Elaine Alec has overcome tremendous obstacles and is using her story to teach others how colonial systems can be overcome in our communities.
The City of Salmon Arm welcomed Alec to host a workshop with a collaborative of local organizations on how to deconstruct colonial systems in our world and specifically within these groups, followed by a public keynote speech in which she shared more of her personal journey.
Salmon Arm was awarded a Building Safer Communities fund, an initiative that wraps up in 2026, and is meant to fund and support services for youth. The Shuswap Youth Services Collaborative was formed to apply the funding where it would make the most impact and a ‘community scan’ was conducted in spring of this year.
“Racism emerged as a common theme among the organizations,” said Building Safer Communities project coordinator Sarah Zuidhof. “To enlarge the capacity for understanding systemic racism with with the hopes of whole systems change, Elaine Alec was invited for morning workshops with 16 member organizations.”
Some of the attendees of this workshop included the Canadian Mental Health Association, Interior Health, the Ministry of Child and Family Development, the Salmon Arm RCMP, School District 83 representatives and the Shuswap Immigrant Services Society, as well as members of most regional Indigenous bands.
The day-long event was organized to foster conversation around the ongoing work of decolonization. While the keynote addressed Alec’s history, traditional Indigenous stories and the general message of healing oneself before becoming a decision-maker, the workshop focused on specific problems within the organizations and ways to address those, said Zuidhof.
Human resources policies are centred on sickness rather than well being, said Alec, with effectiveness and profitability the priority of “humans as resources.” The focus should always be on health and freedom, which in turn creates more creative and willing employees who make better decisions.
Colonial systems work out of fear and control and the way Alec had always been taught is to work based on trust, faith and love, and this was the focus of the keynote.
Trying to model exactly what she taught, Zuidhof said Alec hosted the morning workshop in a circle of chairs with open discussion, and started both the workshop and the keynote a bit late to allow attendees to centre themselves as the focus was not strict timelines or productivity.
“It was about ‘being hard on systems and soft on people,’” said Zuidhof, echoing Alec. “And it was an amazing table of community leaders.”
Alec’s name given to her at birth is telxnitkw, which loosely translates to ‘Standing by Water.’ She is from the Syilx and Secwépemc nations, and her introduction included an acknowledgement of ‘all our relatives,’ including non-binary and transgender people, as she explained Indigenous languages have words for people with these identities, spoken long before colonization.
A short history of her father’s work in the American Indian Movement, trying to get housing and clean water, as well as his sufferings with alcoholism and abuse, were all told in her traditoinal languages before her keynotebegan in English.
“I introduce myself like that,” said Alec, “because I was taught to speak my language in every public setting, as there was a time when my parents and grandparents were punished for it.”
Being raised in her language and the stories of her people is what saved her and kept her alive.
Alec went through addiction, trauma, thoughts of suicide and abuse before finding her hope and healing herself to be there for herself and her son.
Shame and silence stemming from what she’s always been told kept Alec in the dark for all of her young life, and she learned “shame and silence are what kill.” Communication and feeling emotions should be the pillars of reconciliation, she said.
On her journey to healing, from learning how to run on a treadmill to completing a marathon in Jamaica after raising money from her community, Alec learned faith, trust and love, and was able to build herself back up. She is now a successful business owner and author, and is invited to speak around the world, though she said she prefers to stay close to home and family.
“Learn stories of the land you live in and those will guide you,” emphasized Alec. “Listen with discipline and heal yourself; that is how we support meaningful reconciliation.”
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