Dr. Zhiish McKenzie is Family Physician. She is Anishnabai from Northern Ontario and a member of the Temagami First Nation. She works as a Clinical Instructor & Indigenous Portfolio Co-Director at the Faculty of Medicine at UBC. Zhiish was introduced to Roots to Thrive as a patient participant. She is especially interested in and connected to the Spiritual healing of this work. “We are all just walking each other home.” Ram Dass
The in-person gatherings of the Roots to Thrive program take place of the ancestral and unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation at the Snuneymuxw Community Wellness Center, and also on the homelands of the Coast Salish, Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw and Nuučaan̓ułʔatḥ (Nuu-chah-nulth) Peoples.
Integral to Roots to Thrive’s approach to healing, re-connection and remembering who we are, are these Guiding Principles. By embodying these principles we intend to honour and give thanks to the Snuneymuxw and all First Nations, the teachings they carry and lands they steward, and to join in working for Truth and Reconciliation.