As Réseau Compassion Network continues to move towards reconciliation and support our network agencies on their journeys, we have been honoured to receive a name for this work. Our Truth and Reconciliation Plan, co-created with staff from the network and an Indigenous Advisory Circle, was gifted a name during a pipe ceremony on March 20, 2026.
For those in attendance at the ceremony, the circle was full of meaning, emotion and reflection. Each member of the circle had the chance to learn from each other, contemplate their role in reconciliation, and to experience Indigenous ways of being. As one staff member shared, “I can admit I wondered why we were naming a plan, something that we’ve written down and are committed to doing. But after this, after hearing your words and being in circle, I understand. This makes our plan more real, and even more steeped in meaning. Thank you for this gift.”
Below, a copy of the story of the spirit name, as provided by Helen Robinson-Settee.
“Tansi. Aaniin Boozhoo. Esikwe nidishinigas. Mahkwa ni dodem. Winnipek shogo Thasgathchewenoong nidooji.”
Greetings to everyone in Innimowin and Anishibemowin. My spirit name is Clam Woman and my family medicine is the Bear*. My home communities are Winnipeg and Dauphin River First Nation.
My name is Helen Robinson-Settee and I am a member of the Indigenous Advisory Circle for the Réseau Compassion Network (RCN).
I was passed tobacco by Nancy Parker on behalf of Réseau Compassion Network asking for a spirit name for their Truth and Reconciliation Plan. There are many ways in which people receive spirit names. The one way I was shown and gifted to seek spirit names was from Grandmother Myra Laramee. She taught me to put the tobacco either behind my pillow or at my bedside and to ask Creator for a spirit name that has been requested.
On the first night I put the tobacco at my bedside, a dream came. Here is the dream:
There was a stone building and I wasn’t sure if it was a church or a post-secondary institution because there were both older people and young people in my dream. The older people were gathered in a boardroom and were having discussions. There were no younger people in the room. When I went outside, there were a group of young people that we’re having a discussion, but they were not happy. Their voices were raised and they were challenging which appeared to be the older people.
I went and talked to them, and I told them that were powerful and influential and could make change by working together. I said, “You could be ‘agents of change’.” I heard this ‘agents of change’ before from an educator named James Banks who was working in educational and social justice systems. The young people began to walk in the stone building entering the boardroom. They were now calm and ready to do the work that was at hand.
In Anishinaabemowin, there isn’t a name for the word agent per se, so when I spoke with Grandmother Myra Laramee and language holder** Agnes Catcheway, they both agreed that using ‘Workers’ or ‘People of Change’ is the name that was given by the Creator. Aanokiwan aanjichigewin is the Workers/People of Change which will bring action to the work ahead of RCN through their Truth and Reconciliation journey.
There are other messages that were in the dream, and it was an honour to have the blessing of the name with some RCN Board of Directors and staff, as well as members of the Indigenous Advisory Circle. Pipe carriers and singers who are members of the Advisory Circle were asked to share their bundles if they so wished. Knowledge keeper and pipe carrier Albert McLeod shared the pipe he carries, along with Helen Robinson-Settee sharing hers as well. Susan Swan also sang songs during the ceremony – which were so beautiful.”
* In Indigenous communities, people share their family medicine name to mean their clan identity, family lineage and teachings.
** Language keepers are those in their communities who have knowledge of their traditional language.