Miywasin Moment: Listening key to community connection for Dowler

By JoLynn Parenteau on February 9, 2022.

Tiersa Dowler diverged from her family's oil and gas roots to grow a career in the field of social work.--PHOTO BY JOLYNN PARENTEAU

“When someone is speaking to you, they are sharing a piece of their life with you. Listen.”

— Blackfoot Elder Charlie Fox, Kainai Nation

Tiersa Dowler is a professionally good listener. As Medicine Hat Public Library’s social worker, she hears community members’ concerns in all genres, be it romance, true crime, or autobiography.

“Libraries are one of the last democratized places. Anybody can come in for any reason. It makes sense to have a social worker here because there’s a lot less stigma around accessing services where people aren’t aware of what services you’re there to access. You can be accessing a book, a bike, a sewing machine, movies, or a social worker,” explains Dowler.

Dowler, who turns 30 next month, took a winding road to arrive in the field of social work. She split her childhood between Medicine Hat and Burstall, Sask. before taking a gap year in the United Kingdom after high school graduation. Working abroad at a university instilled worldly perspective in Dowler. She returned to Canada to pursue a unique area of study for most Albertans: Primatology, at the University of Calgary.

“I love big apes, but I was so homesick, my mental health declined. How could I study in the lowlands?” she reasoned. “I came home (to Medicine Hat) and switched into the social work diploma program. It’s just different apes.”

Lightheartedness aside, Dowler’s human studies have led her to better understand her own People.

“I had access to ancestry.com through my job and looked through government archives. I love research. Nobody in my family had access to that information because when my (maternal) grandpa was growing up, his dad didn’t acknowledge his heritage,” says Dowler.

Her maternal lineage has MÃ©tis roots beginning at the Red River, but her family tree dates back to the 1700s with newly discovered First Nations ancestors named Striped Earth Woman and Theresa Kills In The Lodge, each previously only known as ‘Native Woman’ on ancestry records.

“Libraries have historically been a tool of colonization,” explains Dowler. “It’s time to put that aside. We need to introduce Indigenous ways of knowing, to provide space for those voices to be heard because they are important and they are just as valuable as the books in the library.”

It wasn’t until the 1980s when Dowler’s family began to lean into their Indigenous identity. Dowler recalls her grandparents holding pipe ceremonies in their backyard with guests from Miywasin Friendship Centre in attendance.

“It was beautiful, the connection and the laughter,” she says of those experiences.

Like her MÃ©tis ancestors, Dowler understands how to adapt to survive. As a child with 95% hearing loss, she overcame severe disability with the help of implants and years of speech therapy. Now as an adult, Dowler has made a career of listening to others, but if she hadn’t become a social worker, she’d prefer to find work in the trades. On a missions trip to Mexico as a teenager, Dowler was offered the opportunity to try her hand as an electrician’s apprentice.

“We did the electrical work on a two-room schoolhouse. It was super simple but so fun,” recalls Dowler. “I grew up on Third Street with parents who renovated constantly. Now I’ve just continued on doing those things with home DIY projects on weekends.”

For now, Dowler focuses on rewiring perceptions of accessing social services.

“There are so many people out there who are willing to be helpful to you. Find them, make that connection. If you’re struggling, find someone who speaks to that,” implores Dowler. “We are serving humans, not just a problem. It’s about harm reduction, it is person-centred, it is strengths-based because we’re having conversations, getting to know people in our community who are building a community within the library. The connections I make are amazing, and they sit with me forever.”

Dowler invites anyone to the library to come sit with her to talk. Currently pursuing her bachelor of social work, she isn’t much help with a book recommendation.

“I only read textbooks!” she laughs. But she’s free to listen.