Ep 9: Life Promotion with Connor Lafortune and Gabrielle JubinvilleEp 9: Life Promotion with Connor Lafortune and Gabrielle Jubinville
Mino Bimaadiziwin
Youth leaders Conor Lafortune and Gabrielle Jubinville talk about life promotion, culture, and identity in Indigenous communities, centred on a toolkit created by Indigenous youth. Their conversation focuses on strengths, connection, and the message that every person is valued simply for existing.
34:39•4 Aug 2022
Life Promotion, Culture, and Hope with Indigenous Youth Leaders
Episode Overview
- Shifting from a deficit-based focus on suicide prevention to a strengths-based focus on promoting life helps highlight what is already strong in Indigenous communities.
- Culture, ceremony, language, and everyday practices like smudging or beading are central to wellness and not just symbolic add-ons.
- Connection to self can be the hardest work, and activities that honour movement and fidgeting can support mental health and decolonise rigid Western spaces.
- Community programmes that provide resources and reduce financial and practical barriers can make culture and life promotion more accessible.
- Every person is inherently valuable simply for existing, and even reaching one person with supportive tools or messages can make the work worthwhile.
“You are valued not because of your attributes, not because of what you provide to the world, but because you are, because you exist.”
Understand the complexities of addiction with insights from Indigenous youth leaders focusing on life promotion rather than just suicide prevention. This episode of *Mino Bimaadiziwin* brings together writer and activist Conor Lafortune and hope ambassador and former elite basketball player Gabrielle Jubinville, who share how culture, community, and identity shape mental wellness.
Instead of asking only how to stop suicide, they ask: what does it mean to live a good life, and how can young Indigenous people feel they truly belong? Drawing from their work on *Strengthening our Connections to Promote Life: A Life Promotion Toolkit by Indigenous Youth*, they talk about shifting from a deficit mindset to a strengths-based one that highlights what’s already strong and beautiful in communities.
Conor explains the heart of this change through a powerful message: "You are valued not because of your attributes, not because of what you provide to the world, but because you are, because you exist." He also talks about being French-speaking, queer, and Indigenous, and how those intersecting identities helped him question rigid Western ideas of health and success, while finding grounding in culture and movement – even something as simple as beading during meetings.
Gabrielle shares how basketball was once her voice, and how stepping back from sport opened space to speak about intergenerational trauma, hope, and dreaming big. She highlights the toolkit’s spirituality section, showing that ceremony can be as everyday as smudging at home or saying a quiet prayer. Throughout, both guests stress that culture, ceremony, language, and community roles aren’t decorative extras; they’re core to life promotion.
If you’re working in community programmes, supporting young people, or just trying to reconnect with your own sense of worth and identity, this conversation might leave you asking: what gives you hope, and how can you share that with others?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.
Related Episodes
Similar episodes from other shows in the catalogue.