Rose Henry

Rose Henry is a Coast Salish Woman originally from Tla’amin from her mother’s side of the family and Klahoose from her father’s side.

She believes that it is important for people to know where people like her are coming from because this is where their activism comes from. Rose’s family is Coast Salish and are survivors of the residential school and the sixties scoop.

Ever since she was in grade school she was judged and ridiculed for being different based on her skin color, weight and lack of intelligence. This judgement came mainly from the community she was placed in. She was blessed with the best foster family she could ever receive. They were very supportive of Rose during her years with them. They helped her learn how to turn a negative into a positive. This skill has helped her immensely in many capacities. Everything from getting work to helping her correct a huge injustice that affects millions of marginalized people, indigenous people, disabled people, unhoused and housed people throughout the world. She has spoken with world leaders and politicians about correcting the injustices that are affecting everyone.

Rose believes that she can make a change in society if she remembers what she has been taught; that caring is sharing and giving hope for a better society. If she sticks to her beliefs of community, consultation and collaboration and puts in the effort, it will be worth all of the volunteering she has invested in trying to make changes. In her community what happens to one person affects all of us.

She has also not shied away from stepping in and out of boardrooms and getting involved in “Nothing About Shall Be Said Without Us” and let the community know that there are people like her who are not whiners or complainers because they are a part of the problem solvers who lived the experiences.

Some of Rose’s latest projects and commitments to making this world a little better have taken more than a year and a half. She started at the end of 2019 feeding the unhoused and supporting the native youth who are advocating to stop a pipeline that is destroying our “Mother”. These actions led right into a global pandemic that is so dangerous that thousands of people are dying from this virus. Some people can only think of COVID-19 and then there are people like Rose who think of the virus called POVERTY.

Right now there are only a handful of people like her who stepped out and up to the frontlines to ensure that our unhoused get some food and warm clothes and maybe a tent. It is through supporting these actions that a community care tent has been established and is operating on the road for 24 hours a day, seven days a week and community neighborhood associations are getting involved in caring for the unhoused. All of these events over the past 12 months still led to Rose serving another three-year term on the board of Directors for the BC Public Interest and Advocates Council and to continue to support the youth on social justice and activism at one of the international colleges. All of Rose’s actions have led to creating a better tomorrow.