Aboriginal - Girls Action Foundation

And it is because she taught me to be independent and self-sufficient. She is a very
loving grandmother who loves to have all the grandkids around to cook for them. She
volunteers her time to cook on the reserve for social functions, funerals and whatnot.
She loves to cook and she has put herself through school and has overcome the obstacles
of life and she is now married and very happy. She is my #1 strong and beautiful
Aboriginal woman.
One woman who has been around me almost my whole life is Kathy Cahill. She is a huge
part of who I am today. She has helped me see that there is a better life out there for
everyone, no matter your race or where you come from. She is the kindest, most caring
person I have ever met. I met her when I was 5 years old and she has been a second
mother figure for me throughout my life. She started out as my ‘big sister’ from the Big
sisters and Big brothers program, but she is now family. She has always been there for
every one of my accomplishments in life and she has always been there cheering me on
from the sidelines in whatever I chose to do. She has had her own struggles in life and
has overcome all of those as well and I look up to her for being a strong person and for
always being there for me.
Another woman whom I have only known for about 2 years now, is Sharon Acoose.
She is so inspiring to me. I listened to her story on my orientation day here at the First
Nations University of Canada and all I could think was, ‘wow’. As I slowly got to know
her, my admiration for her grew. She has overcome so many obstacles in life such as
drugs, alcohol, street life and abuse, and look at her now, she is an assistant professor
in Indian Social Work at the First Nations University of Canada, and she is working on
her PhD as well. She is a wonderful grandmother who looks after her grandkids and she
believes in sharing her story with youth so that they may (hopefully) get something out
of her story. She presents at all kinds of conferences and she is not ashamed to share her
story.
Another person whom I greatly admire is one of my best friends, Jessica Rae Atcheynum.
She is my age, 29 and she has worked hard all of her life and has went through many of
the same hardships as I did. As long as I have known her she has always worked and she
has always been honest and humble. She is straightforward and will tell you like it is and
Audrey Armstrong
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