Lead with your values

Happy International Women's Day: sɛƛakəs Harmony Johnson Principal, Tiskwat Consulting VP, Indigenous Wellness & Reconciliation, Providence Health Care

BY PIETA WOOLLEY

Tla’amin Nation’s Harmony Johnson has dedicated her professional life to making change. Because so much has to change.

The consultant, who lives between Tsleil-Waututh Territory and Tishosum, has been behind some of the biggest moments in reconciliation in qathet, BC and across Canada. They include working on the Tla’amin treaty; recording elders speaking ayajuthem; leading policy work with the First Nations Summit and First Nations Leadership Council; shaping and launching the First Nations Health Authority; writing Written as I Remember It with her grandmother, Elsie Paul; and authoring “They Sigh or Give You the Look: Discrimination and Status Card Usage” on behalf of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs – in response to the handcuffing assault by police of Maxwell Johnson and his 12-year-old granddaughter in a Vancouver bank.

And so much more.

It was in 2020, when she and former judge Dr. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond wrote “In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-specific Racism and Discrimination in B.C. Health Care,” that she found her stride, she said.

“It let me unleash myself,” Harmony revealed. “It really changed the trajectory of things for me.”

Harmony grew up here, in a large family with plenty of close cousins. She graduated from Brooks – among the first students to use ayajuthem as a second language as a credit for post-secondary. She went to Simon Fraser University for her undergraduate degree, and UBC for a Masters in Health Administration (where she now teaches).

Harmony Johnson with her nieces, on the land.

As a consultant, Harmony says she only takes on projects that align with her values.

“Living in alignment with your values helps you feel settled in your own skin, and other people relate to it,” she said. “It creates meaning for them too. Identity is a core value for me. And the core of my identity is being a Tla’amin person. I am dedicated to the perpetuation of a Tla’amin world view. I have a value of service, of being of service; for my work to have impact and meaning that I can see, that is tractable. Integrity: I do what I say I’m going to do, and when I don’t, I say why. And I value reciprocity, relationship.”

In 2021, Harmony co-chaired the Possible Name Change Working Group, as the Hegus asked her to. She says she was honoured to be asked.

“I agreed, understanding that it was going to be challenging given the personal investment we all have. Maybe it was hubris on my part: I thought it would be fine. I teach reconciliation and decolonization. I am considered an expert. But I didn’t realize how much it would test me, my intellect, and my heart. I didn’t realize how much leadership it would take to coordinate the working group in the face of challenging public dialogue that was over the line. There was a lot of rhetoric on social media, in town halls, that undermined all of our dignity.”

Harmony as researcher, policy critic, and leader.

Ultimately, the working group recommended taking a break while the City and region address 11 recommendations that would allow the process to move forward again.

“We found a gap in factual knowledge, and that people in the region have been socialized to believe some things that are not true,” Harmony said. “Stewart [Alsgard] and I led a process within the working group to develop agreement on a set of recommendations that put a pathway forward. I hope we can still follow it.

“We understand we are all here to stay. My hope is that we find a way we can all live here in the region with dignity.”

Leadership, Harmony said, is really about kindness. That means supporting others to succeed, and speaking up when others are compromised. It also means embracing being challenged, and surrounding yourself with people who will help you grow.