InternationalIndigenousSpeakers Bureau

Latest NewsJul 11, 2016

Standing Together With Jack Saddleback

by Andréa Ledding, Media Consultant
Copyright © 2016, Andréa Ledding. All Rights Reserved.

Saddleback moved from the Samson Cree Nation in Maskwacis First Nation to Saskatoon in late 2010 to finish up high school and go on to University — where he would become the third self-identified Indigenous Student President and the first two-spirit transgender president and member of the U of S Board of Governors. Saddleback is used to breaking new ground.

“It’s a revolution just for us to exist in a world that tells us we should not,” says Jack Saddleback. “The universe puts people where they need to be at the right time and here I am.”

Saddleback is used to speaking out, but his journey to become a motivational speaker is something he describes as “organic.” 

“I never would have ever thought that I’d be a motivational speaker going out there and providing this messaging of hope, of resiliency, of acceptance and love.”

Saddleback moved from the Samson Cree Nation in Maskwacis First Nation to Saskatoon in late 2010 to finish up high school and go on to University — where he would become the third self-identified Indigenous Student President and the first two-spirit transgender president and member of the U of S Board of Governors. Saddleback is used to breaking new ground.

“I started doing workshops and talks in my mid-teens because I was quite involved in a number of volunteer initiatives that took me to conferences and other things,” says Saddleback, explaining how he advocates for people to be open, acceptant, and loving. “As a two-spirit transgender gay man, my journey with anxiety and depression and subsequent suicidal event — and being Indigenous — I was always rooting for people to see themselves reflected in society. As a young Indigenous gay trans man I didn’t see myself reflected in our broader way and that created a lot of isolation and depressions.”

Jack often thinks about how alone a younger Jack felt, and how alone younger Jack thought he was going to be for the rest of his life.

“I think about that young individual and I think about young people feeling like they can’t be a part of this world that tells them they don’t even exist.”

Saddleback speaks on various topics — self-acceptance, identity, mental health and mental illness, and Indigenous issues.

“One thing I always try to hammer down for folks is that we have a responsibility as people, as individuals, to future generations. We must understand that we need to step up and ask ourselves how can we be good ancestors.”

For this reason Saddleback always looks at making things better for those young people that are already here, and yet to come: in volunteer work, in employment, and in political positions. This seven generations forward-and-back teaching resonates with him: to always be thinking towards the next seven generations while appreciating the last seven generations. He knows seven generations ago individuals did their best to make a better world for us.

“It’s fantastic to have that experience and that lens as a two-spirit transgendered man,  because with any sort of change makers we have to think about those who are most marginalized, how we can create that welcoming circle for everyone. When we are hearing from those young people directly affected, that holds us accountable as leaders and we have a responsibility to think of everyone in our circles and not exclude anyone.”

When Saddleback shares his stories of struggles through the education system and the health system and Indigenous culture, he receives “pure kindness” back from his listeners.

“I get this pure kindness of “thank you for sharing your story and opening my eyes.” People are able to connect on a human level and that’s where we need to do that work —  that human connection where people finally get it.”

Saddleback attributes his own life, his individuality, and even his physical existence, to his family.

“I push for this change and acceptance and welcome the questions and new people and new experiences for those young folks that are in my life — my nieces, my nephews, the youth I work with and advocate for, some of whom I don’t meet — but I think about those younger folks and that responsibility we have to leave this world a better place than we found it,” he notes. “And I hope that they can grow up and not go through what I have gone through, and I can create that safety and feeling of belonging and knowing that they are here in this world — and they are accepted and loved.”

Saddleback is excited about IISB (International Indigenous Speakers Bureau), for Indigenous people to have a “family” that they can all relate to, an organization that will support and promote them in mutually beneficial and honouring way.

“There’s a shared experience that we have around the world that we can all relate to, and to have that platform of acceptance of the struggles that we’ve gone through, the understanding of those struggles, is fantastic,” says Saddleback. “And to also note that we as Indigenous speakers have just as much, if not more experience in some cases, to take to these places, and we are just as qualified as some of those big speaker names out there and we should see ourselves as such. All that internalization of intergenerational trauma has brought us to a point where this type of bureau is needed to support one another and I’m ecstatic to be a part of it. It’s like a family.”

Some of the depth people will see in Saddleback’s speaking is his breadth of experience being a deeply sensitive and self aware human being.

“Those themes of leadership, of acceptance, the power of language and how that can create positive spaces, of acceptance of mental health issues and how to deal with them, to deal with one’s own identity and to go through times of questioning,” lists Saddleback, adding, “And understanding that we as Indigenous people have a lot to give and a lot to offer this world, and it’s now a time for all of us to come together and stand together as a society.

“Let’s leave this world a better place than we found it.”

Copyright © 2016, Andréa Ledding. All Rights Reserved.