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YMCA recognizes youth, adult and group change-makers continued from p.11 After seeing Gord Downie, from The Tragically Hip, perform at WE Day, and watching the film version of The Secret Path, Jackson said Aiden was inspired to create a painting featuring a blackened maple leaf, which represented the treatment of Indigenous people in Canada. He also teaches Art from the Heart classes and workshops in Halton schools and elsewhere. To date, he has taught 525 children. Other winners of the YMCA 2017 Peace Medal Awards include Marcus Logan, who won in the adult category and the GLOW Mentors, in the group category. Keynote speaker Gabrielle Scrimshaw, who is First Nations, spoke about her own journey in overcoming difficult odds in life -- illustrating how each person can make a difference. Scrimshaw said all Canadians have a part to play in Truth and Reconciliation. "There is no three-step program to be reconciled," she added. "It's a journey we all have to work on and everyone has a part to play." Growing up as a First Nations woman, Scrimshaw was considered statistically eight times more likely than the average to attempt suicide and three times more likely to be unemployed. Instead, she became the youngest associate in one of Canada's most competitive finance programs and the first in her family to complete post-secondary education. She also travelled to 20 countries on five continents, worked with heads-of-state, cofounded a national not-for-profit for Aboriginal Professionals and won the 2013 First Nations Youth Achiever Award by Indspire. But Scrimshaw painted a bleak picture of her youth, growing up one of three girls in a single parent household in Saskatchewan. Her father was an artist and entrepreneur. Her mother struggled with personal demons and substance abuse. About two weeks after Scrimshaw's birth, police found her swaddled in a blanket on a bed in a hotel room. By all accounts, Scrimshaw says she is not supposed to be here. As a child, she rarely saw her mother. Scrimshaw's sister, who was two years older, dealt with emotional abandonment in a 19 | Friday November 24, 2017 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insidehalton.com Marcus Logan different way. "She ran away from home and never came back," Scrimshaw added. Scrimshaw says she took her sister's departure personally. "It was a dark chapter in my life," she said. At 14, she told herself nobody would miss her if she was gone and the world would be better without her. Scrimshaw later learned her mother was the seventh generation of her ancestors to attend a residential school, experiencing physical, mental and sexual abuse and the loss of culture, hope and identity. "My mother had to hold that weight as a young child," she added. For Scrimshaw, it meant growing up without a mother to hold her close at night as a baby; help her deal with her first big relationship breakup; or, get a care package when she was in university. But Scrimshaw said that her world changed on March 21, 2006, when her nephew Ethan was born. "I was so overwhelmed I couldn't help but cry." Scrimshaw said she was saddened that so much of her nephew's life was already predetermined because he was First Nations. "I realized that I did have a say," she added, and vowed to make each day of his life better. Scrimshaw earned a Bachelor of Commerce Gabrielle Scrimshaw degree from the University of Saskatchewan. She bought a one-way ticket to Toronto and joined RBC to work in a new program. "I became an accidental advocate," she said. Scrimshaw wanted to do her community justice and co-founded a national not-for-profit for aboriginal professionals to help Indigenous people navigate the waters of corporate Canada. She explained how she reached her own Truth and Reconciliation when she woke up to her mother's truth. Golnaz Golnaraghi, spokersperson for GLOW "Similarly, Canada has to wake up to this truth... the last 150 years have been built on the assumption that my family doesn't matter," Scrimshaw added. She urged everyone in the audience to look at the recommendations in the Truth and Reconciliation report and pick a subject that resonates with them and help build a better country. "Everyone is carving a path," said Scrimshaw. "All of us have to think about the paths we are leaving." J JOHN PALADINO www.jplaw.ca LAW OFFICE AyA Kitchens of oAKville 1195 north service roAd west · REAL ESTATE · WILLS & ESTATES · COMMERCIAL LEASING · CORPORATE 447 Speers Road, Suite 200B, Oakville, ON L6K 3S7 905.847.1522 ayaoakville.com Phone: 905.842.3311 Fax: 905.842.7433