Christa Big Canoe: So before we get started with — actually I’ve asked each Panelist to — to introduce themselves, so that they can share their background and some about them, but just as a quick overview, this afternoon we’ll be actually doing the two hearings with one break. And the Panel will be addressing a large number of issues from their perspective, their lived perspective, perspective based on advocacy and work in their fields and areas.

Viola: Good afternoon, grandmothers, commissioners and witnesses here to my truth. My name is Anemki Wedom and I come from Kamloops Tk’emlùps te Secwepemc, which is a four-and-a-half hour drive east of the coast.

First and foremost, I want to acknowledge the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Indigenous peoples and their continued kindness and generosity for allowing me to be a guest in their territory.

I am one of 16 siblings in my family. I’m a survivor of residential school, child sex abuse, as well as adult female sex abuse. I have worked in many volunteer capacities throughout my life journey and I continue to do that.

I’m a great-auntie, a sister, a niece and I grew up in the Kamloops Tk’emlùps te Secwepemc and have had the great privilege to travel across Canada and work in various roles, including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Besides being an activist and volunteer for many years in the downtown east side of Vancouver for the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre. I also previously worked at Carnegie Centre. I — I come from the Secwepemc people, so I see my primary identity as a Secwepemc woman first and foremost. And I come from the Kamloops Tk’emlùps te Secwepemc, which is one of 17 communities that make up the Secwepemc Nation, known as Secwepenuluu (ph).

Viola: I certainly don’t identify as a lesbian. The word comes from the word “lesbo,” which is a Greek word. I would — I would certainly closely identify as two-spirited, but as I said in my introduction, first and foremost I’m a Secwepemc woman and that’s — that’s who I am. And I — I don’t believe in those labels. My experience is in the broader LGBTQ community is that, they’re just as racist as the Canadian society towards Indigenous peoples and don’t embrace our issues as part of their issues. So there’s a deep polarization that I see within the LGBQ community in not embracing and being inclusive of Indigenous persons that may identify as LGBQ.

And I think, it’s critical that the LGBQ community have appreciation of our connectedness to our people, to the land that we’re born from and all of my traditions and ceremonies and songs and dances, it speaks to our identity from when you’re born as a baby to when you go to Mother Earth. There is no he/she in our language — in Tk’emlùps te language, so, therefore, there is no, in my opinion, gender distinctions within our ceremonies, our songs and our dances. We celebrate and honour our diversities through our traditions.

And, I think, that’s really, really, important. However, through the impact of colonization and what we see how that gets played out in terms of how many of our Indigenous persons who identify as two-spirit are marginalized not just by the state, not just by our communities, but also by the LGBQ community.

Christa Big Canoe: Thank you.