Last month I did something that made me deeply uncomfortable. I saw a post on social media from someone I've known my whole life. A person woven into the fabric of my family's story. She shared a video she recorded while driving past a First Nations community I grew up close to, showing clutter in the yards, and captioning it with something about Elders being ashamed. The comments that followed were quick and unkind. I sat with it for a bit. I am really not someone who embraces conflict. And...

Today is the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2-Spirit People — Red Dress Day. I first shared this piece last year, and I am bringing it back today because the crisis it speaks to has not changed. If anything, the need for awareness and action has only grown. I hope it moves you as it did me when I first wrote it. Trigger Warning: This post discusses Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people (MMIWG2S), including...

Back in the fall, we started looking for a new Mentor to join our community. This search led us to connect with someone I've known for many years: Thomas George Jr. of Halalt First Nation. I first met Thomas as a colleague working in several of the communities I attended, and later discovered he was also the cousin of Mentor George Harris Jr. Thomas seamlessly integrated into the Leadership Team of two of our Dedicated Learning Circles, fitting in as if he had always been there. He is the...