It’s really inspiring to hear about how people are giving youth in their communities opportunities to strengthen their connections to land, water, others and themselves.
Biography
Zahra started at Nature United in 2018 and supports Indigenous communities across Canada in running strong and resilient on-the-land/water programs for Indigenous youth, who will be the future stewards of their communities, cultures and territories. This work involves facilitation support, developing tools and resources, and facilitating webinars to support networking between partners.
Before this, she worked in Indigenous education with a university on Vancouver Island and in public health in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. She’s a teacher by training and feels lucky to be able to substitute teach on the lower mainland one day a week in addition to working for Nature United.
In her younger years, Zahra herself participated in experiential learning through outdoor education programs and felt the transformative impact it had on her confidence, interpersonal interactions and leadership skills. She still loves spending time on the land and water and is grateful for all the opportunities she has to hike and paddle in Coast Salish territory, where she has been living for the last 10 years.
Nature United’s work to support Indigenous youth began with partnerships around the SEAS (Supporting Emerging Aboriginal Stewards) program on the Central Coast of B.C. and the Ni Hat’ni Dene Ranger program in the Northwest Territories. Over the years, we have broadened our work to support other programs that support Emerging Leaders in Indigenous communities in different regions of the Northwest Territories, British Columbia and Manitoba.
What did you do before joining Nature United?
Before I joined Nature United, I was an elementary school teacher. I taught Grade 4 and was also a substitute teacher. I enjoyed substitute teaching because I got to learn from new students and school environments every day. Teaching gave me many chances to try new things, make mistakes and reflect on and improve my teaching practice.
What is one of your most memorable moments?
One of my favorite moments was participating in a pit cook last summer with the SEAS Interns. The interns in Klemtu, B.C. – a community in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest—shared their knowledge around bear safety with me, and we learned from a visiting ethnobotanist about the different plants in their territory, some of which we harvested for the pit cook. As a bonus, I got to go for a couple of beautiful summer night runs from the village out to the Klemtu ferry terminal.
What inspires you?
Youth and nature! I love the opportunities to chat with young people and hear about what is going on in their heads, what they care about and how they see their place in the world. It’s also hard not to feel inspired by the feeling of jumping into the cold ocean or walking through the trees on the side of a mountain in B.C.
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