I felt a calling of sorts’: Two-spirit Indigenous TDSB student trustee to serve third term – Toronto.com

‘I needed to make myself the person I can be and want to be,’ Toronto’s Isaiah Shafqat says

When they were in Grade 5 or 6, Isaiah Shafqat, the newly appointed TDSB’s Indigenous student trustee who’s already served two terms, was told by a teacher and role model, “smart people don’t wear their pants below their waists.”

“I tried to be cool as a kid,” they said. “[But this] made me think, I want to try hard, I want to break the stereotype of Indigenous people … that we aren’t successful … I realized I needed to make myself the person I can be and want to be, not only because I represent the community, but because I want to make change.”

Shafqat, who is two-spirit Mi’kmaq and Loon clan, and uses he and they pronouns, was one of three student trustees announced for the coming school year at TDSB’s regular board meeting on June 29.

Read More: https://www.toronto.com/news/i-felt-a-calling-of-sorts-two-spirit-indigenous-tdsb-student-trustee-to-serve-third/article_3e9064ba-c784-5050-b5fa-c622c4563a0f.html