Words

The cover of Ollie’s Telescope which showcases Blanchard’s beautiful illustrations.

Writing and illustrating a children’s book was never a fated endeavor for Samantha Smadella and Kaitlyn Blanchard but when they stumbled upon a story that needed to be told, the pair immediately put pen to paper to take on the challenge.

Smadella and Blanchard are both students of the Therapeutic Recreation program, a healthcare profession that deals with five domains of recreation and leisure: physical, emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual. Smadella explains that recreation therapy takes shape in a variety of ways in different spaces — from children’s palliative care to long-term care for the elderly.

“Therapeutic recreation helps provide meaning to peoples’ lives,” says Smadella. “It touches on all the things that make us human outside of the menial day to day tasks.”

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Saturday’s ‘Community Unity’ Indigenous fashion, music and arts show was a huge success! The event took place in Algonquin College’s Indigenous Learning Commons, Nawapon, and was presented by Anangosh Model and Talent Management — a non-profit Indigenous model management and talent agency developed by activist, educator and model, Kyrstin Dumont.

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Walking down a runway wearing one-of-a-kind Indigenous designs was the first time that Kyrstin Dumont felt she could fully embody her beauty as an Indigenous woman.

Now, she uses her modelling experience to uplift and amplify other Indigenous youth who are struggling to navigate the Western beauty standards set upon them.

“Diving into the modelling and fashion world in my community in 2018 really uplifted and amplified me in a time that I needed it the most — it put me on a pedestal, which is something I had never experienced before in my lifetime,” says Dumont, who has been modelling for about four years now.

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