Diane Collis, a program manager in the Population and Health Promotion team at the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), was presented with the first-ever Coast Salish Teachings Award by Knowledge Keeper Sulksun, Shane Pointe at the 2024 PHSA+ Awards ceremony on Oct. 22.
Diane leads a chronic disease prevention strategy called Food Skills for Families, which offers hands-on cooking and nutritional skill-building courses, bringing people together around the table to experience the rich social benefits of cooking and eating together.
Diane Collis (left) stands with Knowledge Keeper Sulksun, Shane Pointe, after he presented her with the Coast Salish Teachings award. The award is a copper spindle whorl, representing a Coast Salish tool traditionally used to spin wool.
"It's about cooking up connection and a sense of belonging," says Diane, explaining that her team organizes community initiatives that aim to nourish the mind, body and soul.
"Our work is relational and community-centred," she adds, emphasizing the importance of thee eat (truth). "How we work and how we show up every day is more important than the actual work itself."
Diane says the teaching kwum kwum stun shqwalowin (make up your mind to be strong), is equally important for her and her team and a source of support when they confront the heavy truths of our shared history.
"The Coast Salish teachings go far beyond the walls of our health care institutions. It is critical we carry and practise the teachings wherever we go and whenever we interact with people and the natural world."
Sulksun presented Diane with a hand-crafted copper whorl at the October ceremony, explaining that it represents a spindle whorl, a traditional Coast Salish tool used to spin wool. He said Coast Salish women would have spindle whorls carved specifically for them, with a unique inscription, representing their dedication to their work, their community and their family.
He explained that copper was used by Coast Salish healers and understood to be a conductor of energy. Sulksun celebrated Aaron "Splash" Nelson-Moody, the artist who designed the copper spindle whorl, for capturing the spirit and intention of the award with his beautiful handiwork.
"He's an amazing human being. He knows language, culture and ceremony, and he does his best," said Sulksun.
"This copper spindle whorl is all [hand-]hammered — it's beautiful. And what's on it is the North Star, which is about not only knowing where you are, where you're situated, but also represents moral compass."
Diane's colleagues describe her as a kind, humble, grounded and thoughtful leader who leads her team with warmth and openness, embodies the Coast Salish teachings and weaves them into all parts of her life.
When PHSA was first gifted the teachings, Diane used them as a guide for the food team's annual planning session, and they are embedded in how the Food Skills team engages community. In 2022, they partnered with Chee Mamuk, BCCDC's Indigenous Health Promotion team and the Two-Spirit Dry lab to support local initiatives with the First Nation of Old Massett on Haida Gwaii, including a $10,000 grant for the Old Massett Elders Centre.
"I deeply appreciate the space Diane continually creates for the team to intentionally reflect on the Coast Salish teachings; what they mean to us personally, how it is reflected in our work and ways to reflect the teachings in our work moving forward," says Wai-Yuen Pang, community learning and outreach coordinator.
"She has a deep commitment to support our truth and reconciliation learning as a team."
Diane Collis (back right) stands with a few members of the Food Skills team after a salad making workshop at the BCCDC office in Vancouver.
Diane hopes the teachings inspire more care and kindness amongst employees, throughout reporting hierarchies and across PHSA organizations, increasing feelings of safety and trust within the walls of colonial health institutions.
"It starts with us. How do we want people to feel while they are in our care and how do we want them to feel when they walk out our door?" she says, referencing the teachings nuts a maht (we are one), eyhh slaxin (good medicine), tee ma thit (do your best), and whax hooks in shqwalowin (open your hearts and minds).
Congratulations to Diane on her Coast Salish Teachings PHSA+ Award!
The PHSA+ Awards are part of an internal recognition program that celebrates teams and individuals who bring our purpose, vision, values and Coast Salish teachings to life in the workplace. They go above and beyond to serve patients and families across B.C.
