New Blog: Introductory to my Life – Tala Tootoosis

Editor’s Note: RezX would like to welcome our newest blogger, Tala Tootoosis, who lives in Saskatoon and is a social worker, a single mother of 3 and a strong Indigenous woman who has overcome many things in life. Every week or so, she will share her views on a variety of issues covering Indigenous social issues and Indigenous women issues and more right here at RezXMag.com, welcome to the team Tala! 

New Blog: Introductory to my Life

By Tala Tootoosis

My name is Tala Tootoosis, I am a 31-year old single mother from Sturgeon lake First Nation, but residing in Saskatoon, SK. I have been asked by, RezX Editor-In-Chief, Chris Ross to start writing this new column and blogs for the famous magazine RezX.

It has been said that I have a special skill in telling stories, using storytelling to teach others based on examples from my life or how I have lived and learned, using brutal honesty and extreme detail to teach with humility and compassion as best I can.

When I was little I got in trouble and was sent to the principal, I punched a boy in class for bullying me and didn’t tell the principal when he asked me what happened. When I got home that day my mom asked me why I did not say what happened to me, I told her I stayed silent because I was scared to get into trouble.

My mom then said some very important words that stuck with me ever since that very incident, “if you want to remain in a position where people will always understand where you are coming from with the decisions you make, always tell the whole story and be brutally honest!”

So with that, allow me to be brutally honest about my story; I am a recovering addict of Crystal meth, Crack cocaine and Alcohol. To say the least, I used to be a hard-core party girl. Everyone always asks me what it was that helped me to want to get sober, I always tell them that one day I just woke up and knew that I was born for something so much more amazing then to die from addictions. The Creator did not bring me here to be a human being on this earth to die as a martyr of what not to do.

All I wanted when I got sober were such some simple goals; I wanted to be a good mother, have my own home, get a job, and live a normal life, if there is such a thing as a normal life. That was in 2003 when I first sobered up, since then I have gone far beyond my own expectations of success and recovery in my own resiliency. I am now a motivational speaker for recovery from addictions with holistic healing, my agent for speaking is Diversity Talent, and they are the ones who book me for speaking gigs.

I have been a motivational speaker for eleven years, and speaking throughout Canada and I can be found on their website as well with my own personal Biography. I am a social worker, I have my degree, I went through university all five years straight through even though I went in pregnant, I got a 85.6 GPA in my first semester, I got cancer in my third year and still continued to finish university.

I have been cancer free ever since 2012, went to ceremony to get doctored and have never had any problems ever since. I am now working as an addictions counselor at a treatment center here in Saskatoon. I have been in a couple plays with the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Program, Circle of Voices titled “Crystal Clear” and “Hunger Strike”. I have also been consistently involved in any community events in Saskatoon so that I can say I always give back for what I have been given – a second chance. Now I am ready to share experiences for others to see change can happen for anyone with writing and with Rez X magazine.

– Tala Tootoosis