Imagine this: you’re at work. It’s just another day, until Rihanna shows up.
That’s what happened to Lily Kahnerahtiio Dailleboust, a flight attendant from the Mohawk community of Kahnawake on Montreal’s South Shore, on a short Air Canada flight from Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport to Montréal-Trudeau last week.
The pop superstar was quietly making her way to the city on a small regional aircraft (with no business class) to catch her partner A$AP Rocky’s Bell Centre concert.
Dailleboust introduced herself, offered water, and went about her service. But she had something else in mind. Once the seatbelt sign turned off, she asked Rihanna’s bodyguard for permission to offer a beaded lanyard she had picked up from a store in her community that sells work from local Indigenous artists.
Rihanna said yes to the gift, and put it on her purse right away.
“In my culture, we are very generous,” Dailleboust later told Global News. “When a person or something holds special importance to us, we want to give something in return. So I gave it to her and she was really happy.”
The encounter didn’t end there, though.
Rihanna told Dailleboust it was the first time she had ever met someone from the Mohawk community. And so, before the flight was over, she offered to sign autographs and suggested they film a short video together.
In the video, Rihanna spoke directly about the gift.
“This sweet lady gifted me with something very special that I will never forget and I will never lose,” she said. “Thank you so much. I’m so honoured.”
Dailleboust used the moment to teach the Barbados native how to say thank you in Kanien’kéha, the Mohawk language — “Niá:wen” — and Rihanna repeated it back without missing a beat.
