A calm, women-centred space for healing, creativity, cultural care, and self-care.

I am an Algonquin Indigenous woman whose life has been shaped by resilience, faith, family, perseverance, and an enduring belief that our beginnings do not have to determine our endings.

Like many Indigenous families, mine was touched by addiction, trauma, family separation, and the lasting impacts of the Sixties Scoop. At seven years old, I became a Crown ward and entered the foster care system, where I remained until I was eighteen. Twice, I tried to return home. Twice, it did not work out. I was separated from my seven siblings and grew up carrying many of the losses, questions, and loneliness that children in care know all too well.

My relationship with my mother was especially difficult. She struggled with addiction and was physically and emotionally abusive toward me. After she passed away, I prayed for the ability to forgive her. It took a year. Forgiveness did not come because the pain disappeared. It came through prayer, reflection, grief, anger, and the understanding that continuing to carry what had been done to me was allowing the past to keep occupying my heart.

I also survived sexual abuse within the foster care system as a Sixties Scoop survivor, and later, domestic violence. Today, I share parts of my story because silence no longer serves me. Those experiences are part of my life, but they are not the definition of my life. I found my voice, and I believe something powerful happens when women find theirs.

At sixteen years old, I gave my life to Jesus. My faith became an anchor through uncertain years of my life. It reminded me that I was loved, that I had worth, and that my life could still have purpose.

Throughout my adult life, I have been a worker, caregiver, mother, friend, and supporter of others. I spent much of my career in social services, helping people navigate difficult circumstances while drawing from both professional and lived experience.

Forgiveness did not change my history. It changed what my history was allowed to continue doing to me.

I became a mother to five children. Creating a stable home mattered deeply to me because I understood what it felt like to grow up without one. But stable did not mean perfect. Motherhood taught me love, humility, worry, laughter, pride, and how intergenerational trauma can move through families. I navigated those realities as best I could with the faith, understanding, and strength I had at the time.

Through hard work, determination, and faith, I became a homeowner and created a home of my own. The little girl who once moved through the foster care system became a woman capable of creating the stability she had once longed for.

Then came another battle. I was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. Cancer confronted me with fear, uncertainty, depression, and deep questions about what my life meant. There were times when I prayed, “Dear God, why didn’t you take me when I was sick? Why didn’t you take me? What is my purpose?” I learned that faith is not only certainty. Sometimes it is prayer, questioning, and waiting for an answer you cannot yet see.

I have also been touched by suicide through people I have known and loved. Those experiences are not the centre of my story, but they have deepened my compassion for women and families carrying grief, fear, helplessness, and difficult questions.

Today, Sacred Waters feels connected to the question I once asked God about why I am still here. I have invested my heart, my faith, my experiences, and my sense of purpose into what we are building. I feel peace about moving forward and helping create something intentional for women.

I know women need places where they can be honest. Places where they can care for themselves without guilt. Places for reflection, conversation, encouragement, laughter, spirituality, rest, creativity, and connection.

I also know healing does not look the same for every woman. My Christian faith is central to my life, but I do not need another woman to believe exactly what I believe in order to respect her path. I know what it feels like when other people and systems make decisions about your life. Because of that, I believe deeply in a woman’s right to have a voice in her own healing and wellness journey. I can stand firmly in my faith while honouring another woman’s beliefs.

As Co-Founder and Director of Communications and Operations, I bring my professional experience to Sacred Waters, but I also bring everything life has taught me: the foster child, the survivor, the mother who loved deeply and learned along the way, the social worker, the woman of faith, the cancer survivor, the woman who questioned her purpose, the woman who learned forgiveness, and the woman who found her voice.

I believe in the power of faith. I believe in the strength of women. I believe our stories deserve to be heard. I believe voices can be recognized and changed. I believe women can support one another without having to be exactly alike. I believe hope can survive things we once thought would destroy it. And I believe healing is possible.

Perhaps some of the experiences I once asked God why I survived are becoming part of the answer to why I am still here.

Sacred Waters is one more way I have chosen to find out.