Constance Hazlett
I was born in Red Deer and I grew up in Edmonton. Calgary feels huge to me. My dad lives in the southeast and I live in the northwest and I feel like it’s a different part of the world. I love the murals downtown. I’m a big fan of street art. I just like meeting people and being outside. Pretty simple.
I moved to Calgary about 4 years ago, but my family is from the Northwest Territories. Ancestrally, I’m Inuk from the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. In the past five or so years I’ve been trying to get in touch. I don’t really meet a lot of Inuit people in Alberta, and my mother was adopted by a Caucasian family, so I’m just trying to reconnect a lot, and this program’s been really helpful. I feel like most of my research has been online, so it’s really cool to meet other people within the community, even if it’s not my own community. I think community is important. In this day and age, even before Covid, we’re so isolated. Focusing on connections to other people is so important. That’s how you learn, that’s how you change your point of view. That’s how you better yourself as a person.
Growing up, my mom never talked about being Indigenous. She told people growing up that she was Italian because she was very embarrassed. I feel like healing my mother and our own identity has been so important for reconciliation. Because we’ve internalized a lot of the racism that she had experienced growing up. Even in my generation people can be very closed minded and ignorant to certain issues such as reconciliation, and how important it is to honour our land and the people that have been here for thousands of years. I think just trying to heal my own family has been step one. It’s similar to the airplane - you’ve got to put on your own airmask first.
I think ceremony is also something that people should come back to. Just having a thankfulness for all that you have for the food that you have, the land that you’re on. It makes you a happier person, a more fulfilled person so you’re only going to do things that better yourself and the environment that you are operating within. In my program too, ceremony is so important.
I’m in Funeral Service, which people think is a pretty morbid profession. People don’t really like to think about death. If I can help a family get through a pretty tough time, that would be so rewarding. I would love to someday make a difference and make it more affordable. I don’t want people to go broke because they are trying to memorialize someone they love. That’s just kind of heartbreaking to me. And I feel like even if it is with one family at a time, you can make a difference. If I didn’t appreciate ceremony the same way, I don’t know if I’d be able to handle the kind of heaviness I deal with every day.
Education is such an important thing because racism is something you learn at home. I even think about my grandparents and they said some very racially repugnant kinds of things that are just unacceptable. I feel like if you aren’t willing to be open minded and have your mind changed you are never going to learn. I’m always willing to have my mind changed with new information. Just being willing to do the work, constantly educate yourself and have those difficult conversations is step one. I don’t have all the answers and I wish I did. But i think that programs like this are a step in the right direction. Education and meeting like minded people who want to ignite positive change has been so beneficial. I think what Latasha has been doing with Anitopisi is a really great positive step towards the right direction for truth and reconciliation. I’m just speechless sometimes because it’s just so inspiring, honestly. I feel like everything’s coming together, every year for the past 5 things are making more sense. I’m super grateful for my ancestry and slowly trying to figure out more about it.