From a new career to truth and reconciliation, Adam Longboat is focused on building a better future

To know Canada through Indigenous eyes, to understand why truth and reconciliation is important, it is necessary to understand historic pain, says Adam Longboat.

I just want people to understand where Indigenous people are coming from, why people feel hurt," said Longboat, a Mohawk College insurance student who was recently named student of the year by Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada.

I just want my kids to grow up in a world where people understand."

Longboat, who is also being recognized as student of the year by the Experiential and Work-Integrated Learning Ontario, became a voice of truth and reconciliation during a co-op placement with Swiss Reinsurance as part of his work as an insurance student at the college.

They are a big company in downtown Toronto and they gave me the opportunity to talk about this," said Longboat. I was able to call in a couple of elders for Truth and Reconciliation Week."

They talked about residential schools, the history of the Haudenosaunee people and, in what Longboat said was the most nerve-racking" part of the project, his own encounters with anti-Indigenous bigotry.

It was important for me because growing up, I never really talked a lot about my background, not until I was older," said Longboat, the great-nephew of Olympic distance runner Tom Longboat, who was the first Indigenous person to win the Boston Marathon.

But you had to face it in school. What, with my last name and whatnot."

Longboat said he was often subjected to cruel slurs about drunk Indians" and other racist tropes about Indigenous people. The insults may have been thrown at him by other children, but those taunts still stick to this day, he said.

He said he hopes by talking about his experiences with groups like the Swiss Reinsurance employees, he can help ensure his kids won't face that kind of discrimination.

But overcoming bigotry was not the only obstacle Longboat had to manage.

His road to Mohawk College began with the end of his seven-year career as a welder.

Longboat said in 2019, he was seriously injured in an industrial accident. He still only has about 80 per cent mobility in his damaged arm, he said. A career change was necessary.

It is especially hard when you have two kids that were so young and they were when they got hurt. My youngest daughter was about one and the oldest was about two-and-a-half and I wasn't even able to pick them up," he said.

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board provided retraining funding, and Longboat said he initially wanted to get into social work. But a job counsellor said he might have an aptitude for working in the insurance industry. And with two children to support, Longboat said the better salary in insurance work was attractive.

And, I know this will sound a bit corny, but I also chose it because this whole opportunity to have a second career was because of insurance," he said. So that means I can still help people."

Along with being recognized at the college for his achievements, Longboat will receive $1,500 for the Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada award.

Grant LaFleche is an investigative reporter with The Spectator. Reach him via email: glafleche@torstar.ca