Rachel Perkins

Founder/Lead Consultant

How I came to be here in Victoria:

Let me begin by acknowledging my maternal grandmothers Isabella, Mary, Flora, Flora, Flora (yes - three of them!), and my mother, Fern.

Originally from what is now Treaty 3 near Fort Frances, ON, Isabella Mainville was Saulteux through her mother, Josette, and Ojibwe through her father, Joseph. Isabella was married off to Charles Ross, a Scottish Hudson’s Bay Fur Trader at the age of 14. Charles was 28.

Between 1822 and 1843, Charles and Isabella traveled by canoe from Fort Frances ON to Victoria BC with stops in the Selkirk, Fort Vermillion, Fort McLoughlin, Fort Vancouver, and Fort Nisqually. Isabella gave birth to 11 children throughout their travels, 10 of whom survived to adulthood.

After Charles’ death in 1844 at the age of 42, Isabella moved back to Nisqually for 10 years, earning money off of her farm, “Rossville,” and returned to Victoria in 1853 to purchase “Fowl Bay Farm,” which includes what is now Ross Bay Cemetery. This made her the first registered woman landowner under colonial rule in BC.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

• 20 years experience in federal, provincial, and Indigenous governments

  • Strategic Planning

  • Program and Project Creation, Development, Management

  • Board Secretariat

  • Governance Councils and Advisory Committees

• Executive Leadership, Governance, and Operational Expertise

  • Executive Director of government ministries

  • Board Director and Adivsory Council member

• Career Mentorship and Coaching

  • Entrepreneurial, Cultural and Socio-economic programs for women, youth

  • Indigenous Youth Internship Mentor

  • Certified ADHD Coach

• Facilitation and Workshop Delivery

  • Indigenous Culture and Language Revitalization

  • Consultations

  • Historical Presentations

  • Drum Making, Beading, Ribbon Skirt Making

  • Indigenous Education and Current Events

Wondering where your needs or ideas fit? Please reach out to discuss - if I can’t assist, I probably know someone who can!  

Fern Perkins

Elder/Old One

Fern Perkins is a University of Victoria lecturer, teacher, historian, community educator, facilitator, presenter, and respected elder at Métis Nation Greater Victoria. She lives in Victoria, BC and has 3 children and 4 grandchildren.

Called LEḴLEḴÁY (lady fern) by her father from a young age, she broke not only the cycle of “Floras,” but was and is also the only person in her family to graduate high school. She then went on to earn a Teacher’s Certificate from the University of Victoria, a Bachelor of Science Degree from Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho, and a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Victoria. Fern is the longest-serving certified teacher in School District 61 (56 years) and the first Indigenous certified teacher from UVic (1969).

Fern is the local expert on the Métis history of Fort Victoria and the Ross family, of which she is a direct descendant. She is also a wealth of knowledge on the Fur Trade forts throughout the Pacific Northwest, many of which her ancestors Charles and Isabella Ross, established for the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Fern’s professional expertise lies in curriculum development, youth and adult education, community learning initiatives, and Indigenous worldviews on history and education. In her ‘spare time,’ you can find her out in the schools supervising Indigenous language student teachers and leading historical tours of Ross Bay Cemetery and former sites of Fort Victoria.