Medicine Hat local JoLynn Parenteau writes about Indigenous people, places, language, and traditions, in a column with the Medicine Hat News.

With articles published regularly since 2021, Parenteau feels it’s time to encapsulate each story in a book: an anthology to inspire someone to support an entrepreneur, visit a new place, try a recipe, learn a language, connect with culture, and to preserve the true stories of historic and modern-day Indigenous life.

As a Métis (Cree-French) woman living in Alberta all her life, growing up in Peace River, spending her adult years in Edmonton, and moving to Medicine Hat in 2018, Parenteau has met people who capture her curiosity, who are then featured in her series.

“I realized I had been carrying these stories for over two years now. I didn’t want them to get lost,” says Parenteau. “It’s important to me to preserve these stories, and I hope people will find this book and genuinely connect to them, even if our cultures are different.”

Reviewing her writing for her book, Parenteau sees how she’s grown as a writer and also her understanding of Indigenous culture. “I see from the very beginning places where I was still learning, and now that knowledge lives in me intrinsically.”

She’s watched her interest grow from people, to places, to language and traditions, and along the way she’s grown closer to her own culture. 

“Those connections to culture really are soul-uplifting for all of us, and it’s so important through all heritages,” says the writer. “Everyone is so multi-faceted. There’s never one single layer to a person. That’s what I enjoy discovering about people.”

Along with writing, Parenteau has been invited to speak at events, such as the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness’ 2023 national conference in Halifax/Kjipuktuk, ‘the great harbour’, and at Saskatoon’s Innovative Approaches to Housing & Homelessness conference in 2022. 

In Medicine Hat, she’s taken part in Pecha Kucha, a community event where locals speak of personal experiences, and spoke at the Medicine Hat Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre’s Kindling Connection event, where she presented an author’s reading and shared three legends from across Turtle Island for Indigenous Story-Telling Month in February.

In 2022, Parenteau launched the 90-minute personal finance budgeting course ‘Métis Money Moves’, and since then has grown it to a 10-hour, four class instruction. 

With her journey of building and growing her own finances, and what she’s seen in her work of supporting vulnerable neighbours, she’s built this course to empower individuals and families to take control of their own financial future.

Whether she is writing, speaking, or teaching, Parenteau has set her sights on helping people, through story-telling from her experience and stories shared by others.