There are moments in Indigenous communities when one young person rises and reminds us all of what is possible. Camden Scribe is one of those young people.
At just 15 years old, this Nakota and Cree teenager from Saskatchewan has earned international recognition that most adults will never achieve in a lifetime. Camden has been selected as one of only 13 recipients worldwide of the Young Courage Award, presented by Sweden’s Raoul Wallenberg Academy — one of the most prestigious youth honours on the planet. On August 27, 2026, Camden travels to Stockholm with his family to accept this extraordinary honour in person.
His story is one of cultural pride, Indigenous identity, language revitalization, and the kind of quiet courage that changes communities from the inside out. At Powwow Times, we celebrate Camden Scribe with full hearts and absolute pride. His journey reflects everything we stand for: Responsibility, Gratitude, Growth, and Giving.
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Who Is Camden Scribe?
Camden Scribe is a 15-year-old Indigenous youth from Saskatchewan, Canada, carrying both Nakota and Cree heritage. He is a traditional powwow dancer — a young man who has grown up with the drum, with the regalia, and with the sacred knowledge that dance is not performance but living, breathing culture.
What makes Camden’s story so remarkable is not just the award itself, but the work that earned it. Camden is an active advocate for Indigenous youth, particularly through his passionate involvement in the Boys with Braids campaign. He is also deeply committed to the revitalization of Nakota and Cree languages, working to learn and share these languages in spaces that have too often pushed Indigenous identity to the margins.
Community leaders in Saskatchewan describe Camden as an inspiring example of leadership, respect, and cultural strength. His family, who accompany him to Stockholm to witness his recognition on the world stage, are incredibly proud — and rightfully so.
Camden is proof that Indigenous youth carry the future of our nations in their hands. All they need is the space, the support, and the recognition to step fully into that power.
The Raoul Wallenberg Academy and the Global Significance of the Young Courage Award
To understand the weight of what Camden has achieved, it helps to understand the institution honouring him.
The Raoul Wallenberg Academy is based in Stockholm, Sweden, and named after Raoul Wallenberg — the Swedish diplomat who risked and ultimately gave his life saving tens of thousands of Jewish people during the Holocaust. Wallenberg is recognized globally as a symbol of moral courage, the kind of courage that chooses to stand for others even when doing so comes at great personal cost.
The Academy’s mission carries that same spirit forward by identifying young people around the world who demonstrate extraordinary courage in their communities, their cultures, or their causes. The Young Courage Award is not handed out freely. Selecting only 13 recipients from the entire global community means that Camden Scribe is being recognized alongside some of the most remarkable young advocates on earth.
For an Indigenous youth from Saskatchewan to receive this honour is deeply significant. It places Indigenous advocacy, cultural preservation, and language revitalization on a genuinely international stage. It tells the world that what Camden is doing matters — not just in Canada, not just in the Indigenous community, but in the full context of global human rights, dignity, and courage.
When Camden accepts his award in Stockholm, he carries with him every Indigenous young person who has ever been told their culture is less than, their language is not worth learning, or their identity needs to be hidden to fit in. He carries our ancestors and he carries our future.
Boys with Braids: Why This Movement Matters for Indigenous Identity
One of the pillars of Camden’s advocacy is the Boys with Braids campaign — and to understand why this campaign is so important, you need to understand what so many Indigenous boys and young men face every day.
Hair carries deep spiritual and cultural significance across Indigenous nations. Braids and long hair are not simply a style choice — they are an expression of identity, of connection to ancestry, and of Indigenous pride. Yet for generations, Indigenous boys have been made to feel that their hair, their appearance, and their cultural expression are out of place in classrooms, in offices, in sports arenas, and in the wider society that surrounds them.
Boys with Braids directly challenges that narrative. The campaign is a call to Indigenous boys and young men everywhere: wear your braids with pride. Stand tall in every room you enter. Your hair is not a problem to be managed — it is a crown.
For Camden, this is personal. As a traditional powwow dancer, he understands deeply what it means to embody culture in your physical presence. When he dances, his regalia, his movements, and yes, his hair, are all expressions of who he is and where he comes from. He has chosen to carry that same unapologetic pride into spaces beyond the powwow circle — school hallways, community spaces, and now international award ceremonies.
The Boys with Braids movement is about more than hair. It is about giving Indigenous youth permission to be fully themselves. It is about dismantling the quiet pressure of assimilation that has never fully gone away. It is about cultural survival through everyday acts of identity and courage.
At Powwow Times, we have always believed that cultural confidence is built one young person at a time. Camden Scribe is doing exactly that work.
Powwow Dancing as Cultural Connection for Indigenous Youth
Camden’s identity as a traditional powwow dancer is not incidental to his advocacy — it is central to it.
Powwow dancing is one of the most profound and enduring forms of cultural transmission in Indigenous North America. When a young person learns to dance traditionally, they are not simply learning steps and regalia. They are learning history. They are learning ceremony. They are learning how to carry the prayers, the resilience, and the identity of their people in their own body.
For Indigenous youth navigating a world that has often been hostile to their culture, powwow dancing provides something invaluable: a place where their identity is not just tolerated but celebrated. On the powwow grounds, there is no question about whether you belong. The drum calls and the dancers answer, and that is enough.
Camden’s path as a dancer has clearly shaped his confidence, his sense of purpose, and his willingness to advocate publicly for Indigenous communities. This is the power that powwow holds — and it is why events like the Powwow Dance Championships, which Powwow Times hosts annually, are so much more than competitions. They are spaces of healing, community, and cultural renewal.
When families bring their children to a powwow, when young boys watch traditional dancers move with power and grace in full regalia, something shifts in them. They see themselves differently. They understand what is possible. They feel the pride that their ancestors intended them to feel.
Camden Scribe is a living example of what happens when a young person is given full access to their culture. He has grown into exactly the kind of leader that powwow communities produce when they are supported and celebrated.
Indigenous Language Revitalization: Nakota, Cree, and the Urgency of the Work
Alongside his advocacy through Boys with Braids and his dedication to powwow dance, Camden is actively learning both Nakota and Cree languages. In a country where Indigenous languages face very real threats of disappearance, this matters enormously.
Language is the most intimate expression of culture. It carries concepts, relationships, and ways of understanding the world that cannot be fully translated into English. When a language disappears, an entire way of knowing disappears with it. When a young person chooses to learn their ancestral language, they are making an act of cultural resistance and love that echoes through generations.
Camden’s commitment to learning Nakota and Cree is part of a growing movement among Indigenous youth who refuse to let their languages fade. This generation is reclaiming what colonialism tried to take, and they are doing it with creativity, technology, and a deep sense of responsibility to those who came before.
At Powwow Times, language revitalization is close to our hearts. Our own Repeat After Me Cree program has brought Cree language education to over 8,000 members, offering accessible weekly lessons led by Elders and knowledge keepers. We know firsthand how powerful it is when a learner — whether a child or an adult, a lifelong community member or someone reconnecting after years of disconnection — hears their language and recognizes something within themselves.
Camden’s work with Nakota and Cree languages is part of this same, urgent, beautiful effort. Every word learned and shared is a thread woven back into the fabric of who we are as Indigenous peoples. If you have ever wanted to start learning Cree language yourself, we welcome you to join thousands of learners through our Repeat After Me Cree program at powwowtimes.ca.
What This Award Means for Saskatchewan’s Indigenous Communities
Saskatchewan is home to some of the most vibrant and resilient Indigenous communities in Canada. It is the homeland of Treaty peoples who have maintained their languages, their ceremonies, and their identities across centuries of profound challenge.
When Camden Scribe steps onto that stage in Stockholm, he does not go alone. He goes as a representative of every young Indigenous person in Saskatchewan who has worked to hold their culture close in a world that has sometimes asked them to let it go. He goes on behalf of Elders who carried the knowledge forward, parents who drove their children to powwows, and teachers who created space for Indigenous identity in their classrooms.
The Young Courage Award does something important for communities like Camden’s: it names what is already true. The courage that Indigenous youth demonstrate every day — the courage to speak their language in public, to wear their regalia with pride, to advocate for their communities in spaces that were not built for them — that courage is real, it is significant, and it deserves recognition far beyond what it too often receives.
For Saskatchewan’s Indigenous communities, Camden’s recognition is also an invitation. It is a reminder that our young people have gifts to offer the world, not just our own communities. It is an encouragement to invest in Indigenous youth leadership, cultural programs, and the spaces — like powwows, language programs, and advocacy campaigns — that allow that leadership to emerge.
Camden’s Story and the Mission of Powwow Times
At Powwow Times, our mission has always been grounded in cultural preservation, community building, and the empowerment of Indigenous peoples — especially young people. Camden Scribe’s story sits at the very heart of that mission.
We believe that Indigenous culture is not a relic of the past. It is a living, evolving, deeply powerful force that shapes who our young people become and what they contribute to the world. We see it in every dancer who enters the arena. We hear it in every drum song. We feel it in every language class, every elder’s teaching, and every young person who chooses, like Camden, to carry their culture forward with pride.
Our RGGG principle — Responsibility, Gratitude, Growth, Giving — reflects the values we see in Camden’s story. He has taken Responsibility for his community’s wellbeing. He carries Gratitude for the cultural gifts passed to him. He demonstrates Growth through his ongoing learning and advocacy. And he is Giving back through his courage to be fully himself in the most public of ways.
Camden Scribe reminds us of why we do this work. He reminds us that every powwow we host, every language lesson we share, every platform we create for Indigenous artists, dancers, and leaders, is a seed that can grow into exactly this kind of courage and leadership.
We are honoured to share his story. We are proud to celebrate him. And we invite you to be inspired by him too.
FAQ
Who is Camden Scribe and why is he receiving the Young Courage Award?
Camden Scribe is a 15-year-old Nakota and Cree traditional powwow dancer from Saskatchewan, Canada. He has been selected as one of 13 global recipients of the Young Courage Award from Sweden’s Raoul Wallenberg Academy, in recognition of his advocacy for Indigenous youth through the Boys with Braids campaign, his commitment to Indigenous language revitalization, and his work promoting safe and culturally affirming spaces for young people.
What is the Boys with Braids campaign?
Boys with Braids is an advocacy campaign that encourages young Indigenous boys and men to wear their braids and long hair with confidence and pride. It challenges the assimilationist pressures that have historically pushed Indigenous youth to minimize or hide expressions of their cultural identity in mainstream spaces. The campaign celebrates Indigenous identity as a source of strength, not difference.
What is the Raoul Wallenberg Academy and how significant is the Young Courage Award?
The Raoul Wallenberg Academy is a Swedish institution named after the diplomat who saved tens of thousands of lives during the Holocaust through extraordinary moral courage. The Academy’s Young Courage Award is given annually to a small number of young people worldwide who demonstrate exceptional courage in advocating for their communities, cultures, or human rights causes. Being named one of only 13 global recipients places Camden Scribe among some of the most impactful young advocates on earth.
How does powwow dancing connect to Indigenous youth identity and leadership?
Powwow dancing is one of the most powerful forms of cultural transmission in Indigenous North America. When young people learn to dance traditionally, they connect to their ancestry, their community’s history, and their people’s prayers and resilience. Powwow provides a space of belonging and affirmation for Indigenous youth — and for many, including Camden, it becomes the foundation for broader cultural advocacy and leadership.
How can people support Indigenous language revitalization efforts like the ones Camden Scribe is involved in?
One of the most accessible ways to support Indigenous language revitalization is to participate in language programs. Powwow Times offers the Repeat After Me Cree program, which has reached over 8,000 learners with accessible weekly Cree language lessons. Visit powwowtimes.ca to learn more and join the community. Supporting Indigenous organizations, attending cultural events, and amplifying the voices of Indigenous youth advocates like Camden Scribe are also meaningful acts of solidarity.
Closing: Celebrating Camden Scribe and the Future He Represents
Camden Scribe is 15 years old, and he is already changing the world.
His courage to advocate, to learn his languages, to wear his braids with pride, and to represent his community on an international stage is the kind of leadership that gives us genuine hope for the future. He is not waiting to be older, more experienced, or more recognized. He is doing the work right now, with everything he has.
At Powwow Times, we celebrate every Indigenous young person who walks this kind of path. We are committed to creating more spaces, more platforms, and more opportunities for the next Camden Scribe to emerge, to be seen, and to be honoured.
If Camden’s story has moved you — if you are an Indigenous parent, youth worker, educator, or community member who wants to support Indigenous cultural programming, language revitalization, and youth empowerment — we invite you to visit us at www.powwowtimes.ca.
Explore our upcoming events, our Repeat After Me Cree language program, our powwow dance resources, and our consulting and cultural programming services. Connect with us. Partner with us. Support the work.
Because every young person who grows up knowing who they are, where they come from, and why their culture matters is a victory. And victories like Camden Scribe belong to all of us.
Visit us at www.powwowtimes.ca to learn more, book a cultural program, or simply join a community that celebrates Indigenous culture every single day.
