Tristen Durocher was presented with a gold pin featuring a Canadian diamond during the 2022 Indspire Award. (Facebook/Adrienne Durocher)

By Derek Cornet

milestone

Durocher wins national Indigenous award, meets with Prime Minister Trudeau

May 13, 2022 | 5:00 PM

Tristen Durocher received a national 2022 Indspire Award in Ottawa on Thursday.

He was one of three youth award recipients who were being honoured for their accomplishments, as well as for serving as role models to other First Nations, Métis or Inuit youth in their communities and across Canada.

“At Indspire, we’ve been eagerly anticipating our biggest celebration in years,” said Indspire president and CEO Mike DeGagné. “This is an especially significant moment as we celebrate in person. We are proud to honour our 2022 Laureates and their outstanding achievements, recognizing the important place they hold in their communities and in wider Indigenous circles across Turtle Island.”

Durocher was presented with a gold pin featuring a Canadian diamond unearthed from the Diavik mine in the Northwest Territories and supplied by Rio Tinto.

In a statement about Durocher from Indspire, it was noted Durocher knows that even small positive changes can lead to great things, and he has been instrumental in creating those changes. Inspired by the defeat of a suicide prevention bill in the Saskatchewan Legislature, Durocher created the Walking With Our Angels campaign to raise awareness of the disproportionately high rate of suicide among northern and Indigenous Peoples, walking 635 kilometres from his home in Air Ronge to the Legislative Grounds in Regina.

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He set up a teepee and started a 44-day ceremonial fast to convince the provincial government to adopt the bill it had recently voted down. The bill ultimately passed in April 2021.

“An inspirational fiddle performer and instructor, Tristen teaches traditional fiddle music to youth in northern Manitoba and won the People’s Choice Award at the 2019 Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Competition,” the statement added. “Tristen uses his gifts of musicianship, writing, photography, and public speaking to empower Indigenous youth through Indigenous arts and culture.”

Durocher also had the opportunity to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the visit. He told larongeNOW that he was able to speak with Trudeau for 30 minutes.

“I told him about Saskatchewan, how in the north from ages 13 to 45, the leading cause of death is suicide and how that wasn’t acceptable,” Durocher said. “He did listen, he was very sincere and he seemed compassionate and genuine.”

The two also discussed art and music and how they have the capacity to be healing. Trudeau told Durocher that art doesn’t only have to function as a mirror, that it can also be a lamp.

“I think what we meant by that is art just doesn’t need to reflect the grief or the heartbreak within certain spaces, but it can serve as a nightlight or a source of inspiration or hope,” Durocher said. “I was telling him how music is really good at articulating emotion, so when students learn their instrument and music, they learn to have this musical vocabulary that they might not have the words for.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno