Role Model: xpe7e, kye7e and Jennifer Podemski
By Brandi Phillips

My grandparents inspire me because they've been together for sooooo long and they've been through a lot. I don't know if I would ever be strong enough to face all the issues that they have over the past thirty years. I love the way my kye7e(grandma) doesn’t judge you, and the way my xpe7e(grandpa) listens to you when you have something to say. I can alwayz go up and talk to him about anything. He is one of the coolest elders I know. I'm not just saying that because he's my grandpa, but it's the truth. He has so many friends and their all not native, he has like the same amount of white friends as he does native ones. I just love them even more that they let us stay with them. I think me and my older brother have been staying with them on and off ever since we were born. They always spoiled me and my brother just a little bit more than everyone else because we're the oldest of my mom's six kids and she was also one of their favourites. My grandpa also gets along really well with all of my friends. He used to be a counsellor and go to all of the schools and he would tell them about his times when he was in residential school, his partying days, and when he was growing up. I love all of his stories, my grandpa is so wise and all he has is his grade six.

My kye7e, I don’t' know how she did it, growing up in a household with eighteen other siblings, and having seven kids. She can't work anymore and all she does is clean. That's what she loves and I don't get why, she runs up and down the stairs like a million times a day. She doesn't even let me do my own laundry and I have to hardly make supper. She teaches me a lot about the old days. I knew how to darn socks when I was seven. I love her cooking, and every time she cooks, she cooks enough for like ten people. I don't think she has ever had to cook for less than ten people when she was growing up. But now it's just the four of us and my aunty her old man and our cousin Cass that she cooks for and most of the time there's quite a bit of leftovers. They're two of the greatest people in the world. I don't have any idea where I would be without them.

Jennifer Podemski, I loved her acting ever since I saw, Dance Me Outside, I just thought that she was so beautiful. I love her in Moccassin Flats too. I've alwayz wanted to be an actress and now that I see another native woman became successful and a household name, I think I have a better chance to make it on a TV or something. I actually got to see her and Adam Beach when I went down to, the "Gathering Our Voices" Youth Conference 2005 in, Vancouver it was awesome I got her to sign my shirt and I got a picture with her. But then I lost the camera, so now all I got is the autograph, but at least I got to meet her, I think. When me and my friends were in the hotel we saw Adam Beach and he came on the escalator ride with us and he was just talking like a normal person and he was being all cool and laid back.  I thought it was AWESOME! Yeah, but becoming an actress has been a dream of mine since I was little and since Jennifer Podemski started acting my dream became a little more realistic.