b'PARENTING AND KINSHIPFAMILY FIRSTAndrea Landry stepped away from global work to shift her focus to restoring kinship in Indigenous families at homeA By Nikita Weiss Dayndrea Landry strongly believes that by priori-tizing Indigenous ways of being and reviving Indigenous systems of kinship with families, communities can become strong and healthy again. Thats because Indigenous love remains the ultimate weapon when it comes to destroying colonialism, she says. An Anishinaabe from Pawgwasheeng Pays Plat First Nation in Northwestern Ontario, Landry resides on Treaty Six territory in Poundmaker Cree Nation with her partner and five-year-old daughter. A freelance writer and certified LifeSkills Coach through Red Echo Associates, Landry holds a masters degree in communications and social justice and also teaches at First Nations University of Canada in their Indigenous Social Work program. Landrys career, however, began far from home, as a Youth Executive for the National Association of Friendship Centres and a North American representative for the UNs Global Indigenous Youth Caucus. She travelled the world advocating for Indigenous rights and speaking out about the injustices Indigenous peoples face here in Canada. Then one day, as Landry returned home from a meeting on human rights in Geneva, her cousin asked her a question that gave her pause for thought: Are you seeing any results here at home from your work? Initially, Landry didnt understand what he meant. He asked again if she felt her work was really helping to solve issues such as the suicide crisis or poverty in their communities. This got her thinking about whether her global work, while obviously important, was really making the impact she hoped for. Perhaps, she thought, the change Indigenous peoples needed would come more from her working within her own family and community back home. Viewing things through this new lens provided Landry with the reflection she needed to step back from her international work and narrow her focus to a more personal approach. It started with myself, with healing myself and my own issues I had with my mom and my dad and whoever else I needed to work on in my life, explains Landry. And then it expanded from there. 22Spring/Summer 2022'