My name is Rachel Bevington. My Indigenous ancestors come from the land where the two rivers, the Fraser and the Thompson meet at Lytton and Lower Nicola Band in the interior of BC. These peoples speak Nlaka'pamuxtsn. My settler ancestors came from Ireland and England and settled on the isolated coasts of the Discovery Islands. I grew up on Cortes Island where I learned from some incredible mentors around nature, marine biology, art, basketry, harvesting and growing food and critical thinking. Through the teachings of my father and my grandmother, I have grown a deep respect for nature, and from my mother, a life-long love of art and needlework. With my chance to go to Royal Roads University, I achieved my Master of Science, and am registered as a Professional Biologist. My family was supported by extraction industries, and I grew up in a town that experienced boom and bust as the mines, mills and fisheries all collapsed. Watching that cycle of unsustainable living made me look for other ways to earn a living, and to look to the quiet teachers outside in the forest and beaches to show the way forward. 

I have been working for Stqeeye’ Learning Society as the Wetland Restoration Project Coordinator since 2022. Drawing on my experience in the non-profit sector, I bring to the group a knowledge of how projects run well, of seeing ideas come to fruition, of botany and ecology, of plant harvesting and living lightly on the land. I am mother of two incredible kids who inspire me daily to keep fighting for a livable future, and I feel drawn to working with our beautiful youth on Salt Spring Island to ensure a future with nature, food and clean air and water for the next generations. 

I come from a seaside home called Whaletown, where I could walk to the ocean and always find a meal from the sea. Living down in the Gulf Islands, the mere fact that I cannot safely eat from the sea is so hard to reconcile with what I stand for and where I come from. To bring the Salish Sea back to a thriving healthy state of balance for my grandchildren would be my greatest dream come true. 

kwukwsteyp (Thank-you from all of us)