Coleen's Story

Ten years after establishing herself as a hard news reporter for CBC Manitoba, Coleen Rajotte has her own production company, two hit health shows on the air and a self-titled documentary in the works. But the journey from girl with a dream to woman in charge wasn't always an easy road to travel.

By Dolores Haggarty

It's just after 8 a.m. on a Thursday morning when Coleen Rajotte rolls into the Cindy Klassen Recreation Centre parking lot in her grey Toyota 4Runner.

The sky is overcast, suggesting rain may be in the offing, but the air is fresh and warm - a perfect morning for a quick workout.

Within minutes, Rajotte, stylishly decked out in black sweatpants and a white sweatshirt with a stylized "C" on the left shoulder, is on the track performing a series of lunges and side-squats. "Two, three, four," calls out Diane Kornel, a tiny but fitlooking woman who is Rajotte's personal trainer. Her voice is low, more encouraging than demanding, as she puts her client through her paces. "Five, six, seven - belly button in! Open up that chest."

Over the course of the next hour or so, Rajotte will run a series of 200 metre sprints, each one punctuated by a short walk. Later, she'll cap off the workout with a couple of runs up and down the bleachers. It's a demanding routine, one that Rajotte carries out at least twice a week, sometimes with Kornel, sometimes working alone.

That this 42-year-old woman is determined to optimize her health and wellbeing should not come as a surprise. Ten years after having established herself as a hard news reporter for CBC Manitoba, Rajotte now heads up her own television production company and is the host of its two flagship health and wellness programs - Vitality and Vitality Gardening - which are broadcast nationally on the Aboriginal People's Television Network (APTN). As a CEO and television host, she needs to look the part.

But this isn't a tale about the need to keep fit and trim for the camera. Rather, it is a story of Rajotte's journey of selfdiscovery, one that enabled her to connect with her biological parents and tap into her Cree-Métis roots. Along the way, Rajotte has not only gained new insight into a world she barely knew, she has also learned about the importance of leading a balanced life, one that is rooted in the traditional aboriginal approaches to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. These ideas not only shape Rajotte's daily routine, they are also at the core of each and every episode of Vitality and Vitality Gardening that she produces.

Rajotte was not always as deeply immersed in aboriginal culture as she is today. Born in 1966, she says, "My life was blank until I was eight months old." That was when Nelson and Betty Rajotte - a United Church minister and his stay-at- home-wife adopted her.

Her early years - from toddler to midadolescence - were, as they say, "without incident." There was no trauma, no conflict. Indeed, she and her siblings (a younger brother and sister) were raised in a comfortable, secure environment in a sprawling manse on Elgin Avenue, while her father ministered to parishioners at Sparling United Church.

As for being "different," Rajotte and her brother (also adopted and aboriginal) hardly stood out from the other children in their multi-racial neighbourhood. In fact, as Rajotte recounts - still with strong feeling - the first time she realized she was "different" was when, at five years old, she was shopping with her mother at The Bay downtown.

"My mother was a few aisles over. I called out 'Mom' and all of a sudden people were staring at me. Then I saw a woman walk over to my mother; she asked if I was really her daughter and demanded an explanation. That was the first time I realized I was adopted," she recalls.

Rajotte's darkest moments came when her father was posted to a church in Westwood. The move from inner city to affluent suburbia was traumatic. "I began Grade 10 at Westwood Collegiate and as far as I could tell, I was the only aboriginal in the school," she says. "It was like being in a bad movie." There was no bullying, no fighting; the other kids just wouldn't talk to her. "I was shunned for the first time in my life. It was the loneliest experience I've ever had," she says.

Today though, reflecting on those years, Rajotte is convinced "that the experience forced me to look at the world in a different way." She says she coped by developing a tough exterior. And even as difficult as those years were, Rajotte never lost the sense of what she wanted to become. "I never thought of running because I was always focused. I knew I wanted to be a TV journalist and nothing was going to stop me from reaching that goal."

The first indication of Rajotte's creative and entrepreneurial flair came early on. As a little girl, she loved reading and performing. Her parents, mystified at her ideas, remember her writing plays and charging kids in the neighbourhood a nickel to come and watch her perform. But the most memorable moment in her young life took place when she was nine years old and in Grade 3 at Cecil Rhodes School. "One day, our librarian - a wonderful woman - encouraged us to write a book of our own." The result was The Sour Orange - a small book, bound in orange and black, neatly printed in grey crayon from title page to end credits. It tells the tale of an orange that runs away to discover hope and friendship.

This early effort, now a cherished keepsake, not only reflects Rajotte's early attention to detail, but also signifies a "pivotal point" in her life. "Writing that book exposed me to possibilities. It meant that books weren't just something in the library that others wrote, they were also something I could create," she says. Thus began the desire for storytelling, which - over time - evolved. A few years later, when Rajotte graduated from Grade 7 at Sargent Park School, her life's goal was quoted clearly under her yearbook picture: "Wants to be a TV journalist."

Continue reading "Coleen's Story"

Pages: 1 | 2 | 3

Back to Wave main page

Wave is published six times a year by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority in cooperation with the Winnipeg Free Press. It is available at newsstands, hospitals and clinics throughout Winnipeg, as well as McNally Robinson Books.