Red Lake Celebrates Indigenous Power With 14th Annual Youth Leadership Conference

“With the youth conference we love to incorporate our culture,” Red Lake Chemical Health Project Director Reyna Lussier said. “It seems like it’s a powerful message to send to our youth. And hopefully one day, these messages that we send out will have youth of our own come back and help us.”

Students from Red Lake Senior High School took part in the annual Youth Leadership Conference where they learned about education, culture, identity and self-care. This year’s theme revolves around Indigenous Power.

“Know who you are and know your history and be able to break through a lot of the barriers that have been set up structurally and showcase who you are and be proud of it,” Pow-wow Zumba Instructor and Red Lake Chemical Health alumnus Athena Cloud said.

In the last five years, Cloud has been promoting wellness and health by using cultural-based activities among the Native community. She incorporates a Native Pow-wow dance through Zumba. Cloud says having conferences and activities are important for the native youth.

“It showcases a lot of different opportunities and maybe pathways for them to go down as opposed to some of the negative things that we see and that’s portrayed in society,” Cloud said.

There are eight presentations and workshops that students can attend during the conference. During one presentation, presenter Christian Parrish asked students what are they thankful for.

“Sometimes we don’t just recognize what we are thankful for and for them to identify, ‘hey, I am thankful for that,’ it’s a good thing,” said Parrish, a hip-hop artist and motivational speaker.

Parrish’s presentation, titled “Words of Life,” spoke about the impact that speaking can have on a person’s life and the power that words carry.

The youth leadership conference formed in 2006 after the Red Lake Nation Youth Council. Lussier says she hopes students utilize the tools that they are given throughout the three-day conference.

“I just want to send a positive message that our youth are here and they’re going to be our future leaders one day,” Lussier said.