As part of our union’s commitment to learn from the experiences and celebrate the successes of Indigenous, Black and racialized CUPE members, CUPE is profiling members of the National Indigenous Council and National Racial Justice Committee and. This month, meet National Indigenous Council member Louise Watson.
More than 20 years ago, Louise Watson walked into a Regina detox centre to get sober. A cook at the centre got to know Louise, and believed in her when no-one else would, offering her a job. Today, Louise has been a cleaner at the centre for more than 17 years. She goes into work every day with the goal of connecting with other people fighting addiction.
“You just need that one person to believe in you, and you’ll change,” she says of the people she meets at work. “I get the gift of being there and watching them get clean, watching the life come back into their eyes. Then we send them to treatment and hopefully I see them at meetings. I love it.”
Louise is a Two-Spirit person and a member of the Ochapowace First Nation. She’s also a residential school survivor and is recovering from addiction. She credits the Narcotics Anonymous program for helping her heal and stay sober for over 20 years. “I never sugarcoat my addiction. I talk about my journey openly,” says the member of CUPE 5430.
The detox facility where she works offers overnight and longer-term stays, serving about 50 people. Louise tries to connect with clients while she works, making sure they know someone cares about them by sending them off with these words: “I love you. Be good. Take care of yourself.”
Breaking the cycle of intergenerational trauma
Louise says she’s broken the cycle of trauma that was being passed down in her family. Her mother Rita struggled with trauma as a residential school survivor, and abused alcohol. Louise and her siblings were taken away from their mother, and Louise was sent to residential school for two years, where she was sexually abused by a nurse.
Louise started using drugs at age 14, after her father died by suicide. A few years later, her daughter was born, and Louise tried several times over the decades that followed to stop using drugs. Now 60, she has been sober for 20 years.
Louise says residential school took away her ability to love, and did the same to her mother – who for most of her life couldn’t tell her kids and grandkids she loved them. But Louise has broken the cycle.
“My daughter taught me how to love, and how to be,” she says. “Between me, my daughter and my grandson, we stopped the intergenerational trauma because we just love.”
The three of them always told Louise’s mother they loved her – and it changed her.
“Before she died, she had the ability to say she loved us. Before, she never knew what love was. And I didn’t know that she didn’t know,” says Louise.
Finding solidarity in CUPE
Getting the cleaner job made her a CUPE member – and it’s shaped who she is today. “CUPE has changed my life. It’s given me a voice I didn’t know I had, and the ability to be part of something so great,” she says.
Louise has been a member of CUPE’s National Indigenous Council since 2021. She got involved with CUPE over 12 years ago, when other Indigenous members encouraged her to join her local’s Aboriginal Standing Committee. Provincial CUPE leaders also encouraged Louise to step up. She’s served on the CUPE Saskatchewan Indigenous Council and is currently the Indigenous Executive Member on the CUPE Saskatchewan board.
Louise lists safe drinking water, the legacy of residential schools, and missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people as some of her priorities. “The fight is real. I’m pretty glad CUPE is there with us,” she says of the support she feels from other members and leaders in our union.
“I never knew what solidarity meant until CUPE. When I go to conferences and events, I just feel so empowered.”
Louise uses that confidence to advocate in her community and workplace, as well as provincially and nationally. She remembers helping represent CUPE at a Canadian Labour Congress national lobby day in Ottawa several years ago.
Before getting involved with CUPE, she never pictured herself on Parliament Hill, let alone meeting with MPs. During the lobby, a Newfoundland and Labrador MP offered her a drink of water. Her immediate response was “It’s not so easy in Labrador,” highlighting the situation for Indigenous peoples in the region.
“That’s my voice. And now it allows him to think about it.”
Advocating for Indigenous workers
Louise also uses her voice to advocate for Indigenous workers. One way she’s done that is attending a powwow with her employer, the Saskatchewan Health Authority, to recruit more Indigenous workers and build a more representative workforce.
Her advice to the SHA is to “be more open-minded. Don’t put us all in one clump. We’re unique people. And take a chance on hiring.” She’s equally clear that once you’ve recruited Indigenous workers, there’s still work ahead to make sure they stay.
“You can hire all the Indigenous people you want, but when you get in – allies or not – racism does exist,” she says.
“We’ve got to focus on changing that. A lot of people think that we get money for going to Indian residential school, we get handouts. But at the end of the day, they really don’t know that we were here first. And we’ll continue to be here, because we’re resilient. And with allies like CUPE, we’ll continue to be resilient and we’ll continue to be here.”
Louise uses awareness to fight racism, working one person at a time. She tells the story of a co-worker making a misinformed comment about Indigenous peoples.
“Before, I would have just gotten mad and walked away and never talked to her again. But the union, they give you a voice, and you’re able to say ‘Hey, you’ve got to stop that.’”
A heartfelt conversation opened that coworker’s eyes and heart, and she now shares what she learned from Louise with other coworkers. “Her perception is different now,” says Louise. “If that was one person and I changed her mind, then we’re moving forward.”
Her advice to other Indigenous, Black and racialized CUPE members who want to get involved is to “think of it as a chance to fight for what you believe in.”
“Don’t think, ‘what if I go and I don’t make a difference.’ Well, what if you come and you do make a difference,” she says.
Learn more about CUPE’s Anti-Racism Strategy including Goal 4, which focuses on highlighting the lived experiences of Indigenous, Black and racialized members and celebrating their successes, at cupe.ca/cupes-anti-racism-strategy. And check out these tips for putting the strategy into action in your local.
If you are in crisis, reach out for help.
The National Indian Residential School Crisis Line - 24/7 emotional and crisis referral services for former residential school students: 1-866-925-4419 (FR/EN).
Hope for Wellness - 24/7 helpline and chat for Indigenous people: 1‐855‐242‐3310 and hopeforwellness.ca (FR/EN)
Suicide Crisis Helpline - 24/7 support: call or text 988 (FR/EN)
Kids Help Phone - 24/7 helpline and texting for people 20 years and younger: 1‐800‐668‐6868 or kidshelpphone.ca (FR/EN)