Year: 2023
Location: Glenwood
Profile: Katie-Jo Rabbit has had a varied history of education and work. She was raided on the Blood Reserve and in Fort MacLeod. She studied journalism at Grant MacEwan College but decided against a journalism career. Instead she worked as a copyshop manager at University of Alberta while putting her journalism training to work as an interviewer on campus radio CJSR. After spending some time in the university’s English literature program and confronting campus racism, she worked as a data entry clerk at an employment centre that targeted the homeless. Next she became assistant manager of an organization dedicated to helping the Indigenous people of Lethbridge. The Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce, listing Rabbit as one of Lethbridge’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2019, noted: “Through her work with Saamis Aboriginal Employment & Training, Katie-Jo supports and sits on various committees that are doing some great work such as the Reconciliation Lethbridge Advisory Committee, LISN, Education, Employment Training Committee which she co-chaired. She is also the Indigenous Representative on the Economic Development Lethbridge Committee.” She later returned to her studies, this time earning a diploma in Indigenous Culture and then working on a degree in Indigenous Studies at the University of Alberta.
Keywords: Blood Reservd; Copyshop manager; Data entry clerk; Employment centre; Fort MacLeod; Grant MacEwan College; Indigenous Studies; Saamis Aboriginal Employment and Training; University of Alberta
Transcript: The first 3 pages of the following transcript provide the primary interview with Katie-Jo Rabbit: Download PDF
See also: Indigenous Labour in Alberta; Women and Work in Alberta