When Janet Carriere was eight, she was sent to a much larger school than the one-room, one-teacher schoolhouse she knew and loved in her tiny hamlet of Crutwell, Sask. Her teacher said it was a good move — being bused 20 minutes to a school in Prince Albert would allow her a broader range of learning opportunities. But she knew no one and felt isolated, judged… and afraid. She was teased and made to feel “less than,” she says.

“It wasn’t racism,” she says. Though she is Métis, she presents as white. “It was prejudice because of the community I came from.” Since then, her life’s work has been all about making safe spaces so that people never have to feel what she felt.

Last year, Carriere was presented the Saskatchewan Award of Merit, the province’s highest honour, for her work with the Prince Albert Indian & Métis Friendship Centre — one of 11 in the province.

Carriere began working at the Prince Albert centre as one of the staff, working on a variety of community projects, including mentoring young offenders who had been ordered to complete community service hours. She ran the Fine Option Program, which allows individuals to work off fines at community agencies. She has been president of the Aboriginal Friendship Centres of Saskatchewan (AFCS) board of directors, and has been executive director of the Prince Albert centre for 14 years.

Her initial work involved re-organizing the structure and supporting staff so they could work more effectively and, as she says, “stabilize operations.” She has been instrumental in steering the centres to where they are today: spaces for everyone, no matter their background, and providing a broad array of services, including legal and housing supports, employment and skills development, leading learning programs and hosting social events. Recently retired as executive director, Carriere still serves as treasurer on the AFCS board and is chair of the Prince Albert Police Commission.

Receiving awards, she says, is “embarrassing.” Not that she doesn’t appreciate the acknowledgement. “I feel like I’m only doing what everyone should be doing daily. I don’t feel like I’m doing anything special... I just feel like I’m being guided to do my work.”

As hard as it was to be that eight-year-old girl, those painful experiences made her what she is today. “That little girl is no longer here. I walk with confidence. I’m not scared of anyone. Titles don’t impress me, but people do. Because at the end of the day, we’re all just people. It took me a long time to learn that.”