From target to mentor: N.W.T. woman educates Edmontonians after racist incidents
In the one month since Kyra Harris moved to Edmonton, the young Indigenous woman says she's been targeted on social media — being called a "skank" and "baby factory" — and had a teepee carved into her car.
Now the 21-year-old business student is trying to use those experiences to educate people about Indigenous culture and break down stereotypes.
Harris moved to the big city from Fort Simpson, N.W.T., last month for her first year at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. She posted an ad on an Edmonton Buy and Sell Facebook page looking to buy a treadmill.
That innocuous post turned ugly quickly.
"To be Indigenous and a Native woman, it's kind of like scary to be living in Edmonton," says Harris.
One commenter suggested she get outside and walk, which Harris rebuffed, saying she's young, new to the city and, as an Aboriginal woman, she didn't think it was safe.
"It just started escalating from there," she says.
"You are most likely a skank from the north. A baby factory looking for a sugar daddy," the commenter responded. "Here people see you as you really are."
Harris says other commenters came to her defence, but she knew better than to react on social media.
"He started judging me and he didn't even know me and he started stereotyping me just cause I was from the North and I was Aboriginal," she says.
"I just ended up deleting that post because I was like, it's just going to get more worse."
Car keyed
In another incident, Harris parked her car in an underground garage at a friend's apartment. She says she saw some people hanging around, but thought nothing of it, minding her own business.
When she returned to her car the next day, she was "shocked" to find that it had been keyed.
"There was a teepee drawn on my car door," she says.
"It's just like really disappointing and scary. It's just sad that this day and age that stuff like this is still happening."
Harris says she never experienced racism in the N.W.T., though she was warned by many to be careful in Edmonton.
"Women shouldn't have to feel like that," she says. "I just felt like really targeted."
'I can make a difference'
Harris has spoken out about the incidents and the response from the community has been overwhelmingly supportive.
The Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society, which provides programs for Edmonton's Indigenous population, has gotten in touch and Harris is now mentoring young people. She's also heard from the local friendship centre, as well as the people behind the #MakeItAwkward campaign, which encourages Edmontonians to confront racism.
"I feel like I can make a difference in helping other youth speak up and like use their voices."
Harris says more than 50 people have also sent her messages on social media, encouraging her, and asking if she needs any help in Edmonton.
"I've just gotten so much support from people and from organizations," she says.
"We need to like speak up and bring awareness and talk about these things cause these things exist and something needs to be done about it."
Harris keeps in mind a quote she heard from her great-uncle, Peter T'selle, that he took away from the landmark Berger inquiry in 1974. A first for its time, Indigenous people were able to testify about the effect a natural gas pipeline would have on their land.
"He said that we're no longer sleeping and we're waking up now," Harris says T'selle told her.
"That's one of the things that stays with me."
