Photo credit: John Lehmann, BC Business Magazine

This year's lectures addresses indigenous issues and reconciliation.

Tickets are free or by donation.

We know from Canada’s history of oppression and assimilation that indigenous individuals, families, and communities struggle to regain rights and overcome poverty, addiction, and hopelessness. We require increased resources but also a change in collective thinking. How can we best change the policies and structures that keep people on the margins?

Karen Joseph is CEO of Reconciliation Canada. Karen is a Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw social change maker who brings more than 25 years’ experience inspiring diverse partners to collaborate on transformative initiatives. She co-founded Reconciliation Canada in 2012 to uphold a dream held by her father to witness thousands of people walking together in support of Indian Residential School survivors and Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Since the organization's September 2013 Walk for Reconciliation, she has championed hundreds of gatherings with a diversity of leaders to advance individual, organizational, and societal reconciliation. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Systems Change and a graduate of the Getting to Maybe: Social Innovation Residency. In 2017, Karen was recognized by BC Business Magazine as one of the Top BC Women of Influence and was recently awarded Canada’s Meritorious Service Medal (Civil Division) to recognize her contributions to Canada’s reconciliation movement.