Gwen Crouse was helping with her family's finances by the time she was eight.
She had to – her grandmother, Mable Anderson, was illiterate, so it was up to her to read the bank statements so they could apply for credit and such, Crouse said.
"She was a very strong individual," Crouse said of Anderson, a Cree-speaking Métis woman who taught her to never back down from a situation and raised her from a child along with her husband, Walter. She credits her as one of the biggest influences on her life.
Today, Crouse is one of the most prominent Métis women in St. Albert. Co-founder of St. Albert's National Aboriginal Day celebrations and volunteer for countless other causes, she's one of the 17 Alberta aboriginal women who will be receiving an Esquao Award next month.
The Esquao Awards are an annual event run by the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women that recognizes the achievements of First Nations, Métis and Inuit women in Alberta, said Marggo Pariseau, the group's vice-president. This is the 20th year for the awards.
This year's winners include Danika Littlechild, vice-president of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, and (posthumously) Tonesha Walker, a talented 16-year-old who inspired many before she was murdered in Edmonton in 2012.
Crouse, whose husband is St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse, joins a long list of other St. Albert-area Esquao winners including former senator Thelma Chalifoux, volunteer Cheryle Wong and educator Hazel McKennitt.
From child to champion
Now 61, with three kids and three grandkids, Crouse says she grew up in the mostly Métis community of Grouard, Alta., near Lesser Slave Lake, in a home with no running water, electricity or television.
"I always felt that I didn't belong. I didn't belong in the white world and I didn't belong in the First Nations world."
But she didn't let this existential angst get her down; she kept moving forward, finished high school and started a 23-year career with ATB Financial.
"Don't worry about what people are saying about you. Just go forward with whatever your goal is," she says.
Crouse spent the next few decades organizing sports teams and swim meets and other community events. She chaired the Alberta Indigenous Games when they came to St. Albert in 2013, serves as a board member with Apeetogosan Development, which gives loans to Métis businesses across Canada, and is helping to organize St. Albert's Healing Garden Project.
Crouse is also a board member with the CASA Foundation, which supports children's mental health throughout the Edmonton region.
"The need is massive," Crouse says of children's mental health services in Alberta, especially in hard-to-reach First Nations communities. Untreated, these health issues can lead to situations of child abuse and suicide.
Fluent in Cree, Crouse says she recently agreed to work with the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce on aboriginal relations.
"If you want an aboriginal person in your world, treat them as an equal."
Libby Szarka, current president of the St. Albert National Aboriginal Day Society, says Crouse is an incredibly busy person who somehow manages to juggle piles of family, business and volunteer obligations.
"No matter how busy she is, she's always available."
Szarka calls Crouse the "glue" that kept St. Albert's National Aboriginal Day celebration together in the early years, and sees her as a role model.
"She's just so genuine that you just become her friend."
Long-time friend Lori Ashton says she's not sure what drives Crouse to do what she does.
"She's just that kind of person who likes to give back and contribute however she can."
The awards ceremony is May 27 at the Shaw Conference Centre. Tickets are $199. Visit iaaw.ca for details.
