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Her heart told her she needed to connect her work to helping others and making a difference. Calgarian Diana Frost's dreamscape looked after the rest, giving her a fully formed outline for what her future as a social entrepreneur would look like.

"I needed to do something I cared about, in order to justify the effort and time," she remembers. "And one morning, in the spring of 2016, I woke up suddenly and I remembered my dream, which was a very unusual thing for me: I never remember my dreams.

"And I rushed into the living room and I said, 'John (my husband), I'm going to publish a series of colouring books. And I'm going to work with elders and artists from different nations, and we're going to share stories and teachings and beautiful artwork and we're going to help people to connect.'

"And John looked at me and he was stunned, because how do you go from engineering to book publishing? But it just seemed to fit; it just seemed right, you know?"

Visit the Colouring It Forward website at https://colouringitforward.com/

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Are the very constructs of English a barrier on Canada's path to becoming a nation of nations?

Cohosts Jessica Vandenberghe and George Lee talk about words—how they serve us, how they fail us, and how they reflect and unlock our identities.

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Learn, listen, write, share—Jessica Vandenberghe and George Lee chat about these and other ways to make your 2023 a year of truth and conciliation.
Study Indigenization and Indigenous history in your community. Listen to an Indigenous radio station. Journal about your truth and conciliation challenges, successes, and ideas. Regift if you receive something you don't need.
These ideas and many more get the podcast treatment, just in time for New Year's Eve.
Whether you're a settler, an Indigenous person, or some other category of listener, this episode has something to help you chart a more meaningful 2023.

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On the eve of Black Friday, an Indigenous entrepreneur joins co-hosts Jessica Vandenberghe and George Lee to discuss the ins and outs of finding gifts that authentically represent Turtle Island's earliest cultures.
Diana Frost, an Algonquin Métis woman, talks about shopping Indigenous in a meaningful way, whether you're online, at a Christmas market, or in a bricks-and-mortar business.
She also finds a few openings to mention products available through her social enterprise, Colouring It Forward. Jessica and George are just fine with that, given the beautiful, elder-informed colouring books and other products she sells.
A complete list of all the stores, websites, and other shopping options discussed will appear on the podcast's Facebook page: Unsetted: Journeys in Truth and Conciliation.

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In the second episode of our third season, co-host Jessica Vandenberghe discusses a beautiful and challenging road home. Actually, the July trip took her and her travelling companion, Chris Dennison, through two homelands: the one she grew up in and the one she'd never set eyes on before.

Jessica and Chris talk with co-host George Lee about the welcome they received at Dene Tha' First Nation and elsewhere, about the laughter and the tears, and about the similiarites and differences between the worlds and people they visited.

If you like what you're hearing and want to hear more, consider visiting our Ko-fi site to make a one-time or ongoing donation:

https://ko-fi.com/unsettledjourneys

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Our third season launches with co-host Jessica Vandenberghe and her travelling companion Chris Dennison discussing  plans for a summer road trip with special meaning.
Jessica is a Sixties Scooper, and this will be her first trip to her homeland, Dene Tha' First Nation, in northern Alberta.
Says Jessica: "If I go up there to the north, will something feel like I've been there before? Or will I hear something in the trees? Or will I hear something in the wind? Or will something just click where I'm like, yeah, I think I've been here before, and I'm just accepted for who I am."
Also in this episode, Jessica and co-host George Lee talk about podcast supporter Superstar X Magazine and its story. Here's a link to the Superstar X site:
https://www.superstarx.xyz/superstar-x-magazine
Also, we're accepting donations—monthly and one-time—if you want to keep our conversations going:
https://ko-fi.com/unsettledjourneys

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Serious about living in a country that can move beyond its colonial machinations? If so, get out of your comfort zone, take some steps to learn about Canada's Indigenous peoples, and advance your own conciliation journey.
Those are some of the suggestions business and policy analyst Darryl Lagerquist offers, during a wide-ranging chat with hosts Jessica and George.
Darryl, who has government and private industry experience, says the country faces a "wicked problem," as one elder put it. That would be the one tied to various broken relationships, promises, and programs between Indigenous peoples and their colonial guests.
Think of them as multiple strands that are going to take generations to disentangle, Darryl says.
If you want to get to work, here's a good entry point—the final episode of our sophomore season.

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Raylene Whitford has not followed a typical career path. The Edmonton-born Métis woman has trudged around the jungles of Ecuador, the concrete and glass of a five-star hotel in the Middle East, and the corridors of the London Stock Exchange. Oh yeah: she tried roughnecking for a while, too.
Now, Raylene is pursuing her doctorate back in Canada, while using her social enterprise Canative Energy to empower Indigenous communities impacted by extractive industries.
In this episode, Raylene credits cohost Jessica Vandenberghe and her role modeling with showing her what success can look like for an Indigenous woman.
She also says—among other things—that Canadians can learn a lot about living their lives in a good way by spending some non-disruptive quality time in the great outdoors.

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Co-host George Lee reconnects with a childhood friend from the Syilx, or Okanagan, territory. Arnie Baptiste teaches the Nsyilxcn language for the Penticton Indian Band at Outma Sqilx'w Cultural School. Also featured are cohost Jessica Vandenberghe, a cast of hundreds at an outdoor flea market, and a 10-week-old border collie whose name translates to Black or Dark Moon in English.

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In this revisted episode, an Indigenous engineer gives his take on creating a better Canada for all its nations and peoples. Jessica and George chat with Steven Vaivada about the roles and approaches of his company, Scout Engineering & Consulting Ltd. You'll also hear about an emerging vision for a utilities and infrastructure corridor that brings together all perspectives, interests and communities. Steven also discusses how abandoning stereotypes is hard but necessary.

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