During COVID, many of us picked up new hobbies: baking sourdough, knitting, woodworking and jogging. I started doing at-home yoga, watching classes on YouTube. Dean Lerat, an RCMP officer in southern Saskatchewan, got really into online DNA kits via Ancestry.ca.
Lerat, a Saulteaux member of Cowessess First Nation in southern Saskatchewan, performed his first DNA test on himself. He discovered hundreds of biological family members, some he recognized and others distant and unknown. He shared his news with his mother and helped her identify a previously unknown half-sister who lived in Regina, less than two hours away by car.
The reunion galvanized something for Lerat: the power of DIY DNA tests to unite scattered families. He started to see how his DNA detective work could help the many Indigenous survivors of Canada’s foster system and residential schools connect with long-lost relatives. He’s become obsessed with this mission.
In a beautiful, uplifting story in the December issue of Maclean’s, writer Sarah Treleaven describes how Lerat now spends much of his spare time—up to 30 hours a week—helping people reconnect with distant blood relatives and flesh out incomplete family trees. His work has transformed lives. Strangers now regularly reach out to Lerat on social media, asking for help. “I felt like these people needed my help to find their way home,” he says.
—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief
