The power of community and shared leadership

The university experience extends beyond textbooks and lectures—it’s also about building community, igniting change and shaping the future.

That spirit of leadership was on full display as eight alumni of the Indigenous Circle of Empowerment (ICE) program recently traveled to Iqaluit, Nunavut for the SevenGen Indigenous Youth Energy Summit.

One of the largest Indigenous youth gatherings on Turtle Island, the summit brought together Indigenous leaders, community members, industry experts, government officials and others to engage in dialogue, knowledge sharing and collaboration on energy-related issues—a conversation in which Indigenous youth are often underrepresented.

SevenGen 2024 offered the opportunity for ICE alumni to connect with like-minded youth, amplify each other’s voices and chart a course to a more sustainable energy future within their respective communities.

For Chloe Dreilich-Girard, a Métis student from Winnipeg in the second year of the Juris Doctor program at UM, the summit also reinforced important ideas around leadership that she can apply to her community, studies and beyond.

“Leadership, especially within our communities, is not something that is a top-down approach, but rather, starts from the ground up,” she says. “It’s about working in community, with community, in that circle mindset.”

The perspective of a shared experience also resonated deeply with others. Fourth-year health studies student and fellow ICE alum Lauren Hallett recognized “how much leadership is truly about instilling capacity and investing in others. For a lot of leaders, I think that’s what was given to them. People invest in you, and it’s our responsibility to reciprocate that.”

Having attended Indigenous youth gatherings in the Arizona desert and now the Canadian Arctic, student Elora Cromarty was able to reflect on a powerful, recurring theme, no matter the physical location of a nation or community. “You see how different and varied our cultures are, but also the similarities in values and belief systems,” says Cromarty, a member of Norway House Cree Nation who lives in Winnipeg.

Both within and outside of the summit programming, attendees had the chance to connect with Inuit culture and the local community. Not only were they able to take in the majestic beauty of the natural landscape, but they were also inspired by new possibilities for supporting their communities, bringing back valuable teachings and knowledge(s), particularly about our connections with the land.

“In an urban setting, it can be hard to connect with the land in the same ways when you’re surrounded by concrete buildings every day,” says Hallett, a Winnipeg-based Red River Métis, who pondered: “How can we make [the ideas of land, food and water as medicine] more accessible?”

For the students in attendance, the experience offered a true full-circle moment, seeing changemakers like summit co-chair Mihskakwan James Harper [BSc(ME)/17]—a fellow UM and ICE alum—drive meaningful change on a global scale. A citizen of Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, Harper has continued to share his knowledge about clean energy at international conferences, crediting his innate drive to protect the earth to his cultural values.

Dreilich-Girard encourages students to take advantage of opportunities that allow them to carry their passion and purpose into their communities, while continuing to inspire the next generation of leaders and joining the vibrant group of changemakers who came before them.

“The memories and relationships you’ll make will be totally worth it,” she says. “When you come together, you’re stronger.”

UM students’ participation in the SevenGen Indigenous Youth Energy Summit was made possible by the generous support of the Mastercard Foundation’s EleV Program, as well as coordination by the Indigenous Leadership Programming team in the Office of the Vice-President (Indigenous).

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Andrea Danelak