Reluctant Future 40 recipient Nahanni Olson is pleased she said yes to opportunity

Nahanni Olson admits she was uneasy when her sis‐ ter approached her about nominating Olson for CBC Saskatchewan's Fu‐ ture 40.

Olson, a member of the Onion Lake Cree Nation, was the Indigenous Student Advo‐ cate at Saskatoon's Bedford Road Collegiate at the time and was enjoying the oppor‐ tunity to connect with and mentor Indigenous high school students. She says she was in no way seeking the spotlight.

"I immediately said no. It was not something that I would ever ask for, but my sister is just incredibly gener‐ ous with her time and with her praise. She is constantly trying to lift others up."

Olson eventually agreed to be nominated on one condi‐ tion: that she could in turn nominate her sister, Lua Gibb, for her work in Saskatchewan's justice sys‐ tem. Gibb was appointed a provincial judge in 2020 and both received Future 40 awards that year.

"It felt amazing and I was really proud that year be‐ cause we were both selected," said Olson.

Being a part of the Future 40 process offered Olson a glimpse into what Indigenous leaders were doing in other parts of Saskatchewan. For the career educator, it was a wonderful chance to not only network, but to be inspired.

"I'm always trying to con‐ nect our students with these stories and people. I really ap‐ preciated how Indigenous people were being recognized for the amazing things that they were doing."

A passion to lead

Olson has been a leader and mentor to Indigenous students for more than a decade. In 2008, she started her teaching career in Saska‐ toon before becoming Bed‐ ford Road Collegiate's first In‐ digenous Student Advocate in 2017.

In 2021, Olson embarked on a new challenge at the Uni‐ versity of Saskatchewan when she became the co-ordinator of a new Indigenous student mentorship program called Building Intercultural Re‐ silience Mentorship (BIRM). It pairs University of Saskatchewan students with Indigenous high school stu‐ dents in Saskatoon.

Olson loves how this new mentorship program offers Indigenous high school stu‐ dents guidance on how they can continue their education and also gives the university students the chance to learn from their mentees.

Jocelyne Chief was one of the mentors when BIRM started last year. She jumped at the chance to make a dif‐ ference in the lives of Indige‐ nous youth and to work with Olson, who she has looked up to for years.

Chief attended Bedford Road Collegiate when Olson was the Indigenous Student Advocate. She credits Olson with giving her the confidence to celebrate her culture at school.

"She is actually the one that influenced me to wear ribbon skirts on campus and within classrooms," said Chief. "Before that, I didn't see rib‐ bon skirts being worn on a regular basis. With my family we just wore them to cere‐ monies. When I started seeing Nahanni wearing them, I asked my parents, 'are ribbon skirts something you can wear on a daily basis?' And they said, 'yeah, you can wear them anywhere.'"

Growing the BIRM pro‐ gram

BIRM has expanded to three Saskatoon schools this year: Mount Royal, Bedford Road and Tommy Douglas Collegiate.

Olson is thrilled that more mentor-mentee relationships will develop and has big plans for growing BIRM in the years to come.

One of her first steps was attending the Indigenous Peoples Conference for Edu‐ cation in Adelaide, Australia, in September. Olson met In‐ digenous educators from around the world and is eager to share what she learned with her students.

She was especially im‐

pressed by a similar program also happening in Australia.

"Connecting with the Gan‐ bina program, which is the program that we at BRIM are modelled after in part, was amazing. It's been running in part for 25 years in Australia and it has been providing In‐ digenous students with sup‐ port from age nine all the way through graduation. Ganbina is something I really look up to as a program and model, and I really look forward to continuing to learn from them."