veronica Johnny has crafted an artful life. Drumming and making music, she’s made a soundtrack for the way she wants to live with the love of her life. On a journey that has taken her North and South, she’s found a way to trust and express herself deeply and share her gifts wherever she goes.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.