Hi I'm Karen Johnson. My  Indian name is “Dark Rain Storm”. I am an Nlaka’pamux woman from Lytton, B.C.

It has been said because of Indian Residential School most first nation people were brought up by their grandparent and I am one of those people. I originally grew up in the lower mainland, but spent most summers in Lytton on my grandfather  Jimmy Johnson's farm.

When describing who we are we discuss who we are related to. I have one older sister named Sherry and two younger brothers Mike and Pat. We spent many hot summers running free along the Fraser River, the mountains and snacking while sitting leisurely in apple trees. There was no electricity, running water or even a bathroom. Yet  it did not bother us even the slightest. A world without computers, cell phones, iPads, T.V., or electronic games. It did not concern us for we were very happy and contented. When I look back it seems surreal.

Like most people from my Nation, I never graduated from high school. I married young and had five beautiful children. Samantha is my oldest child. She is 31 years old and studied Criminology at SFU. Joseph is my oldest son; he is 26, and he studied Communications at SFU. William is my next oldest and he is presently at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia studying to be a nurse. Anaka is 18 and graduated from high school in 2015 and my youngest, Erica, is the most athletic and still in high school.

After 25 years of being a stay at home mother I went back to school. It was now a whole new technical world. A world that in order for me to succeed I needed to learn how to belong in. I finished my Bachelor of Arts Degree in December, 2014, with a major in Criminology and a specialty in First Nations. From here I went back to my community of Lytton to volunteer in Stein Valley Senior Secondary. While in this school I discovered that first nation’s people in smaller communities were sickly and had many health problems. Until I went back to my community this had seemed unreal, but, in  the short time that I was there I noticed that all of the children had many health problems. From Fetal alcohol system to ADHD, broken arms, legs, hips, malnutrition to being behind in education by a year or two. This was in huge comparison to the kids in the lower mainland schools. The non-native teachers were over worked and underpaid and unhealthy because of it. There was a high turnover of teachers and a low rate of graduation.

I believe there needs to be a way to bring the holistic aboriginal way of doing things and the linear Caucasian way of doing things together in order to improve first nation’s graduation rates in school and in their health and wellness. There are too many barriers for first nation’s children and they' ve become  stagnant  on many levels. In order for first nations people  to succeed and  for the understanding in education, they must expand their knowledge and understanding of the world outside their culture. Conversely the first nation culture must be respected and included within their learning experience.

This is why I am interested in the Masters of Education C&I Health and Wellness. As a first nation person it is important to bring  back to our communities what we have learned.