An RN with Singing talent and More:

Inez Jasper. 






Inez is a Registered Nurse - graduating from UBC approximately five years ago with a BScN - and has been working in the area of Community Nursing. At the moment, she is on hiatus from her nursing  while she is persuing  her dream -  music.

But, as she says in one of  her videos -   she doesn't want to give it up entirely:
 "I love Nursing. It's in my heart- it's so close to me - I love it, I can't let it go"

She is a wonderful  role model - a  thoughtful and  articulate young woman :




Last month she was in Wyoming to perform and also lead a workshop  at a youth conference. A College Radio station invited her, along with an aboriginal comedian (Drew Lacapa) to be interviewed informally by their  DJ.


Drew and Inez had been asked how they got into their "biz" and Inez mentioned how APTN (Aboriginal People's Television Network) and National Aboriginal Day - or "Indian Solidarity Day" as it is called by some elders - had created a demand for her music.





Drew mentioned how he thought that it might be nice to have a similar National day for Mexican people in the Southwest, or if perhaps  they could come up to Canada to observe the celebrations.

The conversation then drifted over to guns, and how US citizens are allowed to carry a concealed weapon - and Inez made the comment that she thought that was "crazy" and so different than what she is used to in Canada.

The Radio Station Director phoned in to the DJ booth and abruptly terminated the interview.

Someone felt threatened.

The "full-on censorship" shocked Inez, as she realized that perhaps "free speech" isn't really free in some places.

In the end, Inez's gracious take-away was this:

"Sometimes we just have to agree to disagree. I have thought long and hard about this. I thought I was being careful. I'm not a radical person and I guess we have to respect people's readiness to change."
"I've come to the conclusion this was really a good lesson on how we need to create more space for discussion and ideas that may be different or foreign to us, and to talk about how to move forward when we disagree."



Inez is such a positive person and she likes to take a positive view on life, even with difficult subjects and experiences.

Last fall on stage  at the Aboriginal Peoples Awards  (winning in four categories),  upon receiving her award she stated - all the while holding her babe in arms:

 " Being raised in a traditional way...where I was told - listen to the teaching of our elders because you will need to teach it to your children one day.....and now it makes so much sense to me why I do what I do ......I do it for for my family, I do it for my people....."

 


Here she is at home with her young son: