The Skeena
By all accounts Chelsie McCutcheon is an impressive person.
The Interior News last year described her as “a powerful woman, and an extremely busy one.”
Now, the Wet’suwet’en snowboarder and youth leader’s profile is growing even bigger.
McCutcheon, who currently lives in Squamish, has a star role in a new documentary released by Arc’teryx called Riding Red.
She is featured as a team member of the Indigenous Life Sport Academy, an organization that “provides Indigenous youth with opportunities to play, express themselves, improve both their mental and physical health, as well as learn skills such as snowboarding, skateboarding, biking, climbing, hiking, and golf that can benefit them long into their adult years.”
In the documentary, McCutcheon says that “when I realized there was an Indigenous snowboard team, I was blown away. I was determined to be a part of it in any capacity.”
The film follows her to her hometown of Witset, which she explains has a lot of intergenerational trauma caused by the legacy of residential schooling and the Sixties Scoop.
“A lot of our youth have experienced a tremendous amount of trauma,” she says. “By bringing the youth to the mountain allowed a sense of freedom and also a connection to nature.”
You can watch the full documentary here.
