Two women, held within a circle.

Youth who help shape spaces where Indigenous young people feel seen, connected, and supported.

YOUTH CIRCLE ADVISORY

Maria is Blackfoot and brings a warm, relational presence to the SIM WENÁCW Youth Circle Advisory. She is guided by connection to land, movement, communication, and the relationships we hold with one another, our communities, and the living world around us.
Maria has experience as a post-secondary Indigenous Student Ambassador, where she supported connection, belonging, and community for Indigenous learners. She also spent four years with SOYL, Sustainable Opportunities for Youth Leadership, as both a participant and youth program facilitator, building experience in youth leadership, facilitation, learning, and community care.
She is passionate about healing through the land and movement, and creating spaces where Indigenous youth can connect with themselves, their communities, and their environments. Maria values exchanging knowledge, making meaningful connections, and learning alongside others. She also brings a love for recreational dance, including contemporary, jazz, and jazz funk, using movement as a way to express, ground, and connect.
Maria loves animals, being outdoors, expression through movement, and bringing humour into the spaces she is part of. Through the Youth Circle Advisory, she brings openness, care, curiosity, and a strong commitment to helping Indigenous youth feel seen, connected, and supported.

Youth Circle Advisory
Blackfoot

Powwow Dancer · Men's Traditional
Nisga'a

David is a Nisga’a men’s traditional powwow dancer who brings movement, cultural pride, and presence into workshops and gatherings.
He works alongside Soila Hill in powwow dance workshops, supporting opportunities for participants to experience dance, regalia, story, and cultural learning in a respectful and relational way.
Through SIM WENÁCW, David contributes to cultural presentations and workshops that share the living strength of powwow and create opportunities for connection through movement.

Educator and Technologist Founder of WolfWhale EdTech
Lac La Ronge Indian Band, Treaty 6

Ryland is a First Nations educator, technologist, and founder of WolfWhale EdTech. He is a member of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band in Treaty 6 territory.
His work focuses on building learning technology for Indigenous communities and bringing education, design, and technology together in accessible and practical ways.
Through SIM WENÁCW, Ryland contributes experience in education, digital learning, and technology. His perspective supports the development of learning experiences and tools that are thoughtful, functional, and responsive to the people they are created for.

Meagan is a visionary, creative force and systems thinker who grounds her work in deep listening, accessibility and a commitment to personal and collective freedom. She begins by understanding the needs, tensions and possibilities within a space, helping people find practical ways forward when the problem feels complex or deeply rooted.
Her experience spans health regulation, governance, strategy, public protection, social accountability and anti-oppression. Meagan’s work recognizes how systems shape whose safety is prioritized, who is believed and who receives care.
Through SIM WENÁCW, Meagan supports settlers, leaders and organizations in naming what is not working, understanding the systems underneath it and moving from good intentions toward accountable practice. She brings clear communication, creative thinking and careful planning to the work, helping people move through uncertainty with courage, reciprocity and care.

Consultant
She/they
Settler of Scottish ancestry

Riley is Métis, with deep roots in Duck Lake, Saskatchewan. Her family names include Laframboise, Dumont, Fisher and Ross. Riley brings a strong background in community-based participatory research, culturally safe research guidance, public health, facilitation, and land- and culture-based healing. Her work is oriented towards healing justice and is rooted in doing research in a good way, with care for relationship, wellness, community, and the responsibilities that come with gathering and sharing knowledge.
Riley’s path has moved through population and public health, Indigenous research approaches, facilitation, and community-centred learning. She is currently completing doctoral work at the University of British Columbia, building on their Master of Science in Population and Public Health.
Through SIM WENÁCW, Riley supports research guidance, facilitated learning spaces, community-based approaches, culturally safe and relational research methods, land-based healing, wellness, and reflective learning. She brings thoughtfulness, care, and a deep respect for knowledge that is relational, lived, and connected to community.

Researcher and Facilitator
Métis — Duck Lake, Saskatchewan

Tamara is from Xaxl’ip (Fountain) and lives in Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc territory. Her work within Secwépemc communities is grounded in culture, connection and relationship. Over the years, she has worked alongside Elders and learned from Elders and traditional Knowledge Keepers through their stories, songs and teachings. Tamara carries these relationships into her work, helping keep cultural knowledge connected to the people, places and responsibilities it comes from.
Through SIM WENÁCW, Tamara contributes cultural knowledge and community connection to learning spaces and gatherings, helping keep the work connected to the people, places and responsibilities it comes from.

Knowledge and Culture Worker
Secwépemc — Xaxl'ip (Fountain)

Julia is a researcher and coordinator with more than a decade of experience across humanitarian, health and public-sector environments. Her work is grounded in ethical research and a commitment to ensuring that the people most affected remain reflected in how projects are understood, designed and carried forward.
Throughout her career, Julia has supported research involving people and communities who experience systemic barriers, approaching complex and sensitive work with care, curiosity and close attention to context. She understands that good research requires more than gathering information; it also means listening carefully and recognizing whose knowledge is being centred.
Through  SIM WENÁCW, Julia helps turn ideas into organized action through research, proposal development, project coordination and documentation. Her thoughtful and dependable approach brings structure to complex work while keeping the people, purpose and relationships at its centre.

Research and Operations Coordinator
Settler of Bulgarian and Syrian ancestry

Twyla’s St:olo roots are from Kwantlen First Nation and Chehalis, while her St’atlimc and Chilcotin roots come from Xaxl’ip (Fountain) and Williams Lake, BC. She has practised digital art since 2019 and has spent the past several years developing her own Indigenous art practice.
Twyla aspires to work professionally as an illustrator and animator, using her creativity to carry Indigenous art and stories forward. Through her work, she hopes to honour where she comes from while creating art that can be shared with future generations. Osiem. 
Through SIM WENÁCW, Twyla brings creativity and cultural connection to visual storytelling, helping carry Indigenous art and stories forward in ways that honour where she comes from.

Artist and Illustrator
Sto:lo, St'át'imc, and Chilcotin

Soila is a proud Two-Spirit woman whose work centres accountability, trust, unity, and collective leadership.
Her workshops include anti-racism learning, ribbon skirts and shirts, Indigenous jewellery making, powwow dancing, dream catchers, and medicine-wheel and wellbeing teachings. She creates practical and cultural learning experiences that invite reflection, connection, and continued growth.
Through SIM WENÁCW, Soila offers anti-racism and cultural learning alongside hands-on workshops that invite accountability, connection, trust and continued growth.

Facilitator and Educator She/Her/They/Auntie/Uncle
Cree, Sturgeon Lake, Alberta

Gary is a member of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Nation from the village of Eslhá7án — a long-time educator who has taught First Nations history and culture and delivers Indigenous awareness training on history, the Indian Act, residential schools, and cultural diversity. He is a Trustee with Squamish Nation Trust, Knowledge Keeper for the College of Health Care Professionals of BC, and Elder in Residence for ICBC.

Educator and Knowledge Keeper
Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Eslhá7án

Consultant · they/them
Settler of French and Scottish ancestry

Cole is an advocate, systems thinker, problem solver, and consultant at SIM WENÁCW. They bring a practical and analytical approach to complex work, with a strong ability to recognize patterns, attend to detail, and see both the immediate issue and the larger systems surrounding it.
Their work is grounded in lived experience, community-led advocacy, disability justice, queer liberation, equity, and accountability. Drawing on expertise in psychology, disability studies, research, social justice, and policy analysis, Cole has contributed to disability research and supported change within complex health regulatory systems.
Through SIM WENÁCW, Cole helps organizations identify barriers, examine inequitable practices, and move toward systemic accessibility. Their direct and thoughtful communication supports critical reflection, practical decision-making, and changes that better reflect the needs of the people most affected.