Our Board

Nina was born and raised in Kenora, Ontario. She attended Beaver Brae Secondary School and graduated Confederation College of Applied Arts and Technology with a Bookkeeping Clerk Diploma and a Stenographer General Diploma in 1978. From there, she went straight into the work force, starting out as a Secretary at a local Insurance Office. From there she took a short term placement at the Ontario Land Titles Office, but was quickly snapped up for a position as the Secretary to the Business Administrator of the Kenora Board of Education. She remained there for a few years until she decided to start a family and stay home to raise her children.

Nina has been married to her wonderful husband, Joel, for almost 43 years. They have two biological daughters. Their oldest, Jolena, provided them with two grandchildren. Hailey is now seventeen years old and Colton is thirteen. Their youngest, Jodi, just celebrated her tenth anniversary with her husband, Bill. They have a young daughter, Lacy, who is twelve.

Nina and Joel started fostering back in 1982 when Jolena was almost two years old and Jodi was just a baby. As Joel worked outside the home; to qualify herself to be a caregiver of these children, Nina took many courses, workshops and seminars; such as, alcohol abuse, physical abuse & neglect, solvent abuse, separation trauma, fetal alcohol syndrome, grieving, sibling rivalry, teen parenting, first aid and CPR, and many others.

They have had many children grace their home throughout the 21 years that they fostered. Of all those foster children, two of them required long term placement. Nina and Joel were there for those two girls. They fostered these six and eight year olds, until they aged out of care; but are still part of their family to this day. The oldest of the two has three children of her own, who still call them Nana and Papa. As far as their biological girls are concerned, those two foster girls were their sisters in every sense of the word, and continue to be today.

Besides the foster children that they cared for, they were also a shoulder to cry on, or a place to have a warm meal, or even a bed for the night when the friends of their own daughters were having problems of their own. These friends found it quite easy to talk to Nina and Joel and felt comfortable discussing their issues with them and taking their advice.

Throughout the years, Nina volunteered her limited time helping the Arthritis Society and the Red Cross by canvassing the neighbourhood for donations, and for 10 years she worked as a board member for the Kenora Rideout Northward Community Centre. Their children loved being at the Rink. She spent many hours at the Rideout Rink shoveling snow, running the concession, canvassing, organizing carnivals, craft sales, socials or family days. Her crowning glory was helping to organize the 50th Anniversary of the Rideout Rink in 1998. She was also instrumental in helping to put together a Rideout Cookbook and making sure that all the books were sold. Nina assisted at the girl’s school on many occasions with chaperoning school activities, or helping out during the meal programs.

After raising her girls she decided to go back to work. Trying something new, she worked at a Bed & Breakfast for a year. Due to one of her foster girls struggling in school, she gave up her job to spend more time tutoring her daughter. This foster daughter has since graduated college with a Teacher-Assistant Certificate, and an Early Childhood Education Certificate.

Nina has always said that every child should have a safe place to call home and never wanted to see any child on the street or going hungry. She made it her mission to make sure she was there for any child that needed her.

In 2005 Joel joined the Kenora Métis Council as the Vice-President, and quickly moved up to President. In 2006 Nina followed. She was appointed as the Secretary on the Council, and although Joel left his position on Council in 2018, Nina is now on her 16 year in that position. She has spent many volunteer hours keeping the Minutes and helping to organize events and gatherings. She attended the French Immersion School with other Métis Council members and Volunteers during Festival Du Voyageur Days to help teach the students about our Métis culture and traditions. The students loved learning all about the Métis and how to jig, or play the spoons, or learn about our trapping practices. Eating wildrice soup and bannock was a bonus. After being a Council member for five years, she was honoured with a Volunteer Award from the Minister of Tourism. Nina continues to love her new Métis family, and the many friends she has made along the way. She loves learning more and more about Louis Riel and the Métis and says that there is still so much more to learn.

With all her years of experience in the Foster Care field, she believes that having our own Métis Child and Family Services Agency is a step in the right direction. Because it was not an easy task to give these children any kind of taste of their own culture. They had been in and out of foster care for most of their lives, and were losing what little culture they had been exposed to prior to being in care. We ourselves did not know a lot about the First Nations culture.

Although we took them to several powwows, we struggled to find avenues for them to learn their First Nations culture and traditions.

There was one program that was run through one of the First Nation Agencies that we were able to sign them up for. It was called the “Little Eagles” Program. In fact anyone from our family could attend this program with the foster children. So we not only signed them up, we signed our own children up as well. We felt that it was important for them to learn about their foster sister’s culture and traditions. Nina would bring them weekly to this remarkable program. The girls had a blast every week. They met new people and learned so much. Some of the weekly activities included things like dreamcatcher making, beading, Ojibway speaking, learning about how to build a teepee and how to make a snow hut to stay warm in the winter, teachings about wild rice picking, hunting and trapping traditions, the sacred medicines, etc., etc. Each week was an experience for them; and they looked forward to going. We were sad when the program ended.

This is one of the reasons that the Métis will definitely benefit by having their own Child and Family Services Agency. If it is staffed with knowledgeable people who are familiar with our Métis culture and traditions; who can teach the children coming into care more about where their ancestors came from and what they did to survive; and how they can continue to grow and be proud of their Métis culture; then having our own Agency is absolutely the way to go. We don’t want to have to hide who we are any more. We need to stand tall and be proud. And as a proud Métis woman, Nina says that we need to “Take Care of Our Own” to make sure that it happens.