Leadership is a term Misiaykimigookpaypomwayotung, or Jacqueline Ottmann in English, has known all too well since her youth when she was growing up on Fishing Lake First Nation, approximately two hours from Regina on Treaty 4 territory.
Ottmann, the president of First Nations University of Canada, said she learned what it takes to be a leader because of the strong leadership skills her parents demonstrated throughout her life.
Her father, the late Allan Paquachan, was chief of her community for a span of 30 years, while her mother, Marjorie Paquachan, drove their school bus for nearly 50 years. Both had strong relationships and friendships within the community and surrounding communities.
“We were always exposed to political leadership but also the responsibility connected to leadership in general,” Ottmann explained during her interview for Shaping Saskatchewan.
The leadership qualities her parents displayed were one reason why Ottmann chose to focus her graduate research on investigating leadership and organizational development. The …