Hannah episode final
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[00:00:00] Let's work it.

Katy: Hi everyone, and welcome to Work It, a UVic career exploration podcast. I'm Katie, I'm a writer and communications professional who recently earned my MA in English from UVic, and I'm here today with Emma. 

Emma: Hi, I'm Emma, and I'm a recent co op graduate, so excited for our podcast episode today. So yeah. 

Katy: Today, we're recording at the University of Victoria campus, and I want to acknowledge with respect the Lekwungen peoples on whose traditional territory the [00:01:00] university stands, and the Songhees, Esquimalt, and WSANEC peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

I am grateful and feel privileged to be able to work, live, and play here, and to learn more about this territory every day. Today, I'm super excited to be joined by Hannah Gentes. Hannah is a Saulteaux Métis woman currently living in Lekwungen Territory. She is a Senior Project Manager and Indigenous Initiatives Lead with the environmental non profit Coastal Restoration Society.

She has a bachelor's degree in Indigenous Studies and Environmental Studies from the University of Victoria, and will be starting a master's project in Indigenous led restoration at the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria in September, 2023. She is passionate about indigenous environmental stewardship, community building, and land based learning.

Outside of work and school, Hannah enjoys hiking, paddling, making art, and music. Welcome, Hannah. We're [00:02:00] so excited to have you here today, and it's really great to meet you. 

Hannah: I'm also really happy to be here and really happy to meet you. So thank you for having me. Yeah, really grateful to be here today.

Emma: All right.

So why don't we jump into some questions that we've curated for you today, starting with your first job and what you do now. What was your journey from the start of when you graduated or even before to where you are today? 

Hannah: My very first job was scooping ice cream at McKay's Ice Cream in Cochrane, Alberta, which is where I grew up.

So that's in Stoney Nakoda Territory. I was there until I was 17, and then that's when I moved here as a visitor to Lekwungen Territory. So I've been here for nine years, but yeah, I started off as an ice cream scooper, and honestly, I think that that... That job really gave me the drive because that ice cream shop is like world [00:03:00] renowned and so people are always coming through from like Banff to Calgary and stopping in and I remember having sticky arms and it was like hot in the summer and I was working like nine and a half hour shifts as my first job and like lines down the block.

Yeah, how that has led me to the job that I'm at now, I don't know, but I honestly have to hold my hands up to my 14, 15 year old self who got into the work sphere. 

Katy: For real, when my sibling was like four or five and people asked them, what do you want to be when you grow up? They would always say, I want to work at Dairy Queen.

But what I'm hearing from you is that that is not. It's not as, it's not as glamorous as we might think. It's not just all ice cream and treats all the time.

Hannah: I did eat tons of ice cream when I was there. That was a bonus, but yeah. But at what cost? It was hard work. I was like, nine and a half hour shifts.

That's ridiculous. This is hilarious though. Yeah. But yeah, it gave me really good work ethic for [00:04:00] sure. I worked through the service industry and it was not until I actually started going to school when I seriously started thinking about my career. I started off wanting to go into psychology because I was really interested in how the brain works and mental health.

And that slowly changed. After I went to Selkirk College for a year, just in general studies, that's in Castlegard, I came back here and I remember I went to a Tribe Called Red Concert and was like, oh man, Native pride, like, I haven't really like felt it in this way before, seeing them dance on stage and that inspired me to do the Indigenous Studies program at So that's where I started and started getting interested in archaeology and anthropology and slowly I found work with BC Parks one summer. They have a student ranger program and in 2018 I was one of the [00:05:00] first student rangers working out of Goldstream and that's where I really found my love for working on the land. And yeah, I guess that's what influenced my taking up of a minor in environmental studies, which eventually turned into a double major in environmental studies.

And thank goodness I found co op because I was able to try a job that I thought was going to be so perfect for me, find out that it was not perfect for me, but gain valuable skills and be able to bring that and then eventually find a job that now I never want to leave. So. 

Katy: That really is the dream, like having a job that you genuinely want to wake up in the morning and go to work.

Do you mind telling us a little bit about your current role with the Coastal Restoration Society, what you do, and what an average day looks like for you? 

Hannah: Sure, yeah. They are an environmental non profit founded in 2017 and it started with [00:06:00] four people. Coastal Restoration Society focuses primarily on the removal of harmful anthropogenic debris.

Anthropogenic just meaning man made, human made. We do projects like derelict vessel removals, which are abandoned boats, which are leaching lots of harmful, toxic chemicals and oils and lubricants, whatever is found in boats, like that's just leaching into the water systems. We remediate abandoned aquaculture sites that have just been left there by industry.

We do like shoreline restoration. So just like cleaning the shoreline and up into the vegetation line, everything that is like blown in from these huge winter storms, which is primarily plastics from the fishing industry. Recently, we did a huge project in the Nicola Coldwater and Thompson rivers systems cleaning up after the huge floods that happened.

So we do climate change induced emergency response events. The big [00:07:00] thing about Coastal Restoration Society that I love and the driving force of all of the work that we do is that it is community led. It is community centered, very focused on the hiring, the retention, capacity building within these Indigenous communities that we work with within their lands.

So it's making sure that all employment opportunities, training opportunities, contract opportunities are offered first to the Indigenous folks of the land that we are working on. And so we try and work ourselves out of a job, right? Because that's kind of the hope is that these communities can just do this work themselves because it's their traditional roles as stewards of the land, right?

We have this huge invasive species removal program. We have the European green crab removal program, and I think we've removed in one year half a million green crab from the Sooke Basin and Claquett Sound, so it's pretty incredible. 

Emma: Well done. That's awesome. 

Katy: I [00:08:00] can't even envision that many crabs. 

Hannah: I know.

I know, yeah. It's funny because when we do like research protocols, and part of that is assessing environmental, social, cultural impacts. that might occur and one of those was like these mental or spiritual impacts of seeing the crabs decimating traditional waters or traditional food systems, but we never thought that like people are having dreams about like the sound of the scratching of these crabs in the buckets, and they're having dreams about that and we're like, oh my god, this is a mental effect that we didn't think about. Yeah, anyway, sorry, that just came to mind. 

Katy: A horror movie, honestly. It's like, uh, Alfred Hitchcock's The Crabs.

Hannah: It's really tough to say what an average day looks like for me in my job, because the work that we do as non profits are all [00:09:00] grant based, so my role is really dependent on what project I'm working on, but currently my title is I'm a project manager and indigenous initiatives lead, so when I started with CRS We were really small, so it was like ten of us, and we all just kind of did everything, but we all had our different interests and focus, and my interests and focus were definitely on the side of Indigenization and community focused, and so. So, my role has really been building projects from the grant application stage, to the implementation stage, to being in the field, and then reporting.

So I've been through all of it, but what I do is apply an Indigenous and community centered lens to all of those project stages. Now that our... organization has actually grown. We've had like a 538 percent growth rate this year, which is insane, but it's because we got a [00:10:00] huge project. We were contracted by the Ministry of Environment to do an emergency flood response in Kamloops.

And so that was a huge project that really helped us grow and gave us a lot of work for a while. When I was there, I was the liaison officer, so really focused on community engagement, and I've also been a site supervisor in the field, just managing crews, doing shoreline cleanups. I've really been able to explore and try a lot of different roles, which is why I really love this organization so much, because I'm able to try out different things, and I'm able to say what I'm interested in, and they'll try and fill those needs as as best as they can and support the work that I wanna do and and support my future, which is pretty huge.

So it's more that I just love the organization and love that we have the same values rather than like my specific job because my specific job is different all the time. [00:11:00] 

Emma: Yeah, that's really unique that you get to wear so many hats in one job. I think that's a really nice way to be excited and interested when you come to work every day.

Something that I noticed that you pointed out was that community is a really big part of your role. And I'm curious why you feel it's important to involve community engagement in ecological restoration and in what you're doing. 

Hannah: Yeah, totally. I mean, in my eyes. I don't know how you can't involve community in ecological restoration.

I think that the, the biggest lack that there is quite often in conversations surrounding restoration is that community and people just in general are not recognized as being part of the ecosystem and these traditional stewardship roles are very dependent on being on the land, interacting with the land, [00:12:00] interacting with the environment, and being part of that ecosystem.

And so what we do at CRS and what I want my life work to be is just creating these opportunities, like using these privileges that I have to create opportunities for people, for Indigenous folks specifically, to be on their own ancestral homelands and have opportunities to have meaningful careers and meaningful work on their territories and interacting with the land.

Because I think that that's just the most healing thing is just being on the land and interacting with it in any way. And if you can make an impact too, like if you can heal the land, you're healing yourself at the same time and it's just this beautiful cycle. And yeah, it's incredible. It is incredible.

Katy: And I think it's so cool how that cycle involves everybody, the staff at your organization, the people in the community, [00:13:00] and the ecosystem, like, all working together to make that happen. That's really incredible. And I know that you, in this role, bring so much of yourself, your identity, your history, your values, into your work.

I'm curious about... As you have approached your career, you've looked for different roles. How you've found organizations like CRS that are really walking the walk and that share your values, who are actively supportive and aligning with what you really care about. What has that been like? 

Hannah: I just remember the time that I met the people that I work with in CRS and being like, okay, I found my people, you know?

I think we definitely hire people based on their values and not based on their skills because you can teach someone skills, but you can't teach someone values. Right. And we are definitely a, a people first organization, very focused on community and capacity building. And I just think that that's the best way to build an [00:14:00] organization from the ground up in a way that supports the organization's values is to find people with similar or the same values and put your resources into those people, which they absolutely do. Like I've had so many incredible opportunities through this organization. 

Katy: That's awesome. And I feel in today's day and age, like the era of doom scrolling and this current climate, it could be very emotionally draining to work in your field, like it could really take a lot out of you.

But my sense is that having an organization that is so people focused and really

Hannah: I agree. It can be really hard in restoration work because you don't know if you're like actually making an impact. The first class that I took in ecological restoration. I remember my teacher saying like, there's not a [00:15:00] lot of hope in this work. I was like, great. Well, this is what I like to do. So sign me up.

Exactly. So, um, and I definitely saw that because you're like, first of all, what are we trying to restore this ecosystem back to ecosystems are changing all the time, like just as cultures change, you know, when you see the physical changes in the environment, after the flood recovery project, after a year of taking tons and tons of debris out of the river systems and seeing it clear up and seeing the fish come back and seeing the people fishing and saying that they weren't sure if the fish were gonna come back and just like seeing that emotion and seeing that connection and that literal lifeline is pretty incredible. You're like, okay, this is why I do this. You know. 

Emma: Yeah, I mean it's amazing to actually see the change that you [00:16:00] were trying to make Especially in something so grand like that's a grand scale project right there. And I know that we've touched a little bit on what it feels like when you've succeeded in a project and even though it can feel really hopeless sometimes. What do you do when you go home for the day? To just take care of whatever you're carrying mentally or emotionally, whatever burdens you're feeling, how do you take care of yourself? 

Hannah: Right. Well, that's a big question, isn't it? I mean, so I'm currently working from home, so my self care is leaving the house. First of all, this past weekend, I had one of those moments where I was like, this is what I live for.

And I was out on the, in Quw’utsun territory on the Cowichan Quw’utsun river doing a whitewater rafting course. And I just remember laying and being just absorbing this water medicine and just being humbled by this powerful, scary river. Just looking up at the [00:17:00] sky and being like, oh, I'm so grateful, like just to the opportunity to be out on the land and to be here, you know, it's pretty incredible like that.

That's a pretty huge example of what self care looks like to me is being in communities where you sometimes literally have each other's lives in your hands and being outside and just appreciating being alive. Other things, very basic things are just. It's like waking up and making my coffee and folding my clothes and doing my laundry.

You know, like all the little maintenance things that are so important that we forget to do. Yeah. All, all of those things. But yeah, a big thing is just being outside. And being with community, that feels meaningful. And I think that a lot of us are starting to recognize how that is starting to feel normal again.

And it feels really good. 

Katy: Thank you for sharing that. I think especially when you're living the work from [00:18:00] home life, it's so easy for those boundaries between, like, work and not work to blur. Yeah. And, like, being able to get out of your space and into an environment that nourishes you must be so, so important.

Hannah: Yeah, 100%. I can't get enough. I'm going back on the river next weekend in a kayak, so that'll be good. 

Katy: Yes, just keep going back in like, different vessels. Like, how many types of flotation boats can I get onto on this river? That's awesome. That's so exciting. You've talked a lot about the support that you've received in your career and how you've been able to Learn new skills and wear a lot of different hats.

I'd be curious to know if along your career journey, you've had any specific mentors that have impacted you, have helped you get to where you are today, or have taught you something that's really shaped your work. 

Hannah: One person that influenced me, that made a huge, [00:19:00] huge, ginormous shift in my life, was my friend Micah Massent.

So he actually passed away in um, 2016. The plane crashed to Ethiopia. 

Emma: So sorry to hear that. 

Hannah: Yeah, thank you. It was a huge loss to a huge amount of people. And, you know, at his celebration of life, we all had name tags and wrote our name and what we were to Micah. And so many people had best friend, you know, cause that's how he made everyone feel like you were his best friend and was so supportive. And you know those people who are just connectors? That was his role and in his life.

And I honestly was at the pub with my parents talking about like I was looking for work And I didn't know what I wanted to do and I was like, you know what I applied to Makola Housing Society and like Micah overheard from the end of the table who's like fellow Michif man um, and he's like, Hey, I heard you're looking for work.

And [00:20:00] I work for BC parks. He was in the IUP program, the indigenous youth internship program. And so he was working for parks and told me about this student ranger program. And yeah, it got me involved in that. And honestly, I, I don't know if I would have found this environmental sector without him. I think that it was the outdoor industry.

The outdoor sphere was not a place that I saw myself in. Just because it's not all that accessible, and I think he had such a good view on how everyone deserves to be outside, how everyone deserves to be out on the land, and And I've definitely brought a lot of that through the work that I do. Want to make it accessible to everyone.

I think that we all should be creating good relationships with the land. I think we all belong here. And if we do feel that we truly do belong in place and, and are able to have a relationship to land, then we will take care of it in ways that are, [00:21:00] that are good and that feel good. So yeah, I just wanted to hold my hands up to Micah and recognize the huge impact he's had in my life and how, how much I carry him still today. 

Emma: What an incredible person. He sounds amazing. Thanks for sharing that. 

Hannah: Yeah. I had a few instructors at Camosun who really impacted me. Both Todd Ormiston, who is the current chair of the Indigenous Studies program, he still keeps in contact with me all the time.

I saw him just a few weeks ago. I know that we, as humans, can be really good at developing new relationships, but hard to maintain them. That's the same thing in restoration, like, humans are really good at removing invasive species, but really bad at maintaining their, their restoration sites. And I think that, that, um, that just rings true with the way we relate to each other as well.

So seeing that effort [00:22:00] is, is huge and it's a good reminder to myself to reach out to those people that have impacted me. So yeah, same with Richard Mukasege Spearman. He was a huge influence. Really got me thinking about subsistence sovereignty and got me to get my hunting license and my gun license and which has really, you know, helped my relationship with my dad too.

That's something that we like to do together. So yeah, I know that I want to be answering this question more towards like people that have influenced what I wanted to do with my career, but I just think that my life and my work is just so intertwined and my communities are so intertwined that I, I can't recognize these people, like, in any other way.

Katy: I think that makes so much sense. And I think something people are recognizing more and more, especially after this sort of global trauma of COVID, [00:23:00] is you bring your whole self to work. You bring your whole personhood and all of your relationships and your life experience and your values. And so, I think that, like, mentorship relationships that happen, even if they're not formally in the workplace or with your supervisor, you bring that to your career.

Like, you bring your whole self and everything you've learned, no matter what setting it's in, so. 

Emma: And speaking of COVID, I just kind of want to reach back to that a little bit. It's obvious to me that you really value that community aspect and you value that being outdoors. What was it like for you when everything shut down and you couldn't see everybody face to face and you couldn't get outside all the time?

What was that like? 

Hannah: COVID was when I started doing my co ops. So, it's kind of when I started gaining my skills. And... I am really grateful for that, but at the same time, all of my skills are on the computer, so I

Katy: Relatable, yeah.

Hannah: Um, [00:24:00] yeah, I think my partner said to me once, like, Okay, you have two, two choices for what you want to do in life.

You can either live in Excel or huff fumes. So I live in Excel, personally. And, uh, he's an electrician, so he huffs fumes. So, yeah. 

Katy: Every relationship needs one person who lives in Excel and one person who huffs fumes. 

Hannah: Exactly!

Oh, man. Yeah. I am really grateful for the... option to work online because I was able to make money, I was able to meet people and find a career that felt meaningful to me. I was still able to go and be in the field when I wanted to. I'm definitely burnt out from being on the computer and I've been so tired recently and I think that's why, but I'm recognizing that.

I am so tired because we are able to be in community again [00:25:00] in a lot of different ways, so that's a big positive. COVID was hard, but I think it can teach us a little bit about compassion, maybe. 

Katy: It's always been true that like being in community is something that you have to learn how to do. 

Hannah: Yeah. 

Katy: And I think that after being isolated and coming back into it.

We're a little bit more consciously aware of that fact now. 

Hannah: Absolutely. Yeah, I think what's cool now though is when we are in community, it does feel a lot more intentional. 

Katy: Yeah, I definitely feel that way. 

Emma: Yeah, that's a really good point. You know, a lot of us have heard stories. I think probably all of us at some point have heard a story when everyone was in lockdown people weren't going outside as much, and what a lot of us were hearing were, Oh, the animals are coming back, or the whales are coming back because the cruise ships aren't running.

Did that impact your view on restoration at all, just seeing how the ecosystem changed? When people weren't using it the same way. 

Hannah: Yeah, it is [00:26:00] interesting that you say that because it is so true when we were in lockdown, you did see, like, the dolphins came back to the canal, or where was that? Oh yeah, animals came back and I even remember seeing more animals just out on my, like, mental health walks and, yeah, that was pretty cool, but people for the very first time during COVID started appreciating what it was to be out on the land and to be out in parks, and I don't know if you remember the first BC Parks booking, that first COVID summer, and how many times that website crashed.

Katy: It was worse than buying Taylor Swift tickets, for real, like it was crazy. 

Hannah: Yeah, it was just like nuts. Yeah, because... People were like, oh man, I can't go out and do these things in person, like at bars or at cafes or however you had your social interaction beforehand. So they said, oh, okay, camping. Maybe I'll [00:27:00] give that a try.

Like, that's where I'm able to socially distance. We're outside, right? And so I think that a lot more people developed relationships with the land and surrounding the land, which is pretty cool thing. I think a lot of people started to get angry, too, because they said, No, this was my thing, and now it's busier, and I hate that.

Which brings up another conversation surrounding belonging, like, Who belongs to a place? Who belongs to a land? How do we relate to it? How do we treat it? Right? That was a really huge learning that I had when I was living in Tofino. And I mean, this was during COVID. I was living with my boss, one of my best friends actually now on her float home.

And Tofino has a very interesting social dynamic there because there's a lot of transient folk that are coming through, they're just working for the summer, or they're just there for the week with their family, and then there is that community [00:28:00] that lives there, and who has lived there for a while, and then there's the Tla-o-qui-aht community, who have lived there forever.

So it was kind of interesting for me to be able to see the social dynamics sort of objectively. I saw that some people, you know, would be like, Oh, how long have you lived here? How long have you lived here? It was just like this competition to see like who had more grit and like, did you live in your car before you found housing and blah, blah, blah.

Like how many winters have you lived here? It was really just this competition of who earned their spot on this place of land where there's a housing crisis and families are having to be forced out and moved out and their only bookstore is now going to be replaced with another bar and you know it's really changing from this community centered place to a tourist centered place and it really taught me a lot about belonging to place.

And how we treat it, we have to make everyone [00:29:00] feel like they belong in a place that they're allowed to make a relationship and to develop relationships to the land and to the place. Because that is when we take care of each other into the land. Like it all comes back to this huge learning that I had throughout COVID.

Take care of each other. Just be nice. Seriously. 

Katy: For real soundbite. Yeah. Be nice. I've been thinking a little bit, and this is a question I kind of like to ask everyone, no matter what field they're in, but if there's anything in ecological restoration or environmental work generally that you're happy to see changing, maybe in that direction.

Hannah: I think that it could absolutely be more accessible. For the work that we are kind of doing, I know that we have more of a central team of people who do field work. And then we also hire community members. We always offer jobs to Indigenous community members first, whose land that we're working on. But I did notice when we were rehiring last summer, we did performance [00:30:00] reviews.

And I just, I remember thinking to myself, like, this isn't super fair because we have to think about what we're valuing, what we want on the land. Do we want a young, able bodied man who can do this work really, really fast and can pick up garbage really fast? Or, you know, do we want the single mom who is a bit older and is a little bit slower but is like really passionate and interested about medicinal plants, you know, like, we have to have a mix of that and these performance reviews really didn't demonstrate the wide variety of people that we need on the land and, and doing the different forms of work and, and being able to see the, the different kinds of work, so. 

Katy: Yeah, that makes sense. And I mean, it's all such a process too, because the work that you do in trying to restore a place and heal that place is also facilitating [00:31:00] access for the community too, being able to fish, like you said, or being able to, to paddle, or just being able to like go for a hike safely in the woods. That's such a important point that you make, that access has to happen at every stage. The restoration and afterwards. 

Hannah: Yeah. 

Katy: You're going back to school.

Hannah: Yeah. 

Katy: That's really exciting. Congratulations. 

Hannah: Thank you. 

Katy: I wanted to ask what prompted you to continue your studies and do you have any advice or words of wisdom for students, recent graduates, people that are maybe thinking about going back to school but like don't know if it's for them don't know if they should.

Hannah: Right. 

You know I wasn't actually planning on coming back to UVic right away. I was looking at New Zealand, actually.

I wanted to go and do my Master's there because they are, I think, the only university that has or provides a Master's in Indigenous Studies. So that's what I was looking at. Not super [00:32:00] seriously, but just out of curiosity. And then Jeff Corntassel, one of my old profs, reached out to me and told me about this project, Campus As Living Lands, and said that they had funding for a master's student, thought that it would be a perfect project for me, because it's in the School of Environmental Studies, and it's an Indigenous led, community led restoration project on campus, and so I was like, yep, that does sound perfect for me, like, I guess I'm going back to school right away.

So, yeah, so I... Was approached to participate and contribute research to the campus as Living Lands Project, C A L L or Call, which is a indigenous led community led project. Its aim is to Indigenize. So there are a few different ways that this project is going to be doing that. There are a few goals. Like one of them is to have a community only map be [00:33:00] made.

Some signs with the WSANEC and Lekwungen language be put up around campus. There's the actual physical restoration of the land back to the Garry Oak ecosystems, the Garry Oak meadows. And also is finding ways to bring community, bring Saanich and Lekwungen and also Indigenous urban community onto the land and actually interacting with it within these garyoke ecosystems, having pit cooks, being on the land together and actually sharing the space in a different way than it has been, you know, not just having a big lawn.

Katy: Yeah. Death to monoculture. 

Hannah: Mm hmm. Yeah, so that's kind of the overarching bird's eye view of what that project is looking like. My specific interest is in social ecological resilience theory, which is basically just [00:34:00] looking at how Ecological communities and social communities and cultural communities interact with each other and how they heal together specifically.

Yeah, so I'll be looking at that. I applied to do a Master of Science this time so that I can learn in a little bit of a different way. So I'm looking forward to that. 

Emma: Yeah, what a neat initiative. I hope that we can check in with you maybe a little bit down the road when the project is nearer to completion just to see how it's going and what you've learned since then.

That's so cool. 

Katy: You can't escape us. Never. Once you're new at co op, we're just gonna haunt you forever. 

Hannah: Sacred bond. For real. Blood brothers. Yes. I would tell everyone don't pass up any opportunity that comes your way unless it's an opportunity you have no interest in but like if you are interested in it and you're like, hmm I think I should try it.

It would be nice or i'm curious like a hundred percent just go for it. That is what i've done my [00:35:00] entire school career. i've always taken every single opportunity. A huge thing I've seen is people like don't think that they deserve it and like yes, you do. Same thing with funding Apply to all of it. You deserve it. So much funding goes unused because people don't apply for it.

So, always apply for funding. Keep trying everything. If you don't like it, try something else. Don't put too much pressure on yourself to, like, know who you are right away. Like, it's okay to change your mind. There's support there for you. I don't know, I think these are all things that we don't get told when we start school.

Emma: Yeah, I mean, that's great advice, and I think people in any walk of life could, you know, use that advice. I wonder, what would you say to a new, fresh environmental studies graduate who's looking to break into any kind, restoration, conservation, anything in that field, and they're not quite sure where [00:36:00] they want to start.

What would you say to them in breaking in? 

Hannah: Breaking in. Yeah, volunteering is huge. The thing about the environmental sector is that a lot of the work is either underpaid or it's just volunteer work. So, I am lucky enough to work for an organization that has found lots of funding that support the good work that used to always be volunteer work.

So, I think volunteering. is a really great way to find community and find connections and get hands on experience. There's like a lot of different organizations, just in Victoria, but like all over the island to volunteer with. Yeah, outside of that, I mean, co op is huge. Like I got a few different positions through co op in the environmental sector.

Like there's quite a lot of choices. Yeah. I thought that I was going to be going into law. And so I worked for an environmental consultancy. It was Indigenous owned and it's great, but it was not for me. So I'm glad that I had [00:37:00] that opportunity to do like a four month co op and decide that it wasn't for me and not just wait until I graduated and then start trying work because then I would have maybe you've been stuck in a year long internship, done three years of law school, like, who knows what could have happened. 

Katy: Exactly. I think that it's really important to, like, recognize, especially for co op students, that if you try something and it's not for you, that's not a failure. It's a learning experience.

You don't have to feel like you've wasted your time because... That self knowledge, it's like something you can only learn by doing. 

Hannah: Exactly. Yep. 

Emma: And skills are transferable. I mean, you could learn something in an office that then you could probably apply to working on the land that maybe you wouldn't have initially thought that you could transfer, but the skill is there.

Hannah: Totally. You're so right about that, and I think that it's so important to, like, have [00:38:00] context to how this work on the land even came about or like what important information you wanna be taking outta the field to help people in the office a little bit better, to make your life a little bit better. And in the field, I really value the big picture, like being able to see everything. And I know that there's been a lot of times, even within this work, I don't love every position that I've done, like, I wasn't passionate about, like, building a health and safety program, but that was one of the, first things that I did, right, and thank goodness I did, and now I know OHS quite well, and just as an example. But that's just how you build your career is you do jobs that you maybe don't really like, but it's necessary to learn so that you can understand how everything works together.

That's at least how my brain works. 

Katy: I think that everybody with a BA can probably really relate to that. Like, we're all about those transferable skills. We're [00:39:00] all about those soft skills. It's like, can I code? No. However. 

Hannah: Yeah.

Katy: We put together just a few like rapid fire questions. They are like not deep and serious like the amazing conversation we've been having. Um, so feel free to just shoot out any answer that comes to mind. 

Hannah: Okay. 

Katy: This is not a quiz. You will not be graded. 

Emma: Okay, let's go with the first one. Who is the person or people you admire the most?

Katy: Let's just start with an easy one there. 

Hannah: Yes!

Out of every single person you've ever met, which one is the best? And why? Let me think about that, that's hard. I don't know, I keep thinking about my dad, to be honest. I feel like we are so similar in a lot of ways. And I've learned so much about myself just through him. [00:40:00] Same with my mom and my brother, you know.

Just family, you know. Yeah, it's so important. 

Katy: Okay, I'll give you an easier one. 

Hannah: Thanks. 

Katy: Uh, you're welcome. Yeah, we'll just like let you, let you relax.

What is your favorite thing to eat at UVic? I know you went to school here, so that's why I can ask you this question.

Hannah: Yeah, oh my gosh. Okay, there are two different things. So, anything that was free, there were so many meals in the First People's House, they always have free food there, and it wasn't just the food, it was always the people who were eating the food in the ceremonial hall and going and being in community and sharing food that way.

Other than that, I mean, in Mystic Market, I don't know how many of those burritos that I ate, but it was, like, a lot. No shame bringing my onion breath to my classes. 

Emma: Those were some of my favorites, too, actually. I love those burritos. And they're so easy to cart around. Yep. So what are you [00:41:00] watching right now?

Like, movies, shows? 

Hannah: I am a sucker for, like, trash TV. 

Emma: Yes. 

Katy: Yes! 

Hannah: So, and I honestly think that it is what carries our society through Seasonal Affective Disorder. Too hot to handle, love is blind, all of those horrible TV shows with people that are not real. 

Katy: January is for love is blind, for real, yeah. 

Hannah: But, outside of that, no, I'm very cultured.

And, uh, watch a lot of film. Prestige drama. Yes, exactly. I started watching a movie called The River Runner, because I'm getting more passionate about whitewater and that community. I recently watched a Denzel Washington movie. 

Emma: Have you watched on Netflix Sea Wolves of Vancouver Island. It just came out, I think, pretty recently, but it's a documentary about the wildlife [00:42:00] on Vancouver Island.

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It's got just enough drama with animals to be really, really 

Hannah: fun. Oh my gosh. 

Katy: You have to watch it before we all get kicked off of Netflix. 

Hannah: Yeah! Oh my gosh. 

Katy: What is your favorite time of the year? 

Hannah: My favorite time of the year is spring because there's just so much new growth and hope and You feel the seasonal affective disorder just like raising off of your chest like the first sunshine and you're like, oh my god I forgot what this felt like every single year.

So I love that 

Katy: For me, it's always, like, the first new bud that I see on a tree. Like, hard resets my brain into being happy again. 

Emma: Yeah, it's so true. I always look for crocuses. To me, when the crocuses come, I'm like, okay, it's spring now. 

Hannah: Aren't they, like, one of the first flowers to flower? 

Emma: Yeah, I think after snow drops.

Hannah: Maybe. Right, yes. Which, snowdrops are happening right now. 

Katy: Yes. It's amazing. I'm so happy about it. It's so [00:43:00] good. I go on my little walks and I look for my little flowers. 

Hannah: Soon the cherry blossoms are gonna come. They're happening earlier and earlier every year. It's pretty wild. 

Katy: Yeah.

Hannah: Well, actually, it's the plum blossoms that bloom first, and then it's the cherry blossoms.

Yeah. 

Katy: Oh! That makes sense. 

Emma: Oh my word, I'm gonna look for those now. I didn't realize they were two separate things. 

Hannah: Yeah, there's the, like, lighter pink that's almost white, and then the darker pink. And yeah, the darker pink, uh, blooms first, which is, is that right? Yeah. the plum blossoms, and then it's the cherry blossoms.

It's just the lighting. 

Emma: Oh, I'm so glad you told me that. Yeah. Thank you so much. 

Hannah: You're welcome. 

Emma: I'm totally gonna look for that now. Okay, what's your favorite place to go hiking or your favorite hike that you've done? 

Hannah: Sure, yeah. My favorite hike is in Stony Nakoda Territory. I have only ever done it once, but it was that first hike that I was just like, Ah, I love this!

It's Mount Yamnuska near Canmore, and it is this really cool mountain that you climb up the side of it, which is like the ridge, [00:44:00] and the first peak that you get to, well, there's a bunch of peaks, but when you get to the peak, you can look over the mountain and it is literally going straight down to the ground, which is Whoa.

Just the most incredible feeling. I know that there's a word for it where you're like standing on a cliff and you're like, I could jump. I could jump like there's there. You have that feeling. 

Katy: Intrusive thoughts. 

Hannah: I'm connected to my dad through that too, because my dad was in the special forces and actually led mountain climbing courses up that mountain, up the face of it, which is pretty cool.

Katy: That is awesome, and that sounds so beautiful, and also hardcore. Like, you were describing climbing up the side of the mountain, and I was like, maybe the things that I think of as hikes are like, more like walks. 

Emma: That's amazing. Do you have any pets, or have you in the past? 

Hannah: Yeah, I've always grown up with pets in the family.

We've gone through a lot of different dogs. I grew up in the country. [00:45:00] So we had like country dogs that didn't stay for us forever. We had horses for a while. We always had cats. Right now though, I don't personally have any animals, but my dad has a dog, Dexter. He's a yellow lab and yeah, love him. He is my dad's support animal, and I am that dog support animal. 

Katy: Reciprocity. 

Hannah: Yeah. We support each other. Exactly. For real. 

Katy: I love that. 

Hannah: Yeah, me too. 

Katy: I think that is all the questions that we had. If there's anything that you feel like, I wish I had said this, or that you want to mention, feel free to do so. 

Hannah: With the, the shot announcement yesterday with the AIR, Alberni Indian Residential School.

It brought a lot of emotions on for me yesterday and I think it's very much in line with what we were talking about here is just like the sense of belonging and who belongs in place and what our responsibility is to each other and to the land and I don't know I think it's just a good reminder [00:46:00] to all of us that like you belong here you belong in these circles and it is everyone's responsibility to take care of each other, like whether we call that reconciliation, whether we call that restoration, or just community and relating to each other, I just want to remind everyone that you belong and you are wanted.

Katy: Thanks for sharing that and closing us off in a good way with that reminder. 

Emma: And thank you so much for being here, being so open to sharing your experiences and your story. There's a lot of really personal details that come through interviews like this, and I appreciate you being open to our listeners and sharing that with them.

I think there's a lot that people can gain from learning from your experience, so thank you for being here. 

Hannah: Thank you. Thank you all for being here today. 

Katy: Work It is developed and distributed by Co op and Career Services at the University of Victoria. The podcast is hosted by Katie DeCoste and Emma Elveland and produced by Katie, Emma, and Joy Poliquin.

Today's [00:47:00] guest was Hannah Gentes our theme music and art were created by Emma Ulveland with audio editing by Emma Ulveland if you enjoyed today's episode, subscribe, and you'll never miss an update. To learn more about career possibilities and resources from UVic, visit uvic. ca slash career dash services.