Unlonely with Dr. Jody Carrington - The Greatest Warrior is the One Who Brings Peace: Cadmus Delorme

Episode Date: January 18, 2024

Cadmus Delorme, a Cree and Saulteaux, is a citizen and currently Chief of the Cowessess First Nation. Mr. Delorme is finalizing his Institute of Corporate Director designation, received a Master of Public Administration from the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy and a Bachelor of Business Administration along with a Certificate in Hospitality, Tourism, and Gaming Entertainment Management from the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv).While a student, Mr. Delorme served in several capacities within the student association, including vice president and president, and also served as a student ambassador. In 2012, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his student leadership and the hospitality he showed to Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, when they visited FNUniv in 2012. Mr. Delorme has also been named one of CBC Saskatchewan’s Future 40, which celebrates the province’s new generation of leaders, builders, and change-makers under the age of 40. Chief Delorme worked as the Student Recruitment Officer for the First Nations University of Canada from 2013 to 2016 when he was elected as Chief.He lives with his wife Kimberly, brother-in-law, daughter, and son on Cowessess First Nation. Chief Delorme was re-elected as Chief of the Cowessess First Nation in April 2019.Facebook - @cadmusdInstagram - @cadmusdLinkedIn - @cadmusdX: @cadmusdIn this episode Dr. Jody can Chief Delorme talk all things reconciliation. Cadmus' wisdom and way with words help so many folks have the uncomfortable conversations because reconciliation only starts with uncomfortable conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let's start here, where I think the answer begins for everything and everybody, in the place of acknowledgement. Indigenous peoples in this country have taught me the most about what acknowledgement truly means. So everything that I've created for you happened here on Treaty 7 land, which is now known as the center part of the province of Alberta. It is home to the Blackfoot Confederacy, made up of the Siksika, the Kainai, the Pikani, the Tatina First Nation, the Stony Nakota First Nation, and the Métis Nation Region 3. It is always my honor, my privilege mostly, to raise my babies on this land where so much sacrifice was made and to build a community, invite a community in, talk about hard things as we together learn and unlearn about the most important things, that we were never meant to do any of this alone. Okay, listen up. Welcome back to the Everyone Comes From Somewhere podcast.

And today, I want to tell you a little something. There are times in my life where I have been lucky enough to come upon some of the greatest teachers, I think, of this journey for me on this earth. And I don't know how this happened, but I got lucky enough to bring one of my greatest teachers to you today. And I want to tell you a little bit about him. And before we get started, his name is Chief Cadmus DeLorme. And he is, amongst many other accolades, but I'm going to start with some of these. He is now the founder and CEO of One Hope, which we're going to dive into so much a little bit today. It's about financial reconciliation

and a company that is near and dear to his heart. He's also the chairperson of the Residential School Documents Advisory Committee, representing, of course, the federal government. And he has a lot of input into that, which I'm so grateful for. He's a chairperson of the board at the University of Regina. And he is a former chief, although, as he's explained to me currently, once a chief, always a chief, of Cowessess First Nation number 73. And I think I met him first when he was acting as chief during the discovery of buried bodies, babies on Cowessess First Nation. He navigated his people through that at a time where the world was watching. And I don't know that I have ever been so in awe of a human holding space for such big emotion that no doubt lives in his body and in the people he loves the most.

And so today you're going to meet a little bit about this. I mean, in addition to those things, in 2012, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his student leadership and the hospitality he showed to Prince Charles and Prince Chuck's wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, when they visited FNU University in 2012. He has also been named one of CBC Saskatchewan's Future 40, which celebrates the province's new generation of leaders, builders, and changemakers under the age of 40. Chief DeLorme worked as the student recruitment officer for the First Nations University of Canada in his younger years, also when he was elected chief. He is a husband to a phenomenal woman named Kimberly.

He's a dad, and he resides on Cowessess First Nation and continues to change the world from there. Is this true, sir? Thank you very much. Yes, it is. Welcome, Chief Cadmus DeLorme. I cannot tell you, I waited for this day for such a long time. And I have one question we're going to start with. I am very clear that we are way more alike than we are different. And often the difference between judgment of each other lies in our ability to know each other's stories. And I think one of the biggest questions

we can ever ask anybody is, where do you come from? So tell me where we would start with you, Chief. Where do you come from? Well, thank you, my friend. And it's amazing and honored to be on your podcast today. So my name is Cadmus. I'm 41 years old. So future 40 under 40, I don't graduate there anymore. I look young. I set reserve water. I get to shower in every day here on Couses. And who am I? I grew up at a kitchen table. Two living witnesses of residential school raised me and they raised me to be a believer in this country, to be a proud Indigenous person,

but also a proud Canadian. And today, who am I? I'm a person that could see both worldviews. We all inherited a history today together, Canadians and Indigenous people. And I could walk in both worlds. They're both so beautiful. And who am I? I'm one that could define both worlds,

understand the challenges both worlds have with each other, but also highlight the hope and optimism of how the two worlds are going to coexist together for our children and children yet unborn to enjoy this place we all call home. It gives me chills every time I hear you speak, because I think that, you know, I often talk about you can't give away something you've never received. And you are a human who has country where still, I think, as a settler, so many people are ignorant to the truth of the story. Because, I mean, again, if I can, I mean, truth and reconciliation always concerns me because you can't reconcile what you won't address. And I want to know your sense of that. Tell me more about that word. It's my four minute answer.

So I'm just pre-warning you here. You go. I cannot wait for everybody to hear you. I was born in 1982. And I grew up on a Generation Y. And I grew up I'm a generation Y and I grew up on my first nation and I remember as a little kid my parents would play this game called duck the police I'm gonna start here we drive to town to the local grocery store and my mom and dad and I and my dad would be like my boy lay down the police are coming and so I'd hit the floor not knowing why I just did it because my dad told me to. And the cruiser would pass by and my dad would be like, lift your head up, my boy, the police are past. So I, we'd get to town. My dad

would go in the store, my mom and I'd be outside and my mom would be like, my baby, lay down, the police cruiser is coming. So I'd hit the floor again. The time I was a teenager, I was so intimidated. My heart would pump every time I seen a police officer. I was so guilty of, I didn't even know what I did. And when I got older, I realized my parents, you know, have seen a lot in their life being indigenous at a time in baby boomer generation when it was different. And they were instilling intergenerational trauma into me based on what they experienced. And this is what I mean by that. My mother does not trust the police as much as she should today because of a valid reason when she didn't want to go to a residential school.

It was an RCMP that come and picked her up. And my father moved out of the, off the reserve when indigenous were first able to leave the reserve in the 1950s and he had to fight to remain Indian on the streets of Calgary at one time and so he kind of lost trust in the police because they would throw him in jail every time he got in a fight because it was that time it was always the Indians problem and so I was born in 82 my parents were raising me like that might happen to me. And so when I realized this and I was healing and getting stronger, I explained this to my mom and dad and they both laughed at first. And then they're like, yeah, it is intergenerational trauma. And so today when my

boy Kingsley and my mom and I drive to town, my mom will be like, Kingsley, duck the police. I'm like, mom, we're not going through this again for another generation. We're healing. And, you know, so growing up, I knew something was unique. You know, being a little kid in this country, you don't really see skin color or history till you're probably around grade one, two or three. And, you know, you start to realize, you know, the difference in how we, you know, I, I'll say it for better, for less words, how we judge one another, how you characterize one another. And, you know, it's the adults that really instilled us into children because, you know, no child is born with, with racism or, or, or ignorance. It's just, it's kind of instilled in, in how the home fire

talks and I'm not trying to bring down any home fire but you know I got I went to town school for a couple years so I bounced between reserve school and town school and I remember in grade two the bell would ring and we'd all run outside for soccer and we'd have shoes for for goalposts but you never picked teams it was always the indians first the white kids it was just like it was just like you knew whose team you were on and i tell you we played like treaty land title mint was on the line like we played for like like the most intense game like like it mattered that you know and we would like it would get so interesting that soon as the bell would ring we'd

all run inside it's just like it didn't even matter who you were we would all like mingle but i'm like well why did you have to like understand your team just because of who you were and you know as i start to get older into teenage years i really got to see you know the generational and intergenerational trauma Indigenous people face. And, you know, I can state that Indigenous people don't want pity or anybody to feel sorry for us. Like we want parity in this country while our Indigenous worldview is still amazing as it is. And, you know, I struggled a little bit in my teenage years. You know, my parents tried their best, but they were healing too.

And once I got to university, that's when I really started to understand the two worldviews. And it was university that really helped set the tone for me. I got to university and I took an Indigenous Studies class. I'm a Generation Y.

We didn't have Indigenous Studies in our education program in Canada. We had Social Studies. So when I got to university, I'm like, Indigenous Studies class. I'm a Generation Y. We didn't have Indigenous Studies in our education program in Canada. We had Social Studies. So when I got to university, I'm like, Indigenous Studies? What the heck do people want to learn about Indians for? I'm like, I could probably teach this class. I was kind of coming in pretty confident. And when I took it, I sat there and this professor came in and started to tell the entire class about the treatment indigenous people faced while living in Canada. And I'm like sitting there thinking, what do you mean my parents went to a residential school? What do you mean my family had to go? That was the first time I

ever heard about what a residential school was, was in the university. My parents never talked about it. My school never taught it. We had a residential school while I was in the university. My parents never talked about it. My school never taught it. We had a residential school while I was in school. Like we just never talked about it. It just, it was something that nobody talked about at the time. So, you know, when I learned this in university, I got home that weekend and I was asking my mom and dad, what happened in Birdle? What happened in Merrillville? And my parents were like, why are you asking us these questions? My dad said, I told you nothing to protect you. And I'm like, well, what happened? And from there, I realized what the sacrifice many in my community helped raise me to

be this funny and happy and optimistic individual while they were still trying to deal with theirs. And, you know, today I understand why Canada is in this situation, you know, in our education system in this country put us in this moment. You know, when I talk to Canadians, I always say, listen, it's kind of like accidental racism or ignorance to the truth because the baby boomers were not taught about the truth in in our our school system um they they learned from hollywood movies and you know that's where that living in teepees and buckskin wearing and and war calls and the game cowboys and indians and i pre-warn you jodyodi, if we play cowboys and Indians later and I'm playing, the Indians usually win. I'm just throwing it out. I fully expect that. And Generation X,

they were taught a very ignorant approach to Indigenous people. Generation X in our Canadian education system, there was something called the white paper. The attitude of it at the time was Indians get over it. Kutana, be special, move off the reserve, give up your rights, be Canadians. That's what Generation X was taught. It was far from the truth. Generation Y, I'm a Y. We were taught that, yeah, you have treaties, but you surrendered the land.

You gave up. You agreed to the residential school and the Indian Act. Just go with it and far from the truth. So today, our millennials and Generation Z, they're getting the truth told to us. And that's where Canada is today is in 2015, the truth and reconciliation calls to action is all spelt out for us. But before we focus on reconciliation, we all as Canadians have to understand. We have to reset our compass on the truth.

And on the Indigenous side, you know, Indigenous people, we also have our own truth and reconciliation that we are dealing with. And it's not the 94 calls to action. It's our own because we've been through a lot. You know, Indigenous nations have all the talent. We don't lack talent. We lack resources to lift the ceilings on the talent. Opportunity. And the opportunity. So, you know, it's, that's what I mean by the two worldviews. And they're both so beautiful and Canadians are getting it

today. You know, unfortunately it was the unmarked graves in 2021 from Kamloops and Cowessess and the many others that followed. Many Canadians put their shield down and started to admit, maybe I don't know the truth. And now it's up to all of us together to learn the truth. And it's the Indigenous side as well. So I could go on and on about this, Joey, but I thank you for the opportunity to letting me share, you know, 30 years old, Katniss. You were having conversations, you know, where there's a lot of question. I mean, I hear this often, you know, why do we need to apologize? And we've already apologized.

Let's move on. This is history. And as you say, last residential school closed, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, 1996 in this country. I was in university and I got a PhD in Saskatchewan and I did not one time learn about the residential school system. And I served in child and family services, you know, in the foster care system where the vast majority of kids in care are indigenous. And I did not one time ask, huh, indigenous kids only make up 10 percent of the population. How come 72 percent are in care in this moment?

And not one time did I ask a question about that. You see, because I mean, again, my white privilege is a thing that I don't even know I have because that's the definition of privilege. And it no longer is an excuse. I love having conversations like this because you taught me once your canoe analogy was the one thing that made me think, OK, my shame, my guilt can be parallel for such a long time. I just didn't want to say anything to get it wrong. Who did I think I was for not acting or thinking or speaking to my children about or continuing in my racist ways? What if I just don't say anything? How often do you come up against this conversation? I would imagine it's your full-time job, but I'm just wondering for this community who

desperately wants to be better and do better, can you share with us again that perception? No, thank you very much. I read a lot of mental health books and mind books to prepare myself for all responses. And I want to start off with an Indigenous worldview teaching. The greatest warrior is the one that brings peace. That is an Indigenous worldview teaching. In a Western worldview, we say, well, the greatest warrior is the one that scalps and goes into battles with a horse and six pack and suede and spear in their head.

No, that's the movies. You know, that's what I mean. We all have to reset how indigenous worldview, the greatest warrior is the one that brings peace. And so when I speak reconciliation or when I talk, you know, the way I love to do it, you know, I always bring it from the greatest warriors, the one that brings peace. And, you know, I'll give you a worst case scenario, then I'll get into my analogy. I was on a radio station one day and it was, I'm going to get very specific. It was a rural Saskatchewan radio station without trying to sound judgmental. And there was a phone calls. They were able to call in and. And there was phone calls.

They were able to call in and ask me any question they wanted. And so this guy says, you Indians. That's how he started. I'm like, okay, here we go. And he says, all you do is, you know, dot, dot, dot, my tax money, dot, dot, dot, that's dot, dot, dot. And I'm like, okay, okay, sir, sir, I thank you. And I repeated back to him what he said to me in a nice calm manner. And I was like, did you, when you went to school,

I was like, you sound like you're a baby boomer. I was like, I don't want to ask for your age, but tell me one thing you learned about Indigenous people in your schooling time. And he didn't have really much of an answer. And I was like, okay, well, let's start there. Let's start with the truth. And you know what?

At that point, he didn't want to hear the truth. He already was in his preconceived. So I just said, listen, sir, I think you're just a little ignorant of the truth. And then he gave me another lesson. I'm like, look, sir, I think you're just a little ignorant of the truth. And then he gave me another lesson. I'm like, look, you're even ignorant of your ignorance. I told him, like, you got to calm down at one point and just realize. And, you know, I say that in my opening on your question in this conversation as, you know, some people may never change their conceptions, you know, because, you know, maybe they have a valid point, maybe something happened with them and they just are so hurt or so deeply rooted in what they think is right that they may not ever change their compass. The challenge that and frustration that I get is what are they teaching their kids and grandkids because it's a different generation today. You know, and the most important table for reconciliation is the kitchen table our kids

go to at Thanksgiving and at Christmas time. And, you know, if a little kid comes to the table and says, Grandpa, Grandma, Auntie, Uncle, did you know what I learned in school about reconciliation and treaties? Well, sometimes grandpa's going to be opinionated. He's going to tell his grandson, oh, you know, were you at my kitchen table? Were you at my kitchen? Because I can tell you. And, you know, so we must instill in our kids, the greatest warrior is the one that brings peace. That's how we teach reconciliation today. And, you know, that's really important because we leave it

up to our education system to do this parents don't know how to really do it um the education system is is trying its best but you know it's going to have some hiccups as everything does and so you know i'm just going to end off with when you talked about the canoe analogy, I, you know, today, you know, I like to explain our journey today together is where there's two canoes going down the river beside one another. One of them is the Canadian Western worldview. That's where our constitution sits. That's where, you know, all of our assets that we get from the Bank Act of Canada, from all of our education degrees is validated. It can never get taken away. But there's also an Indigenous worldview.

And that's right beside us in a different canoe. And they're supposed to be aligned. That was the intent of our relationship at the beginning. But unfortunately, the Indian Act residential schools were thrown in that Indigenous canoe. And the Indigenous canoe fell behind a little bit. And all Indigenous people want in this country today is to have our canoe catch up so we can align beside each other again. As an Indigenous person, I love being a Canadian, but I'm also an Indigenous person. And that's the uniqueness of sharing this land today

is I want to make sure my daughter, her name is Callie, can grow up and be just like her great, great, great grandma was living this land as an Indigenous person with that confidence. But Callie and I, we're going to do our hunting a little different today. We don't do the hunting society. We go to Costco today. That's just where Callie and I do our hunting. But that doesn't mean that Callie and I have to give up our indigenous ways just to succeed in the Western Canadian worldview. It's going to take a generation to understand this. I hope it takes sooner, but I'll give you my patterns. It is going to take a generation because there is, reconciliation has a ceiling.

Nobody's opposed to it. Everybody's promising it, but there's a ceiling. Nobody's opposed to it. Everybody's promising it, but there's a ceiling. When you start to have your own assets, your own timelines, your own, everything impacted, that's when reconciliation hits its ceiling. So we just got to understand we're in a transition of how it should have been at the beginning. And in Canadians, we just had a head start for the first 160 years.

Now it's our obligation to make sure the Indigenous worldview canoe is aligned right beside us. The holidays are coming, and nobody wants to deal with seasonal bugs making their way through the family. That's where Maple comes in. No more scrambling for open clinics during holiday festivities. One membership covers the whole family, making it a gift that keeps on giving this season. And with over a million five-star reviews, Canadians are loving it.

Don't let sickness slow down your season. Download the Maple app today. See a real doctor on your phone in minutes, 24-7. Get Maple. Get well. Sooner. I love, I love that. And when I, you know, just for our listeners, I'm going to tell you just my perception and, you know, Cadmus, you correct me all the time. I think about, you know, how did this start? How came to this country, indigenous peoples landed here and they created a light. And there was this understanding, you know, because of colonization that white skin mattered more than dark. And there was this ability then to come then to come over to

Canada and this sense that, you know, we will take over the lands. And there was resources and fighting and promises that then ended up being made and never upheld. And when I think about the belief that you are doing something that is right because you are sort of getting rid of the bad guys or the people that are going to cause the problem or those that are weaker than. I had a beautiful conversation with a human who started the same place I did. We have the same heartbeats. Human DNA is 99.98% the same. Race is a social construct. And I sat with this human who I, you know, I did an acknowledgement during a presentation. He came up to me. I was in Saskatchewan. Very robust, indigenous man. Sat very critical of my presentation the whole time, probably because I swore too much.

Cadmus is not a fan. And when I was watching him, he came up to me and he grabbed my hands and he was shaking. And he said, I am a residential school survivor. And I said, can I hug you? And he sobbed and I sobbed. And he said, you know, those babies that you talked about being unearthed? He said, I had to bury them. That was my job. And as an Indigenous person, if you're listening to this, I mean, I want you to drop your shoulders. It's okay if you press pause. But I got to hear for the first time, so we read about it and yes, we're going to uncover. He said these words to me, you know, there was no concern for

cutting my hair. There was no concern. I would hear the screams at night. I would watch, very malnourished, he said, for the vast majority of my time there, I desperately wanted to leave. I would watch people escape and then never come back. We never knew what happened to them. And sometimes my heart breaks so much when I hear the people that I love in my own family question whether this was reality. And I think, I think that's the point for me when I can hang on to this man, you know, eight grandchildren. And she said, she looked at me and she said, he still sleeps with the leg on. And she said, I said, do you ever rest in this body? And he said, during the day when all of my children are home, I can nap. And I nap beautifully in those moments. And I just thought, uh-huh, because the body keeps the score. And when we start to understand that about the wisdom and the brilliance and the insight

that is surrounded how lucky we are in this country to be surrounded by that resilience, our opportunities to learn from people who are wise beyond our years, it makes me think about the fight it takes to get people to understand and appreciate that. And that for the rest of my days, I mean, I think about him,

I think about him all the time. I think about, you know, every time I get on a stage and I do a land acknowledgement, every time I get a conversation that people are brave enough to say, Hi, why do you have to do a land acknowledgement in front of every podcast? How come you do that? Huh? Have we not done this enough already?

I love it. But I think that it is only in those hard conversations and the fact that you are willing to have them, Cadmus, is something that I admire to my, I mean, I just, I think about how do you navigate this as a human being every day? Where do you put those things? Thank you for sharing that. you know and um i um i get my motivation i must earn my motivation i get my motivation from sitting with at my mom's house where i'm sitting right now and uh you know she's on the couch with my four-year-old he stayed home from school today he was a little sick and when i'm sick i'm like that commercial i tell my wife call my mom you know i don't know if you know that commercial that's me when i'm sick. And so this morning I said,

I'm just gonna take a kick clean of my mom. She'll give him the medicine that he needs it. I do it because I watch my mother and residential school survivors, living witnesses, just see hope in their eyes the way I carry myself. My duty in this world is to drive hope. And it's a tough go. It's a really tough go. You know, I, I, I feel the optimism on the Canadian Western worldview canoe. I work with people every day and boards that I chair to committees I sit with and so forth.

And then I get to sit in the other canoe and that's the indigenous canoe. And it's beautiful, funny. The humor is too much for me. Sometimes I got to slow down because it's just, I can't stop having so much fun. But, you know, one of the things I find is, why cope with it is when someone has trauma, they normally create this membrane around them to protect them from the next trauma. And sometimes that membrane actually blocks the healing part too. So that membrane is meant to block the trauma. And so when I talk with somebody especially in like i'm a keynote speaker and that's where we got to meet each other and i always make a joke because

i always like going after you because i'll say well after all hearing those f word let let me let me let's let's talk about the the healing of the fwords now. And I usually make a little joke. You usually say you're going to smudge the room before you can even talk because it's not even sacred anymore. I feel the F-words in this room. And so, you know, and I address the onion layers of somebody's membranes to try and get them to put their shield down.

And let's talk about, especially Indigenous worldview, kind of Indigenous to Indigenous. And it's happening. You know, I was a chief for seven years and 75% of my time was managing poverty. Mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, religious poverty. It wasn't the money poverty. It was the intergenerational poverty. And it really takes its toll on chiefs. I give it up to chiefs in this country. And 25% is innovation in economics. And so, you know, I do, I speak, you know, the means that I can to drive hope. Because I got three little kids and I've met many Indigenous

youth, many non-Indigenous youth. I've met new Canadian young teenagers and every one of them want the same. The challenge now is, is we all agree on the end goal. We just disagree on how to get there. And I want to help drive on how to get there because reconciliation can only happen with uncomfortable conversations. And it takes certain people to lead an uncomfortable conversation where nobody puts their shield up. And, you know, that's, those are my, my means to why I do this. I, I enjoy that. Then I, those uncomfortable conversations are moments of truth for me. But at the end of the day, you know, I look back, I'm like, we took a step forward today on how to get there. It is indeed your superpower. I've watched you in action

and it is no small feat that that ability to stay regulated in such face faced with so much pushback and that people can't tolerate the truth sometimes of what's happening. And I think your ability to stay with that is just is just remarkable. And now next steps for you. I know we just basically, you know, you told me a little bit about One Hope, but you, you, um, not currently acting as chief, you are always having a hand in politics. Cause I think you, that's your calling, but this, this, the, tell me about One Hope. We spoke briefly at an airport about it once. And I was like, stop, this sounds like the most brilliant initiative of all time. So can you tell me more about it? Cause I know it's just your new baby. Yeah. Thank you. It's a month old. I'm still in the honeymoon stage. So, you know, still getting

the congratulations and all that. And, um, you know, there's there's at the end goal, I mean, let me explain it to you from a big picture. The end goal, when we reach reconciliation in this country, when our kids reap the benefits of our sacrifices today on how to do it, there's going to be two relationships with Indigenous people and Canadians. The first one is quasi-jurisdictional. The second one is economic. And those are the two main relationships Indigenous people will have with Canadians. And so One Hoop is helping with the economic side of things. And what One Hoop means is in every Indigenous heritage, every Indigenous culture, a hoop is consistent.

Even though our languages are different and the way of our values sometimes are unique as indigenous to indigenous, the hoop is consistent. And the hoop is about healing. It's about culture. It's about pride. So one hoop is all of us, one hoop. And so what it is, is it helps three different areas. So it helps corporate Canada, Western Canadian worldview, better understand ESGI. So, you know, everybody's focusing on ESG today. That's a very common term in, you know, in investments to business strategy, so that the environment, social governance, but Indigenous is the fourth one. ESGI, Indigenous has to be the fourth one.

If you're not doing Indigenous in business in this country, you're actually falling behind in investments today. That's just how we're going. So One Hoop helps Corporate Canada better understand ESGI and what that means in their strategy and their investments and so forth. So we can come and read strat plans, do indigenous procurement policies and so forth like that. The second part is indigenous governance. So indigenous governing bodies, Métis, First Nation, Inuit, all want to do economics, but sometimes the social is so impactful that leadership doesn't

have time to focus on economics because they're too busy managing poverty because of what we invested. One hoop wants to come in and be that breath of fresh air to the Indigenous governing body to help them with their nation wealth, their economic self-sustainability, and so forth. So we're there to help in coaching and consulting. The third one is we're going to bridge them together. So one of the things we're doing is private equity. So this is where I get my financial mindset. So one of the things in the country today is Indigenous people are getting better at economics,

but we're not in the equity conversation in this country yet. We don't own the top top. We're not sitting on the board. We're not being the actual owners. We're kind of in the middle. That's our median right now. And there's a lot of strategic alliances. I'llindigenous business will come to a first nation or metis and say let's do a strategic alliance we'll give you x amount of dollars uh we'll say you're 51 10 owner and uh go to and get these contracts you'll get your your x amount of dollars and we both win but when that contract's done the indigenous nation's still sitting there with no capacity very little you know long-term jobs they just got a good little payout on a big contract and that's not equity and so one hoop we're creating a private equity where we're going to take um you know private equity dollars we're going to buy businesses we're going to indigenize that we're going to make sure indigenous is a part of the creation value. And we'll resell them.

And so, you know, we're going to really nudge that economics in this country. Oh, my. Can I just tell you, here's what I love about it. And you tell me if I've got this correct. So you can't give away something you've never received. And when I think about building business, building strategy, what you need is somebody to come alongside and incorporate Indigenous knowledge and funding resources and land into businesses. Let us bridge those things. Let us teach alongside so that Indigenous peoples can then understand because there's so much brilliance and insight and knowledge.

How do we mirror those two? Is that right? Am I close? You're bridging them together. I would probably talk a little longer on the mirroring side, but we are bridging them together. A lot of corporate Canada want to do business with Indigenous nations. They just don't know how to approach it. Maybe they just, you know, don't want to feel disrespectful.

So call on One Hoop and we will be that understanding to bridge them together. Ah, I like this thing. Come on. Brilliant. Huh? So this is one thing. Now tell me, and then the last thing I just really want to talk a little bit about is the Residential School Documents Advisory Committee.

What is your role as chairperson? Yeah, thank you. You can tell I'm a storyteller, so I'm going to bring in how I became the chair, then I'll tell you what it is. So when I was chief in 2021, I had to stand in front of cameras and explain why cows had unmarked graves at our former residential school. And after that, we created two teams. We created a science team to validate more the ground radar penetration system. And then we had to start a research team. So we split them into two.

And so the research team went out and started to find documents. So actual evidence of how these children showed up to a residential school, but how come they weren't documented on leaving a residential school or so forth. So we went to the, because it was a Roman Catholic church that ran the Aeroflot Residential School from 1898 to 1972.

And then from 72 to 96, it was ran through Indigenous Services Canada and COWSIS. So we went to the church archives and it wasn't that great. Like they just didn't document it well. Then we went to the government and the government had some available, but a lot were locked up because of legalities, because of privacy acts. And so I started telling the minister of the day, I was like, well, how do you expect us to heal if you're not even releasing our own documents

that have our family name in them? A couple of months later, he said, hey, we're going to create this committee in Ottawa. Would you like to be a part of it? You seem to understand this. And it eventually made my way where it's an internal committee. It's not an external, it's not a commission.

It's not an external where I go around the country. It's strictly an internal government transitioning documents out of government to a third, what we call the National Center on Truth and Reconciliation, so that any Indigenous nation could go there and they could find their documents relating to residential schools. So I agreed to be the chair. I'm the chair for four and a half years. I still have three years left. And what I'm doing is I work with the 14 departments and their agencies.

So I work directly with the deputy ministers. I report to the minister of crown relations. And we have a committee. We have a residential school committee that I take, you know, bounce off ideas. But I'm strictly an internal chair. And the thing that's so unique about this is Canada's never had an external person ever become an internal chair to such a unique committee. So, you know, at first I felt the first couple of months I had to prove myself that I wasn't there just to be a wrench in the machine that I actually met, knew what I was

talking about. I feel now that I got that respect internally and I get to learn how federal bureaucracy works at the federal government internally. And I love it. You know, no one's opposing it. There's a lot of tough conversations. I feel like I educate people on a general, then I, I get their feedback and then I go out and find what they're saying and I bring it back. So I'm learning a lot. It's not a full-time job. Some people think I work in Ottawa. I'm sitting in, I'm sitting on the reserve right now. I could be doing work on my laptop right now. So predominantly off my laptop. But in four years, there'll be over 20 million documents transitioned out of government to the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation. And that's where anybody doing research can go there to seek documents. Hey, wow. What power. That is amazing. Hey, wow. What power.

That is amazing. Oh, my goodness. Thank you for explaining that. And now I want to know, I mean, what's next for Cadmus DeLorn? What's happening here? What's next for you? You know, Jodi, I love where we're going together. I feel like I'm 41 right now,

so I still have some years ahead of me. I have a three, four, and seven-year-old. I'm coaching now. I didn't realize how competitive of a parent I am. Oh, stop. You are a world-class golfer. You are massively competitive my wife is like calm down it's just he ball she was telling me this you're like come on I'm so excited I'm so excited to so you know I learn from people that I just I learn from people in general and

one of the things I learn is don't take too much time away from home in the little kids years. Like, so I plan for the next five years to just do at its quo. I'm going to grow one hoop. I'm going to, you know, do business, but you know, I get to do it all from home and I'm just going to be there with my kids. And I hope one day I can get back into politics one day. You know, maybe one day I will. I'd like to try non-Indigenous politics just because I believe that, you know, in order to get to the end goal of what we all agree on the end goal is, maybe I can nudge it from, you know, in non-Indigenous politics. And maybe Indigenous politics will call me back or, you know, I just want to play a role in this country where, you know, I see where Callie, my seven-year-old daughter, and anybody listening with their seven-year-old daughter, they can both be pilots, they can both be nurses, they can both be tradespeople. just gets the benefit of having that indigenous worldview that her great great great great grandma

had and you know the non-indigenous seven-year-old decider probably has the benefit of learning that indigenous worldview that she's going to learn so much value in as well and i i don't know what role that actually is joey but i'm open to suggestions prime You know, the toughest part about prime minister is I got to pick a party. Yeah. You know, you're like, oh my gosh. We can just make one, Cadmus. I'll be your vice president. Let's, the two canoe party, we'll call it. Yes, that is brilliant. I knew you'd have a name. I love that. Oh my gosh. Listen, from the bottom of my soul, thank you for doing this. Thank you. I don't, I just really want to tell you, I think you, I met. And I am such a huge fan, supporter, always in your corner, whatever it takes, I will throw down a fight or flip a canoe or do the whole peaceful warrior thing, which I find tends to work better. Fine. Okay. But I, I'm just, I'm just so in awe of you,

Cadmus. I really hope you know how amazing you are. And I, I'm just so in awe of you, Cadmus. I really hope you know how amazing you are. And I'm just so grateful you joined us today. Oh, it's such an honor. And right back at you. And I see you in person or see you somewhere online when I'm following you on social media. It makes me understand why I do this, just knowing you're doing it too. So thank you for all that you do. Oh, gosh. Listen, everybody, I'm going to put everything you need to know about Chief Cadmus DeLorn in the show notes.

And some more information about One Hoop and all of the initiatives that he so bravely champions. And take care of each other. Have the hard conversations. Learn about the things that you don't know about and share that knowledge, have those conversations in respectful ways. And the greatest warrior is the one who brings peace. Be that person today. Follow in these footsteps because you just met a leader today and you're a hero to me. So thank you. Take care of you. Take care of each other, my friends. And I can't wait to meet

you right back here again next week i'm a registered clinical psychologist here in beautiful alberta canada The content created and produced in this show is not intended as specific therapeutic advice. The intention of this podcast is to provide information, resources, some education, and hopefully a little hope. The Everyone Comes From Somewhere podcast by me, Dr. Jodi Carrington. It's produced by Brian Seaver, Taylor McGillivray, and the amazing Jeremy Saunders at Snack Labs. Our executive producer is the one and only, my Marty Piller.

Our marketing strategist is Caitlin Beneteau. And our PR big shooters are Des Veneau and Barry Cohen. Our agent, the 007 guy, is Jeff Lowness from the Talent Bureau. And my emotional support during the taping of these credits was and is and will always be my son, Asher Grant.