BIRTHDAY FUNDRAISER: $5000 for my 50th for Indigenous, Cultural Activist Kakisimow Iskwew

Tomorrow is my 50th birthday.

I’d like to use this day to lift up my dear friend, Kakisimow Iskwew, Natalie Pepin, a Metis woman with family roots across the prairies where she was raised.

Our paths have intertwined from our focus on supporting entrepreneurs in our early days to a shift towards culture work and deep history.

Her work is so profoundly important for her people. I've rarely met anyone so diligent in their cultural work. And her last ten years have been harder than almost anyone I've ever known.

ABOUT KAKISIMOW ISKWEW:

She is an Metis woman with family roots across the prairies where she was raised.

She shares traditional arts, hide tanning, food sovereignty and other land based cultural programs on the land where she lives.

Much of her work centers on reconnecting Indigenous people with the skills and land teachings of their culture and for so many this is a healing journey. for her, reconnecting with culture means not simply learning to bead, to cook traditional foods or start fire in traditional ways.

It means grappling with family history, experiences of colonization, kinship, loss of language, and learning the stories of one's ancestors. It means getting to know the lands that they come from, and relearning language.

You can learn more about her work at: https://meetingmyancestors.com/

THE FUNDRAISER:

This coming year, Natalie is taking further steps to support her community by training in Indigenous Focused Orienting Therapy. This is a therapeutic model grounded in Indigenous knowledge and understanding of wellbeing. Rather than pathologizing people, it seeks to work with traditional tools to support Indigenous people on their paths to wellbeing.

This training relies greatly on connections to land, which overlaps with the work Natalie does already. She will participate in this year long program with other Indigenous people who are supporting their communities as counselors, social workers, educators and more.

Natalie has sold moss bags, tanned hides and star blankets to help pay for her tuition deposit in this program, but has $5400 CAD more to raise by February 15th of 2026 to cover her enrollment, travel to classes and childcare while she is learning.

**I’d like to raise that money for her by the weekend.**

Will you join me in supporting this good woman?