Chic Dubai Magazine - Lorelei Parker

Who is Lorelei?
Lorelei Parker, known by her ancestral name Blue Thunder Spirit Woman, is a proud Indigenous woman. Her Métis roots are from the Red River and the settlement of Roostertown in Manitoba, Canada. She is Cree, Ojibwe and English.
Métis Canadian Cultural Mediator, Rotary Peace Fellow, and Positive Peace Activator. A recognized alumna of the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Program, Lorelei has dedicated her career to peacebuilding, Indigenous advocacy, and the promotion of female leadership. Her work spans continents—Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America—where she collaborates with governments, non-profits, and the private sector on community-based projects focused on conflict transformation, Indigenous matters and the elevation of women’s voices in peacebuilding processes. Lorelei is a consultant with Meditators Beyond Borders and Canadian Equality Consulting. She is also the Lead for the City of Calgary’s Indigenous Relations Office.
Lorelei leads the #everydaypeacebuildering and #powertotransform platforms, which promote female leadership in peace efforts on a local and global scale.
“Whether it is in my capacity as a cultural mediator, consultant, or public figure, I am forever dedicated to fostering understanding, building bridges across cultures, and creating lasting positive change.”
You can find out more in recent podcasts Lorelei has recorded with the hosts of the The True Canadians podcast and On Set with Sarah and John. https://www.thetruecanadians.com/podcast/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/onsetsarahjohn/

I have so many things to share – from what guides me to what food I could live without.

What guides me?

★ You never know what’s on the other side of a yes

I first heard Vicki Puliz say this during a Rotary International conference and it has stuck with me. It can be terrifying to leap in with an unequivocal, resounding yes when an opportunity comes your way. But, more times than not, saying yes has led to unimaginable adventures and paths.

Saying yes has led to so many things including this moment right now. In this very moment, I am the reigning Mrs. Unity World Elite! I brought the world title home from India this past October and it still feels surreal.

★ Just show up

This is a guiding force for me, especially when I am in a new place or learning something new. My partner, Doug, and I were talking one day on a road trip, as we often do, about leadership and making a difference and that sometimes is just about showing up. Say yes and show up! Even if you don’t know anyone, even if you don’t know why you are there.

In the work my friend Julia, and I do together, we have identified this as a critical element to creating strong communities and meaningful senses of belonging. In our recent publication, The Power to Protect: Climate Change, Intersectional Environmentalism and the Leadership of Indigenous Women, we share that central to working in community is just showing up. Sometimes we get to a place and we might know one person but by the time we leave, we know so many people and we are connected forever. Part of the teachings is what water teaches us.

“Water has memory. Water connects us. Water is life. Water as confluence.

In our work, we offer this invitation:

“Come journey with us as we dive deep into the nexus between gender, climate change and contentious sites of conflict and insecurity beyond traditional armed conflicts. Our epic journey across Turtle Island and into Sápmi over the last year has found us immersed in many waters, making relations and showing up in community to be in a place of learning through ceremony, storytelling, conversation, and sitting together in circle, grounded in many Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Being and Doing. We are honoured to share what has been shared with us by powerful Indigenous and non-Indigenous women and girls who are leading significant changes in their communities.

” We are grateful for the people who guide us, the work we are doing together and that by showing up, we are trusted and invited to be part of communities.”
https://ottawadialogue.ca/news-events/resource/the-power-to-protect-climate-change-intersectional-environmentalism-and-the-leadership-of-indigenous-women/

★ Discover and rediscover where you come from

One of the most important journeys you will ever take is the one that connects you to who you are and where you come from. For me, this journey has been slow and fast and full of winding journeys and unimagined connections. It certainly has not been linear or anything that I could have ever predicted! What if I told you that by not getting accepted the first time around for the scholarship and school I always imagined led to a greater discovery of my cultural roots? You just never know what happens when one path bends into another, one you never even imagined!

Much of my cultural grounding and rediscovery began in my late teens and was inspired by my experiences with an internationally renowned program called Rediscovery and in particular, Ghost River Rediscovery. I was really lucky to meet Dr. Michael Lickers, a well known advocate for Indigenous Peoples, well known for his experiential work around the discovery and rediscovery of Indigenous cultural identities. As I journeyed across continents with this work, working with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples locally and globally, it brought me even closer to home, to where I come from.

The Elders often say “how do you know where you are going if you don’t know where you are from”? This Indigenous truism has guided me to inspire others to begin the journey to their roots, no matter how little or how much you know.

★ It’s all about the weaving

Quite often, I am asked, how do you manage all the different strands of life? For me, life is an interconnected web. I try to weave the different components so that our family is strong together and all the strands are connected, not separate. I am so lucky to get to be a mom, partner, sister, daughter, auntie, entrepreneur and public servant. Together, my partner, Doug, and I have 4 kids between us. Many times, we try to do things that can involve all of us, in unique ways, integrating where we can. Most recently, I had the opportunity to bring Gavin (13) and Olivia (11) to El Salvador with me and they got to help out at a centre for children and plant cacao trees. Seeing them be part of community efforts, grow their skills and create lasting family ties with people we meet, means the world.

★ Take time to sit in the hammock

“Take time to lie in the hammock. You might hear a quiet tempo. This is life calling out to you, right now.”

I have a funny story about how hard it used to be for me to lie still in a hammock. It took me months to figure out how to totally relax and let myself sink in – to the hammock itself and to the time to be sometime with others and sometimes with myself. Learning to lie in the hammock is as metaphor I use to create space and time to move with ease and grace as needed and to understand that time has differing interpretations and that globally expectations of time can vary. And, that different tasks require different understanding of time. In a world where sometimes it seems critical to respond immediately and is expected, sometimes we need to slow time down and take a breath.