Creating culturally rich communication tools

Heidi Blair Abramyk smiling and wearing a Metis scarf.

Learn more about the Master of Arts in Professional Communication program.  

Heidi Abramyk, alum of the Masters of Professional Communication (MAPC) program, and recipient of the Royal Roads Founders’ Award is making strides in creating culturally rich communication and education tools. 

Abramyk is Métis, and is based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She works as the Marketing and Communications Manager for the First Nations Capital and Infrastructure Agency of Saskatchewan. “[FNCIAS is building] a new model of how housing and infrastructure on reserve is funded.”  

“Working with brand new agency has been keeping me very busy, and it's been really exciting.”  

Little did she know it, but her communications career began when she was taking a fashion degree through Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Richmond, BC. “Partway through, I really started liking the marketing aspect,” Abramyk explains.  

When she returned to Saskatchewan, there weren’t many jobs in [fashion] design, “I finished a second degree in Commerce, in marketing, through Thompson Rivers University Open Learning.”   

While working in marketing she found herself gravitating towards the communications side of things and today, she enjoys fusing all her skills together in her work.  

“I didn't know communications was a career, but when I was in design school… [I would really enjoy] putting the strategies together, or putting…the reports together, and creating project plans,” Abramyk says. “I look back at those years… in my undergrad, realizing, ‘oh, okay, that makes sense, that this is where I am now.’” 

Years ago, Abramyk put together a vision board – on that vision board was Royal Roads’ Masters of Professional Communications (MAPC). “It was a long-term goal.” People in the communications space in Saskatoon spoke very highly of the program.  

Abramyk chose the course-based option while doing her MAPC, but mentions the research route was “really tempting. It was so tempting that I even considered taking an extra research course to complete my research!” she laughs.  

“A couple topics peaked my interest… I got to study change management, and corporate social innovation and choose courses that are really relevant to my career path and my interests. I [find] that I'm using [these] courses a lot in the work I'm doing.” 

Since completing the MAPC program in March 2024, Abramyk has had a very exciting year. She completed her chartered marketing designation from the Canadian Marketing Association. She also received a scholarship for the Indigenous Women in Community Leadership Program (IWCL) through the Coady Institute at St. Francis Xavier University and will be completing it in October of this year. Abramyk also won the CUMFI Métis Cultural Days Achievement Award in Leadership & Professions in which she was recognized by her local Métis community in September. “It’s been an incredible year. In the span of eight months, I have been on two campuses in residency from coast to coast. Someone pinch me!”  

For her community engagement project in the IWCL program Abramyk is creating  “a website for Métis people who don't feel, connected to the culture or community [to create] a place where they can…fully wade into learning more about…discovering their identity. My time at Royal Roads helped me to explore the layers of my identity and build my confidence as a communications professional, Métis woman, colleague, classmate, leader, and Indigenous scholar. 

“[I’m] reaching out to different pockets of Métis people online and doing a survey, then I'll do some interviews… and use my marketing communications skills to create the content and website that Métis peoples have identified would be helpful for them to learn more about the culture and connect to the community.

“I'm hoping to continue keeping the site moving forward after the program to help other Métis people continue on their cultural journeys.”  

“At first, I was not sure I was a research person…I had a bit of imposter syndrome calling myself an Indigenous scholar. It was through the support of my incredible classmates and faculty at Royal Roads that I developed my confidence and skills in research that has inspired my IWCL community engagement project. As I learned from an elder, “everything is connected”. This has really been true for me. For anyone looking to get into the communications field, get into the MAPC program and dive more deeply into areas of interest that your career or life has taken you — I can’t recommend it enough. Embrace your journey and believe in yourself, you never know where your path may take you and the amazing people you will meet along the way!”