Youth entrepreneur encourages youth to realize potential

Fort Albany’s Brent Edwards would like to see First Nations youth and people succeed.
“I’d like to see all of these Aboriginal youth succeed in life,” said Edwards, the owner and operator of Mooselegs2. “They have the potential to do it. I want to open their eyes and help them realize their potential.”
Edwards is a workshop facilitator, entertainer and a master of ceremonies. He was named the Youth Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012 by NADF, which he said was “amazing.”
“I never thought I was going to be this kind of person,” Edwards said of the role he now holds. “I was the shiest guy in the school. I could barely talk to anybody.”
Edwards said that he grew up in Moosonee, Thunder Bay, and Fort Albany. As a child he would often watch his aunts and uncles as they convened in his home to have fun.
“I would watch them be crazy, improvising skits or creative characters. I used to laugh, and I’d join in too,” Edwards said. “We’d send someone into the room and they would have to dress up in a certain way and come out as a different character.”
Edwards said the games inspired him to be the person he is now.
He has a few characters that he takes on during some of the workshops and events that he emcees.
“There’s Patty DeBeers, she is quite the eccentric lady. She is devoted to giving hickeys to everybody,” Edwards explained. “Chief Hyaiwatha is the chief of all chiefs. Dr.Eagle has a B.A in B.S.”
The Mushkego Kid is a superhero and another character Edwards sometimes takes on in his role as an entertainer and workshop facilitator.
Edwards often uses humour as a way to get his messages across to people he speaks to and views humour as a way of healing.
“When I am up on stage, and I see people laughing and smiling, it makes me feel good,” he said. “Because someone might be suffering a loss, or suffering from stress, and that moment in time when they’re laughing, it all fades away. Laughter is healing!”
Edwards likes that his work has made his grandmother laugh, and also his mother.
“The first time she saw me on stage, I’ll never forget this,” he said. “I was dressed as Patty DeBeers. She (my mother) had one of those laughs where her head swung back. The gut-wrenching laugh, she was laughing away at this character.”
Edwards thinks of his mother as his major role model.
“She was a single mother and she raised me to who I was,” he said. “I look up to her because she is very inspirational.”
Edwards said he likes to help people and make them laugh. He also wants to help the youth do well in school and in life.
“I want to help our youth look beyond the reserve, there’s more to it. I find that sometimes kids are enclosed in the reserve,” Edwards said.
Edwards recalls a talk that he and his classmates were given in Moosonee.
“My first day of high school, first day of class, Grade 9. There were about 30 of us Native students and the vice principal comes into our classroom,” Edwards said. “I was expecting the pep talk, thinking ‘yeah you guys are gonna make it! Keep going!’”
What the vice principal told them shocked Edward.
“This vice principal comes in and tells us to ‘look around, people. Look around; there are only three of you who are going to graduate. Based on statistics, only three of you are going to graduate!’” Edwards recalled.
“This is coming from our vice principal, quite the pep talk,” he said.
Edwards said that when he looks back now that in a “sadistic way” the words the vice principal said worked.
“From what I recall, only about three of us did not graduate,” Edwards said. “When I look at it now, maybe we used it as motivation. But I would never use that tactic!”
Edwards went on to post-secondary education after high school graduation. He went into Radio Broadcasting and Business Marketing, and also acquired a Business Administration diploma. He has also obtained an Aboriginal Teachers Certificate, and is a certified Life and Executive Coach.
Edwards’ first time as a emcee was in 1998 when a healing and wellness conference was held in Fort Albany.
“They asked me to emcee, I was really shy and I did it,” Edwards said. “I went up there. But I was never full into it back then. Mooselegs2 came out in 2007-2008. That’s when I first started really going into it.”
Over the past two years, Edwards has spoken at or emceed one or two events a month.
“It’s slowly picking up,” he said. “I do a lot of youth workshops and conferences.”
Edwards goes to places like Thunder Bay, Timmins, and has done education conferences as well. Edwards finds it hard to be away from his family when he is traveling for work, and that occasionally an event lands on a day close to his children’s birthdays or his anniversary, but he still has support from them.
The issues Edwards speaks on depend on the conference he is at. Recently he facilitated a workshop on lateral violence at the NAN Women’s Conference in Thunder Bay.
“I’d like to stress the slap in the face-hug syndrome, and what it is the ‘Just Kidding effect.’ I’m trying to get it out that for some reason in our Aboriginal society it’s OK to insult someone and say ‘just kidding’ and it makes it all better,” Edwards said.
“It’s all across our communities,” he explained. “It’s bullying. It runs rampant in our communities. ‘Oh you ever look fat, you. Just kidding.’ ‘Oh messy hair, you. Just kidding.’”
Edwards said that if someone hears those kinds of things every day, they start to wonder if that’s how they are really viewed in the community, and it can start to take a toll on their self-esteem and mental health.
Edwards continues to look forward to helping people and inspiring them to live a good life.
“My main thing is helping youth succeed, and helping people realize that we can do this. We can succeed,” Edwards said. “Everybody can do it. It just takes a little time and hard work. I am still working at it, too.”
Edwards can be contacted on his website http://www.mooselegs2.com or his Facebook business page.