International Women's Day | To the Women Who Built Me

Today is International Women’s Day, and while the world celebrates the achievements of women everywhere, I find myself thinking closer to home—about the women who shaped me, challenged me, and made me who I am. This isn’t a story about historic victories or boardroom battles, but a tribute to the personal, raw, and sometimes painful ways the women in my life have left their mark on me.

Growing up as an Indigenous woman in Northern Canada, I learned early that strength wears many faces. My mother’s, for instance, was sometimes weary but unshakeable. We didn’t always see eye to eye—our relationship sometimes fractured by misunderstandings and wounds too deep for words. Still, I see her now with a different kind of clarity. Her hands, cracked and calloused, told stories long before I learned to walk. Her silence was a shield, not a wall. I see the sacrifices she made, the dreams she tucked away for the sake of keeping our world together. Today, I honor her resilience and her flaws, recognizing that sacrifice is its own kind of victory.

Then there’s my grandmother, a woman with prayers woven into her braids and a voice that softened even the hardest truths. She was my first storyteller. Through her, I understood that our history is not just in books or museums but in the lullabies sung over kitchen stoves, in the way she gathered medicines with reverence, in the teachings she stitched into my bones. She reminded me that our culture was a lifeline, not an anchor. Today, I honor her memory, wisdom and the power of stories to heal and to hold.

My cousins who are like sisters, too, deserve a chapter of their own. Fierce in ways I am still learning to be, they never let the world define their edges. When I left architecture to pursue other passions, they were the first to tell me I wasn’t crazy. They taught me that strength isn’t about being unshakeable—it’s about standing back up when the ground splits open beneath you. Today, I honor their courage and the way they see possibility in everything.

And to the women I work alongside at IAAW—Indigenous women who fight every day for justice, for visibility, for a seat at tables not built for us—I honor you too. Your voices are thunder; your determination, a river that carves mountains.

International Women’s Day is about honoring the women who make headlines, yes, but also the ones who don’t. It’s about my mother’s quiet sacrifices, my grandmother’s whispered prayers, my sisters’ defiance, and my own journey to find my voice.

Today, I hold space for all of them—for all of us. For the women who came before and the ones who will come after. For the victories, the wounds, and the stories that refuse to die.

To the women who built me—I see you, I thank you, and I honor you.

~smy