Lyana Patrick is a UVic double alumna who holds an undergraduate degree in creative writing and history (BA 1997) as well as an MA in Indigenous Governance (2004), and whose co-op experiences made a major impact on her career trajectory. Lyana also earned her PhD in Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia.

Lyana is Dakelh from BC’s Stellat’en First Nation and her Indigenous identity has shaped her career path—she is a professor at Simon Fraser University where she teaches courses about Indigenous health and justice, and is also an award-winning filmmaker. Her documentary about the Stellat’en and Saik’uz communities’ intergenerational fight to restore the Nachako River east of the Kitimat mountain ranges, was released last year, and draws on Lyana’s body of work going back to her time at UVic.

Resources from this episode

• Nechako: It will be a river again - documentary
• Aisha's story - documentary
• The UVic Co-op Program
• Accessing career support

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• (02:58) - All about Lyana – her role at SFU and the Indigenous health classes that she teaches
• (05:39) - Lyana tells us how her passion for journalism led her to carve out a career in storytelling
• (07:08) - Lyana shares how UVic and her studies in History, Creative Writing and Indigenous Governance helped her develop her career in film
• (09:30) - Lyana talks about how to tell Indigenous stories that honour and give back to community
• (10:32) - The skills and takeaways that Lyana gleaned from her co-op experience at UVic (hint – it includes leveraging shyness into a superpower)
• (12:32) - How doing co-ops in government led to Lyana’s first job after graduation
• (13:39) - How failing is just a form of learning
• (13:53) - How Lyana approaches Indigenous community-based research and work
• (17:47) - Lyana shares her favourite storytelling project – a half-hour documentary about the Canada/US border bisecting the Blackfoot Nation territory
• (19:36) - Lyana talks about how storytelling can humanize people and connect humans from across cultures and lived experience
• (21:37) - Lyana shares how she carries hope and how she champions students’ growth
• (24:25) - Rapid fire questions
• (24:40) - The professor that made a huge impact on Lyana at UVic: Elizabeth Vibert
• (26:31) - Favourite on-campus spot: Multifaith Centre
• (26:52) - Favourite off-campus spot: Blue Fox Café
• (27:12) - What would Lyana do more of if she could do it all again?