My professional work is dedicated to reducing inequalities, removing systemic barriers and ensuring inclusive spaces. Future Ancestors Services is an intergenerational team of Black, Indigenous, racialized, Queer, trans, disabled, and Francophone professionals and advisors. As a Founding Director, I work to ensure all team members can show up as their most authentic selves and create space for us all to contribute to the way the team functions by prioritizing relationships and lived experiences. My own experience as a reconnecting Métis woman who grew up disconnected from kin and culture informs how I understand relationships, responsibility and community. Often this means creating space for young Indigenous voices and challenging spaces that consistently contribute to Indigenous erasure.

To effectively reduce inequalities and ensure inclusive spaces for all we must move beyond diversity and inclusion and acknowledge that systemic barriers are rooted in systems of power and oppression. We can’t expect different results if the systems stay the same. We all have a role in dismantling systemic barriers. Ancestral accountability, a cornerstone of Indigenous traditional knowledge from around the globe, can help us to do this work. Through it, we understand our responsibility to right the wrongs of our ancestors and use our privileges for the benefit of those without. When we recognize that we are the ancestors of the future generation and we are the future of our ancestors, we can all contribute to building a better world. This approach calls on individuals, communities and governments to consider future generations in all they do.