By the time J’net Cavanagh crossed the stage as one of nine aboriginal graduates in the Class of 1987 at Alberni District Secondary School, she had already been identified as a leader of the future.
In December, the Ahousaht First Nation member, who is the daughter of Stella August, accepted a two-year appointment as Aboriginal Outreach & Learning Coordinator at Royal Ontario Museum, where she is tasked with developing a school visit and community outreach program to bring aboriginal arts and culture to more than 500 public schools in the Greater Toronto Area.
Now proudly bearing a traditional name, AyAy Qwa Yak Sheelth (One who gives away and still stands tall), Cavanagh has compiled an impressive resume in a wide range of fields, including trauma counselling and community development, alongside her current role as an arts educator.
And, oh yes, she’s also a talented textile artist with her own line of clothing, Wild Wear Indigenous Fusion for All Seasons.
Cavanagh said her education has been a continuing process since completing high school, where she was already active as a youth leader.
“I did my time in Port Alberni in foster care placements, which is a big part of my story,” Cavanagh said. “My first real contact with the [Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council] was when the late George Watts called me up in the mid-80s. He saw that I had been active in the International Youth Year.”
As part of her personal development, Cavanagh had entered the 1986 Miss Port Alberni pageant, which included intensive training in public speaking through Toastmasters. That same year, she also participated in the B.C. Youth Parliament.
Based on her public performance, the now late Watts and former NTC chair, asked her to represent the NTC on an International Youth For Peace and Justice Tour – all expenses paid.
“I jumped at the chance and it became my handshake to embracing my sense of identity,” she said, adding that it helped that her non-aboriginal foster family were, unlike many in the system, fully supportive of her desire to claim her aboriginal heritage.
After graduation, Cavanagh “bought a one-way train ticket to Ottawa,” where she entered the School of Social Work at Carleton University.
“I did five hard winters in Ottawa,” she said.
During that time, she married, had one child and completed three years of her Social Work degree. After the marriage broke up, she returned to Vancouver Island, planning to complete her degree.
But she balked when she was unable to obtain more than two years of credit for the work she had already completed, “So I switched gears and did the First Nations Studies degree at Malaspina (now Vancouver Island University). I lived in Nanaimo and worked at the Tillicum Friendship Centre, promoting wellness.”
Cavanagh pursued her studies, often one course at a time. It took 10 years, but in 2000 she completed her First Nations Studies degree, with a minor in Women’s Studies.
“I learned how screwed-over natives got, and women. I worked hard to learn about the underdog.”
At the same time, she was also involved in the Centre for Indigenous Theatre, blending it into her community work, as a means of linking physical and cultural wellness together.
In 2002, Cavanagh was hired as a suicide prevention worker by the NTC, but one of her first priorities was to convince the elders to change the job title.
“If you got busted talking to me, people would go, ‘Ohhh – she’s not doing too well,’” she said.
The title was changed to Huu-piistultl (Helping each other) Worker.
“I worked with an ethic that ‘I don’t have answers, I have a lot of questions to help people find a direction that is meaningful for them.’ I didn’t go in with this exalted position that ‘I have what it takes for you to live a good life.’”
In 2007, now remarried, Cavanagh moved to Toronto, armed with a Master’s degree in Leadership and Training from Royal Roads University. The focus of her studies was internalized racism.
“That was my leadership challenge while I was working on the front lines promoting wellness: what I was witnessing most was the internalized racism that communities inflict on each other to hold each other back.”
Mentored by Academic Advisor Shawn A-in-chut Atleo, Cavanagh developed a Healthy Relationships program that used oral storytelling and theatre to strengthen cultural identity and, by extension, interpersonal relationships. The methodology she developed and validated became an effective community engagement tool, one that she was able to take with her when she relocated to Toronto.
“I lucked out. I happened to go to a native poetry reading and I met some of the Who’s Who in the aboriginal arts community. And people asked me what I did for a living…”
Cavanagh was almost immediately hired by the Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts to organize a national round table, with the goal of increasing the level and the quality of aboriginal content in the education curriculum through the arts.
Cavanagh stayed on with the Toronto School District Board’s Aboriginal Education Centre to assist the development of a program called Decolonizing Our Schools. Through her continuing involvement with ANDPVA, she helped develop a successful Youth Leadership Training Program, she was able to bring in a wide range of top aboriginal artists to visit schools within the Toronto district.
She has also taken on a continuing role as an arts educator and facilitator with the Catalyst Centre, which describes itself as “a collective of educators committed to democratic, social justice education and community development.”
In 2011, Cavanagh was hired by Centennial College in Scarborough as Indigenous Studies Curriculum Developer and Manager. One of the initiatives she helped set in motion was the pursuit of an Aboriginal Tourism degree program for Ontario, modeled on B.C.’s existing program.
After leaving Centennial College last spring, Cavanagh was contracted to organize a national forum by the Aboriginal Homelessness Research Network, through York University, to address the issue of homelessness among Canada’s indigenous peoples.
As Aboriginal Outreach & Learning Coordinator at ROM, Cavanagh is tasked with setting up an advisory circle and to build up networks, as well as compile a community needs assessment.
“They also want me to create a youth program and to develop a school visit program, ideally with students in youth leadership roles.”
The province is currently rolling out an aboriginal curriculum, intended to infuse aboriginal culture into the entire education system. The program has been piloted in three school districts over the past few years. Cavanagh’s task is to synchronizethe museum’s school tours with the new provincial curriculum.
At the same time, Cavanagh has also been contracted by the City of Toronto to do community engagement on Aboriginal Early Education and Daycare.
Nowadays, these sorts of opportunities arise with some regularity, Cavanagh said, and they all flow directly from her decision to pursue higher education, despite any and all obstacles.
In early 2013, Cavanagh completed a Certificate of Indigenous Leadership – Governance and Excellence in Management, at the Banff Centre. Looking back over her own academic career, she now encourages young people to get educated, no matter what it takes.
“Even if it’s one class, give 100 per cent to that one class and let it take you somewhere.”
In the second decade of the 21st century, the fastest-growing demographic in Canada’s professional ranks is aboriginal women, Cavanagh said. That would have been hard to predict back in 1987, when ADSS proudly announced their nine aboriginal graduates – the highest total ever.
Cavanagh said the announcement generated equal parts pride at the accomplishment of her aboriginal classmates and anger at being singled out. But she made a conscious decision to see the positive.
“I said, ‘Okay, so what? We’re only nine. But we’re NINE!’ Even back in 1987, I was part of a ripple.”
