I am here because they survived 🧡 my real life heroes. I wrote this last year: Today, Orange Shirt Day, September 30. A day to honour Indian Residential School survivors. Today, I honour my Great Grandmother Persis (my little nanny), my Nanuk Eileen, and my father Greg 🧡 my sisters and I are the first generation on my father’s side that did not get taken to the IRSS. Today, and everyday, we honour all the Indigenous children who were forcibly taken from their families and into a system that attempted to dismantle their culture, traditions, their language, and their ways of life and being. We honour the survivors of this horrible system, but also the lives that were taken in these assimilative and genocidal processes. An emotional and important day to reflect on. Today is about honouring survivors of Indian Residential Schools. It is also about ensuring that our children will not be subjected to the same acts committed against our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents before us. Because #EveryChildMatters and no child deserves to be taken from their families. Let’s honour the survivors of the IRS system by educating ourselves of the history of this system, and how it has transcended into a new system, the “Child Welfare System” that is still tearing families apart and is a continuation of that system. In Canada, nearly half of the children in the child welfare system are Indigenous children. Our total population is less than 5% of the Canadian Population. What these numbers unveil is an ugly truth that Canada is still reinforcing models of racism and discrimination and using legislative policies to destroy Indigenous families. Today, there are more Indigenous children in the Child Welfare System in Canada than was documented in the IRSS. Today, let’s honour our families and generations before us, who endured great deals of trauma and survived, by protecting the future generations to come. Woliwon, Nit Leyic 🙏🏽 “They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds” #EveryChildMatters #WeAreStillHere #OrangeShirtDay #500Years #Resistance #Resilience

Summer views have been good to me ☀️ lots of love

R. v. Marshall, 1999. 22 years ago today. The fight to assert our inherent rights is still ongoing.. However, reflecting on the importance of this Supreme Court decision and how it fundamentally reshaped legal consciousness in Canada.. truly incredible.. A year ago today I was standing in solidarity with my Wabanaki brothers, sisters and people in Mi’kma’ki at the Saulnierville Wharf in Digby, Nova Scotia. Seeing Mi’kmaq fishers exercising their inherent rights in the face of outright racism has to be a story that I will tell to my kids. Where I witnessed, and actively participated in, the right to fish for a moderate livelihood despite oppositions from all sectors of the settler-Canadian government. The fight persists and the battle is ongoing. However, I want to commemorate this wonderful man, Donald Marshall Jr., who is a hero of mine for many reasons, but especially for his contributions in reshaping Canadian and Mi’kmaq legal consciousness, challenging historical and contemporary narratives in settler-Canadian society, as well as providing hope to Wabanaki people in his stand in against injustice. A legacy of so much strength that I am truly inspired by. Thank you everyone for following me along in this journey of keeping the public informed about the events that had taken place in Digby involving our right to a moderate livelihood, and for standing in solidarity with Mi’kmaq and Wabanaki People on the East Coast. Mi’kmaq fishers are still encountering acts of racial discrimination from DFO and the setter state. The fight to assert and reaffirm our rights persists. Continuous support is needed. Today, I hope we can reflect on this landmark decision that affirms and reaffirms our inherent right to fish on the grounds of the treaties signed in the 1700s. 1752, 1760-61, 1725 are important treaties that established these rights, and Section 35(1) of the Constitution of 1982 reaffirms these rights. This decision upheld our rights at the highest court in Canada in 1999. Our right to fish is constitutionally protected, it is inalienable, it is who we are. We are the land. #alleyesonmikmaki All pictures, except the first, are my own.

My niece Cedar and I at our 8th annual Powwow in Pilijik (Kingsclear First Nation) 💛 (Peep her little jingle dress) Also, a big shout out to my cousin @shaynnemarie for the beautiful ribbon shirt! Woliwon 🙏🏽 & her page is @kiddos_ribbon I also want to share this beautiful photo of my grandmother Sarah during opening prayer, and the photos of our Powwow captured by Ellen Tramley Seymour @ellentsphotography. Gorgeous!

Awh, I really missed powwows 💛

Incredibly proud of my beautiful mother who celebrates 8 years of sobriety today. A huge day, as I believe this decision fundamentally changed the direction of our lives as a family. Woli-Kiseht to the amazing, powerful and wonderful woman in the middle! Kiselomol Nikuwoss! Changed the narrative 💛

All my relations 🙌🏽🦅 - - - - Hooked on a sand eel w/ 10 ft Penn Battle III graphite, 65lb braided line and a 40” monofilament homemade leader, 100lb test. #striperfishing #bassfishing

“They didn’t know we were seeds“🌱🧡 My favourite quote in a picture! I don’t quite have the energy to post some big informative piece contextualizing the historical and ongoing colonial violence in this country.. I just want to say Woliwon (Thank You) to the ones before me, the ones who are here, and to the ones who are coming. They didn’t know we were seeds ✊🏽 Photos of my beautiful family, survivors. Kiselomol Artwork by: Hawlii Pichette

Everyone sees our pain being posted on social media, the news & radio following the uncovering of mass graves of Indigenous children across Canada. However, no one can truly understand the individual & collective pain we share as Indigenous Peoples during these times, nor ever.. Throughout the process of finding more of our relatives and relations, many of us are being re-triggered and re-traumatized. No one can truly understand what these crimes against humanity have done to Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island. Think before speaking so loosely & uninformed about what these systems & actions of oppression & genocide have done, & continue to do, to our people. Reminder: This was not first contact when this happened, this was our people, our mother’s, fathers, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, grandmothers & grandfathers for many of us. Not only has this whole process become heavily politicized, I have been seeing some people undermine & justify the actions of the Canadian government over social media & in conversation. I am repulsed by some of the content I am seeing. I want to reinstate how this is not millennia ago, but apart of a recent history that we have to acknowledge & make proper reparations for. If this narrative involved any other demographic the response would be significantly different. We’re beyond hurt, angry and upset & I don’t think anyone has the right to attempt to pacify the truth of what happened to Indigenous children in this country. This news hit harder than people can fully understand. This is the legacy of Canada. The truth requires no justification. The fact that people are debating the moral integrity of Canada in all of this sickens me. Canadian nationalism is not something that needs to be defended while unmarked graves of Indigenous children are being located as we speak. I am 23 & my sisters & I are the first generation in my family on my father’s side who did not attend the IRSS. My father is only 47, & my grandmother and great grandmother lived through this. Our pain, our trauma & our experiences are not up for debate or contention. Search every property of every school & bring our children home.. #everychildmatters🧡

Brought the best sidekick anyone could ask for when drumming and singing for the elders! Grandma brought her bingo shirt even ❤️ Jackpot is right!

Picasso couldn’t even picture this... THIS NATIVE IS GRADUATING!! #Wolastoqiyik #Inuk

Excited for those 5:30am mornings, yet I’m having a hard time making it to my 11:15s.. #Wolastoq #BassFishing