Nancy Peters

Nancy Peters is 25 years old and the daughter of Frank Joe and Geraldine Peters and she attended Bluefield High School. Her father is from Lennox Island, but she grew up just outside of Charlottetown in Winsloe North. Nancy’s family moved into Charlottetown when she started UPEI back in 2002 and she is currently in the process of moving up to North Cape with Sean, her fiancé, to start a life up there.

From 2002 to 2006 Nancy worked toward obtaining her Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Anthropology and a minor in History. She took a year off to figure out what direction she wanted to go in and decided to apply and was accepted into the Education program in 2007. Nancy graduated with her Bachelor of Education in 2009 with an Aboriginal Specialization.

For her undergrad degree, she had the need to learn more about the different cultures around the world and found Anthropology was the best way to do this. For her education degree, she always knew she wanted to help people but didn’t quite know how to do it. Nancy thought of how she had encountered some difficult times growing up in non-native schools and thought she would like to try and help native kids who found themselves in this situation.

Recently Nancy returned from Vancouver and the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. She was chosen to do this on a volunteer bases in order to represent her community of PEI Mi’kmaq. A few years ago, she was elected the President of the Aboriginal Women’s Association of PEI. Although she wasn’t quite ready for the job, she did learn some valuable skills in terms of working with an organization.

Nancy’s biggest personal achievement to date would be being asked to participate in the Olympic opening ceremonies. It was a huge honor and she wished everyone could have been there with her. She says her biggest professional achievement would be getting asked to speak at the PEITF conference this past year to all of the teachers. She only was given a few minutes to try and impress upon the teachers the importance of not only educating their student’s about the PEI Mi’kmaq, but also themselves. That was a huge honor and she sincerely hopes she was able to get through to at least some of them with her message.

When Nancy was younger, she was the only aboriginal in her school. There were a few people that were pretty ignorant and racist, whom she had to learn to deal with, but for the most part the overall experience was okay. In terms of dealing with racism, Nancy used to internalize it but soon learned this was self-destructive. She then tried to turn it around and educate people about the PEI Mi’kmaq and Aboriginals in general. This was a positive step in ensuring there would be less ignorant people. Her procrastination is something she continues to struggle with but she has started using day planners and schedules. She says that it helps that her fiancé is fairly organized and she tries to follow his example. As long as she stays dedicated to the task of staying on schedule, things work out fine.

“Education is the key to success. Back in the olden days, education came in the form of storytelling. These stories often taught morals, consequences and roles without being direct about it. They also taught the people how to survive and live happy lives. This was education. Today, our education still comes from stories, but also from textbooks. In order to survive and live happy lives we need to go out and learn things from books and other people in order to figure out what our path is. We need to find out where we, as PEI Mi’kmaq and Aboriginal Canadians, have come from, what we have gone through, how the rest of the world has factored into our story, and where we are moving today. Knowing who you are helps you figure out where you fit in and what direction you need to go. Education, in whatever form, is the key to breaking out of past downward spirals in order to find the tools you need to come up and see the light of the future.”

Nancy’s goal for the future is to be a teacher at Hernewood Junior High where she can hopefully work with the Mi’kmaq students and encourage them to continue learning throughout their whole lives. .