In the June 2024 Foundations newsletter, the First Nations Market Housing Fund (the Fund) enthusiastically announced that Ieronhenehtha (Nehtha) Lazore had joined the team as a Junior Communications Officer. Having stood out as a dedicated and talented intern for a year before securing her full-time permanent role, our conversation with Nehtha takes us inside the Fund, explores why her connection to the Fund is personal, and delivers advice for finding traction at the beginning of a promising career.
From outsider to insider
Funnily enough, Ieronhenehtha is on the team working to bring visibility to a vital organization that she initially didn’t know anything about. She heard about the communications intern opportunity in the time-honoured way: the moccasin telegraph. Current CEO Travis Seymour, who is also from the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne, had mentioned it to her mother when Nehtha was busily seeking summer employment. Seymour had onboarded as CEO the same year and added the internship initiative during his leadership of the Fund.
When asked why the Fund has an office in Akwesasne in particular, Nehtha shares that the Fund wanted to have an office on reserve to better serve First Nations communities. She noted that the 90-minute drive to national offices in Ottawa and proximity to Québec has made the location popular for many national First Nations organizations.
The young professional’s impression of Seymour’s leadership is that he’s eager to be in the communities and employ Indigenous people. She thinks his clear vision contributes to a work environment where staff gets along and speaks positively of recent changes. An estimated half of the staff is Indigenous, with folks from Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, and BC, widening the pool of Indigenous cultural backgrounds that grew when she entered post-secondary. Now that she’s full-time, Nehtha joins the weekly call with about 23 to 24 employees and connects with her team on shorter catch up meetings.
Other summers, Lazore had worked for the Boys and Girls Club, at a café, and in maintenance on her rez. She credits supportive management and her hands-on education for her easy transition into a professional setting. She jumped right into the rebranding of the Fund, applying the new logo, colours, and fonts with Adobe InDesign, a tool she was already using in class. She was building websites in her program, too, before she worked on the Fund’s website rebrand. “It was almost like a direct pipeline to the job I was doing down the road, which was pleasantly surprising” she remarks gratefully. She continued interning part-time for the Fund during the following school year and graduated with an honours bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Ottawa in 2024.
Outreach at the Fund
Ieronhenehtha confirms that most First Nations people she meets don’t know about the Fund, but then quickly shift to asking whether they’re eligible for their services. That drives her to spread the word, hoping that it provides more opportunities for the Fund to work with communities.
The Fund wants to engage First Nations communities to benefit from the fund, as well as other potential partners, and even lenders. She feels her team is strategic and making progress toward raising awareness. “There’s always an opportunity to improve, to reevaluate and do better. The rebrand made everything look more appealing, we were getting out there, gaining followers, and people were interested in messaging us. Then we started tweaking here and there, and reaching out to the communities, in the Nations.”
Building her skills
Nehtha is building skills beyond her design work on graphics for social media and advertisements, plus more hands-on work with the Fund’s swag. Her manager is a ready mentor, having her proof before publishing, providing opportunities for her to give feedback on images, and guiding her on how to write for the Fund’s audiences in future.
The culture at the Fund is to include everyone in brainstorming for the year, which has inspired Nehtha to learn more about everyone’s work so that she can meaningfully contribute to strategic planning. She’s most intrigued by what the Senior Program Officers (SPOs) do because she’s realized she loves talking to people and sees their work as uplifting other First Nations people. “They’re the ones who are in the communities, meeting housing managers. They’re forging these connections, and really trying to get their feet on the ground in these communities to build these houses. They are the frontline workers.”
A personal investment
Lazore immediately connected with SPO Nancy Pine, who shares a strong desire to build a home on her homelands. “I started prying her for some questions about my community. And I’m like, okay, so what do we got to do? To fully open the door so that I can build my house.”
Nehtha feels the options on reserve are pushing her out to the city. “There’s not a lot of housing on reserve, especially in Akwesasne, and for me as a single, independent young adult. I would love to live on reserve with my family, my community, my culture, but in my own space. A place that’s not wildly expensive, that’s modern enough for me, but there’s nothing like that here. She jokingly warns that she’s not being dark when she says, “my ultimate end goal is to settle down and build my house and, you know, start the end of my life.”
“When I was growing up, my friends and I would say we couldn’t wait to leave the rez and see the world. But then when you get to a certain age, you realize that wherever I go, this is the only place that’s going to have my people and the land that my ancestors are connected to.”
“I think everybody should have that opportunity to live and thrive in their home communities. And it’s unfortunate that we don’t have that now – but that’s what the Fund is here for.”
Advice from a community member
“I find myself relating to the writing on the website and reading it and viewing it more from a community member perspective,” she says when asked about advice for other potential homeowners. “So I really would just encourage community members to look at who they may need to contact to get these balls rolling.”
“I was really excited about having that opportunity waiting for me as soon as I grabbed my diploma,” she says about securing the job she has today. Here are some tips for students and young professionals:
- “Tune into what interests you and what intrigues you about the world, and how you want to make the world a better place, how you can kind of use that.”
- Look to your role models. “When I had to decide what to study, I thought about the people I look up to and how they contribute to the world. I saw my older sister working on press releases, social media, and website upkeep in her job and thought I would be interested in doing something like that, too.”
Few people are certain about their path, so just take a step. “I kind of just went out on a whim,” she says of applying to her communications program. - Learning is way more fun when you find your interest. “University was a big difference from high school because I did not care about math or science. Learning about policies and journalism was heavy but fun.”
- Set yourself up as skilled and independent. “I try my best to figure things out on my own before I ask for help.”
- Take on the responsibility of supporting the team. “I study the business plans, the annual reports, the communication strategy, and even this blog. I’m really looking forward to bringing more to the table when the next strategic planning event happens.
Next steps
At only 22 years old, Nehtha is thoughtful and intentional about her next steps. Her job at the Fund, which supports remote work, has allowed her to reclaim some of her youth. “In school, it felt like everyone had this drive to be successful. So, in between being a kid and an adult, I was navigating school and professional responsibilities. There’s been a lot of growing in the process of leaving student housing and deciding to move home to Awkesasne. It’s such a learning experience, feeling what I’m comfortable with and what I want to do. I’m ready to come home for a year or so and spend time with my family.”
Lazore offers parting thoughts about the Fund and the future.
“It’s really that drive back to community, for the overall community to come together and for the future generations that want to live on the land and be together. I want us to have the best housing we can have, and to be connected to our homelands and culture. I think the Fund’s work is a great opportunity for community growth, protection of culture, and making sure that the reconciliation process plays itself out.”