Aglukark shares her personal message of healing

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"Trust yourself" was the message students Harley Berland Cardinal and Leslie McGilvery heard from Inuk singer/songwriter Susan Aglukark during her visit to Kihew Asiniy school in Saddle Lake on Oct. 22.

They were important words for both. Berland Cardinal, 13, wants to be a doctor. McGilvery, 14, wants to be a veterinarian.

Saddle Lake was one of nine Aboriginal communities Aglukark visited during October with her Fifth Season: The Healing Season project. The tour was the first phase in the two-phase project developed by Aglukark that gives young Aboriginal people a chance to talk about family violence, substance abuse and suicide. The second phase will bring her back to the communities next year to follow-up.

"It was a good learning experience 'cause she told us about her life story and what she had to go through," said McGilvery. "She said, like, just be yourself and you have to learn to listen to yourself and take time to be with yourself instead of listen to other people."

"She taught me not to be afraid [of] how to get there," said Cardinal, who believes his Aboriginal features will make his goal difficult.

Aglukark also spoke to students at Eden Valley, Hobbema, Fort McKay, Janvier, Assumption, Peerless Lake, Calling Lake and Stand Off.

The visits started with a private talk to the youth in the morning, with adults and the rest of the community invited in for an afternoon concert.

High school and middle school students, Elders and other members of the Blood Tribe packed the gymnasium at Kainai high school at Stand Off in southern Alberta when Aglukark blew into town on Oct. 21.

"She is a cool woman," said Kainai principal Mike Bruised Head.

Aglukark is a small-town girl from Arviat, now part of Nunavut. She was abused by a family friend at the age of nine. She testified against the man 13 years later, and he got a one-and-a-half year sentence. It was a difficult experience to recover from, but five years ago her own healing process inspired her to reach out to Aboriginal youth.

"It began really as just writings that I started as part of my own sort of reawakening. I've really learned a lot about myself through my career, a lot about my own strengths and my own potential, and I want to share that with the young kids, youth," she told Alberta Sweetgrass.

"Early in my career, shortly after This Child had come out, all of Canada heard about the incidences [of drug problems in remote communities in the north]. At that time in my career, I just wasn't ready, personally, to get involved. I was still very much in recovery mode," said Aglukark. "I knew that at some point in my life I wanted to do something. I wanted to give something back, but I didn't want to give from a broken place."

The artist credited music and writing for her healing; sharing her soul onstage was also very therapeutic.

"You're forced to expose the vulnerable side that you kept hidden for all of your life, and exposing that vulnerable side opens your eyes to, 'OK, well, it didn't hurt to share. Maybe I can heal; maybe I can recover; maybe I can move on with my life.' And I think if it had not been for the singing and performing career, I don't think I would have gotten this far, personally."

Aglukark said she wants Aboriginal youth to know success is not about money.

"At the end of the day, I am happier at 38 than I was at 28 [when] I had a job and I had a career. I don't make anywhere near what I wish I was making, you know? Everybody would like stability. But I'm happy because it's coming from me and it's my career, it's my life, and I'm in control, and I just want the kids to have that early."

The singer has ambitions to take her healing project to the rest of Canada, but for now a busy life limits her to sharing her experiences one province at a time.