How this Indigenous woman honours her culture each day

How this Indigenous woman honours her culture each day

Miss Indigenous Canada 2026 delegate's videos garner millions of views

Nathalie Wajashk-Restoule didn't plan to go viral.

"My first instinct was just to share what I know and have fun with it," she told Markus Schwabe on CBC Radio's Morning North.

Wajashk-Restoule is a teacher from Dokis First Nation, an Ojibwe community in northern Ontario. She's amassed almost 200,000 followers on TikTok and more than 90,000 on Instagram by posting about her people's ways of life and traditional language.

On TikTok, a video with three million views shows Wajashk-Restoule lip-syncing to I'm Right Here, a song by the drum group Young Spirit.

"The way we celebrate our singing and our dancing, I think it connects to so many people on different levels," she said about why it attracted so much attention online.

Wajashk-Restoule told CBC that she wants "people to feel the joy ... that I feel every day," because there was a time when Anishinaabe-aadiziwin (the Anishinaabe ways of life) saved her life.

"I struggled with my mental health and my teenage years, you know, those wandering years where you're trying to figure out what's best," she said. "And I really found my way on that road. It's really helped guide me to live a sober life, to live a healthy life, to be a strong leader for my community."

To continue to develop her leadership skills, Wajashk-Restoule is participating in a unique challenge this summer: representing her community at Miss Indigenous Canada 2026.

'Beautiful sounds of our language'

In her day job, Wajashk-Restoule teaches children in junior kindergarten to Grade 4.

"I am so blessed," she said of her work. "I really want to pave the way for all of these young people ... to know that they always have [their ways of life] there for them."

Some of her posts on TikTok show her teaching familiar songs to students in their traditional language, Anishinaabemowin.

"In my community, there's only two fluent language speakers left," Wajashk-Restoule explained, adding that she wants to encourage the younger generations to speak and learn what they can.

"It's something I do every day in my class, just really celebrating the beautiful sounds of our language and bringing that back to all the young people in our community."

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Wajashk-Restoule hopes to bring attention to the efforts to revitalize Anishinaabemowin in her community as a participant in Miss Indigenous Canada 2026, she told CBC.

Miss Indigenous Canada is not a beauty pagent. It describes itself as a leadership development and ambassador program for young First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women and Two-Spirit people.

Contestants compete in several categories, including a personal essay and a cultural presentation. 2026 is the program's third year.

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"One of the main reasons why I wanted to run was really to represent where I come from," Wajashk-Restoule said.

"We're going to be spending a week there learning more leadership skills so we can keep continuing the work that we do and bring it back to our community. ... At the end of the day, whatever happens, we're all winners."

The Gala that will wrap up the 2026 program is being held on July 22, 2026 in Caledonia, Ont.