Twilight wolf tells youth to follow their dreams

Best known for his role as Quil Ateara in the Twilight movie saga, actor Tyson Houseman was invited to be the keynote speaker at the Aboriginal Youth Business Conference in Sudbury on March 16.

Houseman shared his story to more than 100 Aboriginal youth from across north eastern Ontario including Barrie, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Manitoulin and Sudbury.

His message was simple - follow your dreams.

“If you have a dream just go for it.” Houseman said.

The 22-year-old grew up on the Paul Band First Nation in Alberta. When he turned 18, he decided to move to Vancouver, where he attended his first-ever movie audition.

“All the casting call said was you needed to be 15-25 (years old) and you had to be First Nations.”

Meeting both criteria Houseman felt confident, that is, until he arrived at the audition and found out they were casting for the new Twilight movie.

Twilight werewolf Tyson Houseman shared his story to more than 100 Aboriginal youth at the Aboriginal Youth Business Conference in Sudbury on March 16. Photo by Heather Green-Oliver.

“I could have turned around and said 'there's no way I'm going to get into this movie, I've never done an audition in my life.'

“But I decided, why not? I'm still going to try.”

It's that kind of attitude that Waubetek's Youth Entrepreneurship Coordinator, Irene Altiman, hopes will inspire other Aboriginal youth to succeed.

“We have a lot of social issues in First Nations,” Altiman said. "We wanted to do something for the youth and show them what's out there. That there's a lot of other things to consider."

Altiman hopes the two-day conference will encourage other First Nations youth to look into career options, and maybe open their own businesses. That's exactly why 23-year-old Joseph Wabegijig attended the conference.

“My long-term goal is to start my own construction company,” Wabegijig said. “They taught me a lot about marketing, professionalism, and all the things you need to know to start-up a new small business.”

Houseman credits the Twilight saga for opening a lot of doors for his career.

“If I hadn't moved to Vancouver and taken that risk of auditioning, then I wouldn't be where I am today.” Houseman said.

“Twilight opened up so many opportunities for me. I'm going to keep on doing auditions and acting.”

Posted by Arron Pickard