4 minute read
Shirley Steenberg
My name is Shirley Steenberg. I am Inuvialuk. My maiden name is Cockney.
I am the eldest of three children born to Ernest and Georgina Cockney of Tuktoyaktuk, where I resided with them until I was 21 years old.
I completed a Grade 12 education at Mangilaluk School in Tuk. I was the first to graduate in their first year of high school. One of my special achievements before I moved away to attend college was winning our school logo contest, and to this day my logo continues to represent our students and their school.
Many of you know Mangilaluk was a respected chief and founder of Tuk. He is my great-great-grandfather on my mother’s side, and I have just learned that his photograph is located at the National Museum of Denmark. Next time I go to Denmark, I will go to this museum to see it. That is one of my goals, of many. It is important to have goals and dreams to work towards and achieve, and most important, never give up until you have it no matter how hard it seems.
I moved away from home to attend Aurora College in Fort Smith and graduated with a two-year diploma in management studies. It is not easy at age 21 to move away from family and friends, especially coming from a small town. I struggled with homesickness and adjusting to living in a totally different environment, food, people and traffic laws. It helped me to have some students from my hometown who attended the same year, so we kept in touch for support and encouragement. In addition to management studies, I acquired a Bachelor of Administration Degree with the University of Athabasca. It was done through courses in Fort Smith, and communication was done by teleconference, which allowed me to stay in the Northwest Territories instead of moving farther away from home.
Through the years of college life, making new friends, keeping in touch with family, there were many challenges, ups and downs. During this chapter in my life I met my husband, Jeremy Steenberg from Brampton, Ontario. He grew up in Iqaluit, Nunavut, with his father, Jens, and sister Sonja since he was seven years old, so he had a total understanding of where I came from.
We connected and have now been married 14 years and live in Calgary, Alberta, with three beautiful girls: Crystal, Amber and Ruby. We call them our “gem girls,” ages 12 going on 13 this summer, 11 and nine, respectively. My husband’s background is Danish. His mother, Elsa, moved to Canada with her family when she was eight years old, and his father when he was 21, so our daughters are half Inuvialuit and half Danish.
I now call Calgary my home but Tuktoyaktuk will always be close to my heart. It is where my relatives are who continue to thrive in culture, traditions and way of life. My brother Steven Cockney lives there with four children and I know he will always be there to teach our way of life to his children, and our culture will continue on from this generation to the next and to the next, and it will live forever because we know where we come from and it is so important to never forget that.
I hope to visit him and take my family on the new Inuvik Tuktoyaktuk Highway soon and pick up my sister Joanne, who lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, along the way.
With culture, language is a major tie. It is unfortunate I lost our Indigenous language at a very young age. I remember listening to my nanuk talking to me in our language and understanding her, but after she passed away when I was only six years old, I didn’t hear the language much after that.
Before I settled in Calgary, I worked and lived in Iqaluit for five years as a senior finance officer and administrative assistant with the Department of Public Works and Services. I also experienced their way of life: tent camping, boating, fishing. It is very similar to ours in the west. Their food is a little different, like narwhales and Arctic char.
Overall, my dedication to education, time, work experiences and community involvement are indicative of my commitment to hard work, excellent work ethic and goal achievement. Some other work experience I was involved in along the way are with the public sector as a secretary of Mangilaluk School, teacher assistant, tutor for the Inuvialuit Education Foundation, summer student constable and a guard for the RCMP in Tuktoyaktuk.
Presently, I work for AKITA Drilling Ltd. in Calgary as an executive assistant, pension and benefits administrator, corporate services and have been proudly employed for 14 years with their company. In addition, I am a member for the Metis Women’s Economic Security Council.
In conclusion and as I still pursue my goals and dreams, I am Inuvialuk living in the big city. It is not easy sometimes. It is fast‐paced and demanding. Some advice from my perspective: you must be on time for work, you must learn traffic laws and obey them, learn street safety and GPS will become your best friend when getting around the city.
There isn’t much community-based support living in the city, so you must be prepared and find ways to deal with any problem you face day to day, and the outcome is worth your while when you achieve one goal at a time, one dream at a time. Reach for the stars and never give up.