Living, Loving, Learning
Welcome. I am a curious mind and tireless explorer. I am a mother, grandmother, writer, knitter/knitting designer, historian and mini-hotelier.
I have lived most of my life in the middle space—where settler and First Nations cultures meet. My life and my work has been heavily influenced by the tensions and the creativity that emerge from that fusion.
After marrying at 17, I lived for more than 30 years in Tsartlip First Nation, driven by one central question: How can Canada maintain its apartheid system? In 1991, I returned to school to find answers. My PhD (2016) focused on First Nations housing as a lens into Canada's relationship with Indigenous people. Along the way, I wrote books, worked as a housing policy analyst, taught at Vancouver Island University, and now operate the Saturna Lodge with my husband, Tex.
Caitlin Press
Spring, 2027
Ferron
Ferron is one of Canada’s most brilliant and critically acclaimed singer/songwriters. In the 1980s the Boston Globe famously wrote that Bob Dylan would be known as the Ferron of the 1960s. Yet little is known about her. Ferron is a unique biography. Sylvia tells Ferron’s story as it was told to her through more than 80 hours of interviews with Ferron and dozens of hours of interviews with key people from Ferron’s professional life.
The book tells a seldom-heard account of the 1970s-90s lesbian music movement, and the role music played in changing the lives of women in that era and in so doing changing the face of western society. The book is personal and honest and genuinely enlightening.
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