while i grew up in occupied Coast Salish territories, my ancestors are Mestizo, Irish, Bulgarian, Swedish, and span across many more european lineages. i am animist, neurodivergent, queer, and non-binary. 

i grew up dancing ballet—as the eldest of four in split-family, low-income, radical-christian households. my households largely followed assimilated white norms, which erased much of their ancestral cultures and shaped patterns of neglect, abuse, and disconnection. in adolescence, i lived with my mother’s Mexican immigrant spouse and his extended family. this exposed me to additional cultural rhythms, challenges, and perspectives, broadening my sense of identity.

i grew up cloistered. my negative body image instilled self-erasure and dissociation. these are protective mechanisms i and many others learn to survive. my relationship with my body began to change through compassionate yoga practice, meditation, and participating in social movements to question traditional beauty standards, gender roles, and cross-cultural complexities.

fashion design initially offered a fantastical place to escape and eventually influenced a practice grounded in historical research and symbolism, with space to play and relate with characters within and across different worlds. my growing awareness of the global polycrisis reoriented my love for creativity from production to healing.

i have and continue to unravel in decolonial transformation through griefwork, eco-spiritual practices, emergent movement, craft-as-liberation practices, and ancestral healing. i revere learning from diverse religions and spiritual practices, especially mystical and animist earth based religions. they each show me different ways to be in relationship with a source of life. this relationship with education and learning has been influenced in the lineage of Paulo Freire’s liberation pedagogy and praxis.

my work in a decade developed—through commercial and atelier fashion worlds, performance art, and co-facilitating upcycling workshops with refugees and immigrants—to a therapy practice integrating story, movement, and craft to support liberation and healing.