Activist/artist an eloquent spokesperson for Aboriginal youth
If Saskatoon has a current “it” girl, it could be Zondra Roy. Winning the Women of Distinction (WOD) award in the “Youth” category on May 23 is simply her most recent accolade in a diverse series of achievements. This young Cree, Dene and Métis woman, aka Zoey, delighted the audience at TCU Place by reciting a spoken word poem to wrap up her acceptance speech. It was a poem she wrote in high school while going through a difficult time. The crowd responded by getting to their feet and giving her a standing O -- the most memorable moment of the evening.
Roy was fresh off the success of coordinating National Youth Arts Week (NYAW) which took place May 1–7 and featured over 30 events. “It was incredibly successful and brought together more than 800 people over the course of the week,” she says. Roy took more of a hands-on role as coordinator in 2012 and a more supportive role at this year’s event. “My favourite part of NYAW is the process, so bringing people together, letting them exchange ideas, create the event, and then implement the event. It’s really empowering for people,” says Roy.
It is essentially this rare ability to bring people together and empower them that got Roy the WOD award. “A theme in my life is, when I see an injustice or a need, I have the ability to pull together a team, brainstorm ideas and find solutions,” she says.
It is also part of the reason Roy traveled to New York City to be part of the United Nations’ Global Indigenous Youth Caucus in the days before the WOD awards night. “It was very hard for people to get in because you had to have economic and social council status from the UN,” says Roy. She also had to pay her own way. In the end, of the nine who had planned to go from Saskatoon, only Roy ended up going, working to overcome a number of barriers that stood in her path. A sponsor promised funding for half of the trip if she was able to come up with the other half.
Roy participated in the youth caucus and the women’s caucus. At the caucuses, representatives of indigenous people groups from all over the world make recommendations to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. “I really needed to focus, to take my mind off the issues and focus on the opportunities because in this forum there was an incredible amount of opportunity. But it was really heart-breaking to see what was going on and how much work we have to do.”
Heartbreak is not a foreign concept for Roy. Behind her admirable and well deserved success lies a season of painful self-discovery. Now 23, she recalls the point as a youth where she needed to make some choices and set a new course for her life. “When I was 15 that was the last time I was incarcerated. It was really tough between 13 and 15, and at 15 I decided I don’t want to be like this, this is not for me, I can do something else. I was so sick of it. I knew I had a lot of energy and I knew I was good at numbers, I had all these skills. I thought, I need to take these skills and channel them into something positive,” says Roy.
From that moment, Roy began to turn things around. She got involved in her school. “The Restorative Action program really took me under their wing. They realized that I can speak, that I can inspire people and that I have an intense story that could maybe help people.” She began to incrementally expand her horizons, getting to know her community a bit better, then Saskatoon, then Saskatchewan, Canada and some places around the world. To help her and keep her grounded she found a friend in Kadane Headley, who became a mentor. “People can manipulate the way that they treat me,” she says. “When I was growing up I was really well known in the community and I didn’t want to become the pedestal and I didn’t want to be treated any different way. Kadane always grounded me and asked me the questions that I needed to ask myself, and gave me opportunities.” She still does.
The hip-hop culture has long been part of Roy’s world and she has been rapping for about ten years. The culture has inspired her and been a stabilizing influence. “I really appreciate the knowledge and truth of hip-hop,” she says. “There’s elements to it that have rooted me for a decade now. You can’t just rap about conscious stuff without living consciously. It challenged me to be a really stand-up woman when I was younger and even to this day. Now I’m part of it, you know, I live it. It’s just in me.” Hip-hop led Roy into spoken word poetry, which she also teaches.
Roy became an activist and advocate. When the federal election rolled around, Roy realized, “I didn’t know how to vote, and I realized a lot of other people didn’t know how to vote either.” She called a meeting and started “Rock the Vote,” a movement to encourage youth to vote intelligently, that began in Saskatoon and spread across Canada. The result in Saskatoon was “800 people in the core neighbourhood voted who never voted before.” Roy’s energy, vision and passion on this and other projects are why Headley says, “She’s resourceful and she knows how to make stuff happen.”
At 21, Roy began working at the Arts Network for Children & Youth as National Outreach Coordinator. Fortunately she loves to travel since a good part of her job has her traveling to communities across Canada helping them build their social infrastructure through the arts. She follows principles like “nothing about us without us” meaning, “I always ensure youth are a part of the process as well and have decision making capacity within community,” she says.
Roy also classifies herself as a “social entrepreneur.” She notes, “I have a job, but not everything I do is my job.” A conversation with Roy quickly reveals that she is passionate about many things. This summer she will take time in the midst of her “ridiculously busy” life, to work with the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company as a drama camp facilitator in communities across northern SK. “The experience is going to be awesome,” she says.
When Roy’s name was called for the WOD award, she says, “While I was walking from the table to the stage it was super nerve wracking -- my brain, my heart -- I couldn’t breathe. It was like why am I here, why do I deserve this, what am I doing? It was scary, and I just didn’t want to cry, I needed to just breathe. But I wanted to empower people. If I have the microphone for two minutes, then I’m going to make the best out of those two minutes. Okay, so Zoey aside, this is for people.” It was a great two minutes.
And Roy lives for people. She works tirelessly, feels deeply and speaks eloquently on behalf of others. Roy will bring her talent and passion as a hip-hop artist to Treaty Days on June 26 in Regina, performing both hip-hop and spoken word poetry.