By Dawn McGrath, PhD Candidate-Civil, MBA, AScT, ROWP
At this year’s Gathering Our Voices conference, I had the immense honour of walking alongside Indigenous youth to ignite a movement rooted in truth, innovation, and healing. With my son, Maddex, standing beside me, we led a transformative session that united STEM learning with a deeper cultural calling: to dismantle colonial narratives around worth and capacity and replace them with truth, strength, and vision.
We weren’t simply teaching youth about science, technology, engineering, and math—we were inviting them to co-create a mission and goal statement grounded in who they truly are. We asked them to stand not just in knowledge, but in knowing to look in the mirror and see the scientist, the innovator, the problem-solver—not as something new, but as something ancient, remembered, and reclaimed.
This wasn’t just theory. It was deeply personal. Maddex brought his lived experience into the room with courage and clarity. Through his work on his upcoming documentary, Passion is the Cure, he shared his struggles with reconciling his identity within systems that were never built with him in mind. He spoke honestly about how he wrestled—literally and emotionally—with the weight of being taught he wasn’t enough.
“I had to relearn how to see myself as powerful,” he said. “The world told me I was broken—but I decided passion would be my medicine.”
His talk on wrestling became a metaphor for his entire journey. The sport gave him an outlet for his frustration, a structure that mirrored his internal battle to reclaim his authenticity. Wrestling became more than a discipline—it became a teacher. It helped him find alignment between mind, body, and spirit. Through sport, Maddex discovered how to navigate relationships, how to channel emotional pain into focus, and how to build confidence in a world that tried to shrink him.
“We’re not healing for ourselves—we’re healing for every kid who never got the chance,” Maddex reminded us. “Passion is the cure because it gives us permission to fight for joy, to fight for truth, and to never forget that our spirits were never meant to be small.”
His story resonated deeply with the youth, many of whom nodded in recognition—seeing in his words their own struggles with systems that overlook or misread their brilliance. His example helped shift the room into a space of collective empowerment, where youth no longer saw their frustrations as weaknesses, but as the starting points for transformation.
Throughout our session, youth brought forward powerful insights that revealed a deep longing—not only to succeed but to transform. We grounded our work in a mission of restoration and reclamation. This means more than academic success; it means infusing traditional practices and cultural knowledge into the very fabric of learning. The wisdom carried by these youth—learned through ceremony, land-based teachings, kinship, and lived experience—is not less thanacademic. It is equally vital, and often surpasses conventional knowledge in scope and relevance.
Some of the youth are already developing expertise that blends ancestral knowledge with contemporary science. One young woman shared her vision for an Indigenous-led climate response initiative grounded in traditional water monitoring systems. Another youth discussed using GIS technology to map ancestral trade routes, revealing the complexity of pre-colonial economies. These aren’t future goals. They’re already happening—and they’re proof that when Indigenous youth are empowered to root their learning in culture, the result is both revolutionary and restorative.
During my presentation at the conference I reminded the youth we have always been scientists. Our people read the land, the sky, the waters. We engineered our lives in sync with the environment—and now it’s time to bring that back to the table.
Our session brought together youth from across BC—many of whom had never met before. And yet, a common heartbeat emerged. Despite different nations, dialects, and experiences, the values were shared: respect, reciprocity, resilience, and unity. As a facilitator, I was deeply moved. I witnessed collective intelligence, emotional brilliance, and spiritual synergy. I saw not fragmentation, but profound connection.
We didn’t just talk about the future—we witnessed it. We felt it taking shape.
This generation of youth isn’t asking for permission. They’re building new systems from the ground up. They carry within them the code of survival, the architecture of innovation, and the vision of a world where spirit and science walk hand-in-hand, where land-based knowledge is central to policy and culture is seen not as a supplement to education but as its foundation.
The transformation has already begun.
What comes next will not only be powerful—it will be unstoppable.
This is the heart of the work we do through the Technology Professions British Columbia (TPBC). We’re not simply preparing youth for careers—we’re revitalizing ancient systems of knowledge and embedding them into today’s frameworks of advocacy, policy, and innovation.
Reclaiming Indigenous excellence isn’t about returning to the past it’s about remembering we never left it behind. When we realign youth with that truth, we create a future that is not only possible—it is powerful.
Throughout our time together, we also grounded the discussion in four sacred animal teachings—pillars that provided spiritual, emotional, and cultural alignment for the youth-led mission.
Bear – Strength through Matriarchal Responsibility
In Secwépemc worldview, the bear is not just a symbol of power—it is a teaching about responsibility, stewardship, and life course alignment. Bears remind us of the seasonal rhythms and matriarchal systems that guided our ancestors. They reflect the collective care that women carried for communities, managing the seasonal harvesting, preparing medicines, organizing winter stores, and raising children within a network of mutual responsibility.
The bear teaches that strength is not loud or violent—it is methodical, intentional, and aligned with the cycles of the land. Youth recognized this deeply, identifying the need to step into leadership that supports community, not just self. They spoke of lifting each other up, creating spaces of safety and belonging, and the call to remember that leadership is ultimately about service.
Porcupine – Humility and Inner Knowing
Drawing from Dr. Ron Ignace’s Secwépemc Lands and Laws, the story of the porcupine speaks powerfully to the principle of humility. In the tale, Porcupine is underestimated—viewed as weak, slow, and easily defeated. Yet, when threatened, Porcupine uses its quills not to attack, but to protect itself with quiet precision. In the end, its power lies not in force, but in self-trust and inner wisdom.
Our youth connected with this message on a profound level. Many had felt overlooked, dismissed, or pressured to conform to standards that didn’t reflect who they were. But like Porcupine, they are not powerless—they are discerning. They are learning that humility does not mean silence. It means knowing your strength, even when others cannot see it yet.
Eagle – Vision and Sacred Purpose
The eagle offers clarity and foresight. It flies higher than any other bird, seeing the full landscape while remaining grounded in the sacred. Our youth shared expansive dreams—visions of Indigenous space science, environmental restoration, and culturally guided artificial intelligence. They spoke not only of career aspirations but of ancestral purpose, carrying forward the dreams of their ancestors with honour.
Eagle reminds us that the power of vision must be met with grounded responsibility. Our youth are already leading—not just imagining the future, but building it from a place of spiritual and cultural alignment.
Salmon – Regeneration and Vitality
Salmon, the sacred traveller, reminds us of cycles, return, and perseverance. It faces extraordinary odds to return to its home stream, bringing life and nourishment to the ecosystem with every return. For the youth in our session, Salmon was a metaphor for cultural resurgence—for coming back to language, land, and legacy, even after generations of displacement.
Many youth described the act of “returning” in their own lives—learning their songs, reclaiming their names, and building back what was taken. This regeneration isn’t passive. It’s vital, active, and ongoing. And it is how we breathe life into both culture and innovation.
About the Author and Her Work
Dawn is a member of the Board of Directors of Technology Professions BC where she serves as the prime champion for Indigenous Peoples relations and programming. Dawn has achieved significant heights in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields and is on a mission to help inform and share her experience so that youth may find a less challenging pathway to success. Her approach is to uplift and encourage youth by encouraging youth to restore their natural places as technologists, technicians, scientists, biologists, engineers, and medical professionals and realize that these are specializations that they carried to sustain their livability through historical times. Dawn wants them to realize that nature is a part of their existence and will provide harmony internally once they return to these important works. She advocates for investigating passions to develop career pathways and brings a curiosity that students find infectious. She is creating a space that will openly welcome youth seeking to advance in the field that primarily uses STEM-related knowledge. Her insights are a fresh perspective to the team at TPBC as she embodies innovation