Tansi, my name is Agathe-Mae Steinhauer. I am from Saddle Lake Cree Nation Alberta and have a daughter whom I raise on my own. I grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, and I didn’t really have the best upbringing due to the fact that both of my parents were in active addiction and were stuck in it for most of my childhood so I was raised with my kokum’s sister.
As I got older, I started to break the rules and started getting involved with boys. Long story short I ended up becoming a teen mom at 16. After having my daughter, I was a good, dedicated mother for the first couple years of her life. Around my 18th birthday is when I had started to meet the wrong people and basically got myself involved with the wrong crowd. I started doing meth and drinking everyday, it caused me to lose complete care of my daughter and after that I gave up and let myself fall deeper… before I knew it, I was running the streets living that “gangster lifestyle.” I lived my life like that for five years, putting myself in situations where I should’ve been dead for years. There were times where I would sober up for a couple or a few months then fall right back into it.
Finally, in March 2022 I had a very traumatic experience where my life was put at risk and I was far from home where I didn’t know anyone except for the person who was putting my life at risk… that’s how I knew it was time to go home. Home to my baby and my family, the people who truly love and care for me. I knew in my heart that this time was going to be different. I was determined to change my life since that day… I knew that day was my last chance to make things right for me and mine.
A year and six months of my sobriety fly by, and I managed to attain my driver’s license, my high school diploma, and I had a full time job landscaping. The job made me realize that I enjoy working with my hands and being physically active. It makes me feel good but landscape labouring wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted something more but I wanted to stick with the trades so I chose carpentry to be my trade of choice because, well, they do it all and I feel you could really grow as an individual in that field.
I didn’t really know where or how to get myself started in the trade so I started asking around, even asked some of my old teachers and one had mentioned Trade Winds to Success. He explained that Trade Winds is indigenous based and that they are located in Edmonton and as soon as he said that I was already on the phone booking myself into an info session for the residential construction program! Honestly, who would’ve thought that walking into that building was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.
Trade Winds to Success has helped me learn new things about myself that I never knew, they’ve shown me that I’m capable of anything I put my mind to and that I actually know how to swing a hammer! The program gave us the academic skills and basic knowledge to the carpentry trade, they also gave us the hands-on training where we built a tiny eco-home as a team/class!
Towards the end of the program they help with job search and help you attain your bluebook to start your apprenticeship once you’re hired on and indentured with a company! I graduated the program mid December and was hired on as a first year carpenter apprentice with PME, (Plan. Manage. Execute) early January as the Christmas/new year holidays started to wrap up. I’ve been working full time now and I couldn’t be any more happier with the career choice I chose.
I really do feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be in life. I’ve literally been at the bottom so many times but because I put myself there, but I also chose to take myself out of there and choose to heal. If you had asked me three years ago from now if I could ever see myself sobering up I would have probably said no because that’s how stuck I really was. Today I can’t ever see myself going back to that lifestyle, I worked so hard in these last couple years of sobriety that it would be stupid of me to let it all go to waste.
I’ll forever be grateful for the blessings and lessons and most definitely for my past because without it I wouldn’t be the young strong Cree Warrior woman I am today! (And cute like my kokum).
