Sask. teen hopes to encourage vaccination with healing dance
A 13-year-old jingle dress pow wow dancer from Sweet Grass First Nation near North Battleford is hoping to encourage other youth in her community to get vaccinated.
Lyrik Albert is a champion dancer, having travelled across North America.
She hopes she can add to the voices calling for more people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, so she released a video in conjunction with the Battle River Treaty 6 Health Centre.
“I hope everyone who sees the video gets encouraged and they need to know that getting vaccinated is really important for everyone,” Albert told CTV News.
She’s been dancing all her life. A love for her culture combined with the desire get back to performing in her jingle dress pushed her to want to make a difference and inspire those who are vaccine hesitant to get the shot.
“You’re protecting yourself and protecting others and I hope this helps us get back to our old ways and end this pandemic. I want to show my culture and show what I love doing so that we can get back to doing what we love, and I absolutely love dancing,” she said.
Albert wants to help change the low vaccine rates on her First Nation for youth and adults where she’s hearing a lot of hesitancy firsthand to getting immunized.
Her mom, Sherri Poitras, said Lyrik’s given Cree name is Thunderbird Woman and the strength of the name is as significant as the purpose of jingle dress dancing.
“The jingle dance is known as the healing dance,” Poitras said.
The fact that Lyrik uses this particular dance to help spread the word about vaccinations is an important choice according to her mom.
“It makes me very proud. I do what I can to instill our values to my two kids. We live our ceremonial life and we try to raise our children in a traditional way so I try to keep her in touch with those values.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Leafs star Auston Matthews finishes season with 69 goals
Auston Matthews won't be joining the NHL's 70-goal club this season.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Doug Ford calls on Ontario Speaker to reverse Queen's Park keffiyeh ban
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Speaker Ted Arnott to reverse a ban on keffiyehs at Queen's Park, describing the move as “needlessly” divisive.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.