The Work Ahead of Us
Family Stewards help families stay healthy, functional, intact, and productive.
Progress We Can Feel — and the Work Still Ahead
What a week.
To stand on UVic’s campus with Survivors, with my husband beside me, and with Charlie’s drum in my hands — while elected officials platform residential school denialism — was a reminder that racism against Indigenous peoples is still alive.
And yet, both can be true:
We carry the generational memory of educational institutions being used as tools of harm, and we can also witness universities today choosing to stand differently — choosing safety, responsibility, and truth.
I raise my hands to Carey Newman, who called our community together, and to Ry Moran, who grounded us with the reminder that we were not there to respond to hate, but to stand as a visible act of love.
UVic’s Acting President, Qwul’sih’yah’maht, Robina Thomas, acted quickly and decisively, making it clear the denialist event was not sanctioned. Security and Saanich Police ensured Survivors felt protected.
Robina’s leadership is proof of how far we’ve come.
The need for her statement is proof of how far we still have to go.
As a UVic graduate and Distinguished Alumni, it meant something profound to stand on that land knowing an Indigenous woman — one of our own — is leading this institution with courage, clarity, and care. That is progress our ancestors could only dream of.
Holding Charlie’s drum, standing hand-in-hand with my husband, I felt the long arc of our story: Indigenous families have survived generations of policies meant to dismantle us, especially through the education system. Those institutions removed children from love.
Now, we are building institutions designed to put the love back in.
This is the heart of our Birth Centre — a place where babies are welcomed in ceremony, where parents receive the rites of passage once stripped away, and where institutions no longer harm Indigenous families but help them heal.
The Vision Forward
As I held my child’s drum, standing hand-in-hand with my husband, I felt generations behind us and generations ahead. Our ancestors’ songs rose up and drummed out the hate still directed toward our families. They reminded us that we are still here, still singing, still protecting one another.
Our Birth Centre has never been more necessary.
And I am profoundly proud of what we are creating together.
The drum I carried holds my child’s name.
The hands I held are building this future with me.
The Birth Centre we are creating holds all of our children’s futures.
