Advocacy is a word so powerful that it instils courage to stand for what one believes in. It strengthens boundaries and weaves together personal experiences, professional expertise, and the desire to ignite change in the world.

It is also a word that resonates deeply with the path that Nadia George has chosen to take, allowing her to stand out as a beacon of hope for Mother Earth and be recognised as a force to be reckoned with in the world of advocacy. She is a reminder to us all that the power to create change, even small change, lies at all of our feet.

Hailing from Toronto, ON, Nadia wears many hats – actor, activist, trauma integration clinician, and somatic therapy performance coach. She is a real-life earth warrior, fighting for causes she’s deeply passionate about, like clean drinking water, mental health awareness, Indigenous heritage and environmental justice.

With over a decade of experience in social services, Nadia is adept at using her voice to make a difference. She believes in fostering meaningful conversations and building connections that lead to real change. As a consultant and Coach, she empowers individuals to unlock their full potential through a trauma-informed approach, overcoming barriers and nurturing environments conducive to growth. Her impact extends to the corporate world and entertainment industry, where she illuminates the benefits of somatic therapy performance coaching and trauma integration, fostering well-being on both personal and professional fronts.

Yet, Nadia’s advocacy is not confined to consultancy rooms or sets. She stands as a frontline volunteer, delivering clean drinking water filtration systems to marginalised communities, conducting educational workshops on water and environmental issues, and facilitating wellness initiatives in remote areas. Her dedication has garnered national recognition, solidifying her position as an ambassador for change and equity.

Amidst her courageous efforts, Nadia remains deeply connected to charitable causes, serving as an active ambassador for organisations such as Water First, Child Welfare PAC, and the Dreamcatcher Charitable Foundation. Her accolades, including the Waterfront Awards for community activism and the Ontario Premier’s Award of Excellence, underscore her unwavering commitment to societal transformation.

In our interview with Nadia, we discuss her remarkable journey as a mixed-race woman exploring her Canadian and Salvadoran-Nahua Indigenous heritage, advocacy, and the transformative power of raising one’s voice for what truly matters. Join us as we uncover the essence of an earth advocacy warrior whose narrative embodies resilience, compassion, and determination.

It’s a long interview, but trust me, you won’t want to miss it!

Kim: Nadia, can you start by telling us who you are in your own words and what you stand for?

Nadia: That’s a heavy question that’s still hard to answer. I think having the lived experiences that I do, I just consider myself a highly sensitive person and empath. Giving back has always come naturally to me. Prior to finding out about my biological sister, I was the oldest of three biological maternal sisters and one brother, then four stepsisters. So, I think you naturally take on this protective role, and being a young mum reaffirms that.

It’s this idea of wanting to make sure that everybody has what they need to be able to succeed and thrive in life, instead of just surviving. A lot of my childhood experiences, and now my personal skill set, have brought me to that. I want change to happen and it starts with our voices and sharing those things.

I guess that’s how I would explain myself.

Kim: Beautifully put. What inspired the work that you do around the Indigenous cultures? Especially the decision to uncover your lost family history and family roots.

Nadia: Growing up with who I thought I was, and now what I’ve come to know, is that your family history is in your bones, it’s in your DNA, and it carries with you. I don’t know if there’s a way to explain it. Being a person of Indigenous and European race means that you’re walking in two worlds. My mom has always been an advocate for me wanting to connect to my roots and then it came out that the man who I thought had raised me wasn’t my dad.

My great-grandmother was born in an Indigenous village and is from the Nahua Nation. When my great-grandfather was in his 30s and she was 13 he brought her from her village to the farm where he was working as a farmer at the time. She did speak with a lot of the Indigenous workers in her language but from what she lost, and how lonely she probably felt, although she felt loved and my great-grandfather took very good care of her and loved her greatly, to feel that separation of not being able to be who you are.

So a lot of this comes from me wanting to not only get closer to my Indigenous roots and be proud of being an Indigenous person but also understand walking in two worlds.

My mother is a third-generation Canadian settler, her father’s father was from Ireland. Knowing that as a person who is white-passing and white presenting, you do have different Privileges and we need to recognize those things. That’s always been very important to me, to understand that oppression because of the colour of my skin is something I’ve never faced. I know that it’s real and I know that it happens to a lot of people.

It’s about helping people who are non-Indigenous, or who don’t understand the history, to help them understand how we can be better allies and what we need to do, and not just about the horrific things that are happening to Indigenous people. That there’s solutions and hope because we can only take in so much negativity and then our bodies naturally shut it down.

I like to think that the work I do highlights those solutions, so when people ask “How can I help? What can I do?”, there is an answer. It may not be an easy one and it might take us a while, but if we stick together in supporting indigenous communities, we can create change. I think that’s what is pushing and empowering me to continue to do the work that I’m doing. The knowledge is meant to be shared, it’s no good if it just sits with you.

Kim: I want to talk to that prejudice for a moment. You’ve gone from thinking that you’ve grown up in one way, with a father who was not your father, and not being connected to your Indigenous roots. Now that you’re out as an Indigenous woman, do you notice a difference in how you are treated concerning prejudice?

Nadia: One of the bigger things that I have found going through that very emotional revelation and transition, was more so about the lack of understanding about Indigenous people from Mesoamerica, Central America and South America.

It’s like, “Oh you’re from Central America, you’re Latina”, and there’s this misalignment that comes when you say, well “I’m Salvadoran and I’m Indigenous from the Nahua nation” and they’re like “Oh yeah, but like that’s the Aztec” like that was like ancient history. The Nahua nation is still very prevalent in El Salvador, along with Lena and Maya and many other indigenous Nations that are there and have lived there for thousands of years.

So, I think even within Indigenous communities in Canada and in the States, and I only speak to my own experiences, I can’t speak for everyone, but is there still a little bit of that lateral violence around?

You start to question how much space you’re allowed to take up, where you’re allowed to speak, how you’re allowed to present yourself and live. I think that’s been the most difficult part for me regarding prejudice.

“Okay, what do you identify as? Are you Latina? Are you Hispanic?” and for me it’s “well I’m kind of all of those things ethnically.” I can’t deny the colonization that happened from the Spaniards coming into El Salvador so it’s trying to understand how to be able to celebrate all parts of yourself, and also recognize which parts of yourself historically have done harm.

I don’t want to say righting that harm, but making sure that you don’t continue that harm, so has been difficult. I think there’s also still a lot of unspoken history that my family doesn’t talk about with the Civil War that happened, and the 1932 Massacre that happened in El Salvador where over 50,000 mestizos, meaning mixed Indigenous and European peoples and Indigenous peoples were massacred. There’s still a prevalent narrative that if you are Indigenous then you are beneath, you are poor. For the most part in El Salvador, indigenous communities are very vulnerable, poor and mistreated.

There’s a misunderstanding and a lot of unknowns. But we are hearing some great conversations about the tail of the turtle and the shell of the turtle coming together and that is prophesized in the Eagle and Condor philosophy which is something I recommend people look up.

Although the Condor comes from South America it talks about all of our Nations coming together as brothers and sisters and as cousins. And that we need to start supporting each other instead of using colonial methods and systems to keep us separated. We were so strong when we were together and it’s time to do that, so whether or not I’ll be a voice to that I’m not sure.

I’m still so much on my healing and reconnecting journey, I’m not sure that’s something I want to speak to, but it’s definitely a narrative I’m seeing a lot more of. It makes me hopeful and happy.

Kim: I’d love for you to talk about your healing journey. Your whole world was tipped upside down, was that difficult?

Nadia:  Like you said, all and your world’s completely turned upside down and what’s crazy. I had been searching for cousins and relatives for quite some time, ever since I knew I was Native American and when I say Native American, I mean native to the Americas. Being careful about that part was never really a question for me, it was always community and finding home, and all these puzzle pieces that never really seemed to make sense. I remember reaching out to cousins years ago when I had done my DNA in support of my biological sister, she had some questions, so we did it together.

It came back a larger percentage of Native American, so I was reaching out to cousins and nobody seemed to know who I was talking about. The last names I was giving them didn’t seem familiar, so this is when I finally decided to do an additional test and found out that I had a half-sister. I reached out to her when I saw her profile and it said our father’s name. I wrote to her and I said “I’m so sorry I think I have some bad news for you, your father’s not your father” and the reason I had said that was because my father was a nomad he was part of a biker gang, and so I had figured at some point I was going to find other siblings. So, I told her the name and she wrote back to me and she said: “ think I have really bad information for you, both of my parents were born in El Salvador and my mother came over to the US when she was six months pregnant with me”. I took the information she had given me about her father and I wrote back to those cousins and I said “Do any of these names make sense to you?”

Right away everything just started to fall together.

I didn’t recognize the Indigenous piece until my sister decided to do her ancestry because that’s what the one I had originally done. When she did that ancestry test all of my percentages updated and all of a sudden it was no longer Native American it was, “You are Indigenous to central America” I think that for me was almost the harder hit because I’m now having to unlearn everything I thought I knew and relearn everything that I had no idea about so it’s been quite the journey.

It was just amazing to hear all of these stories and even more amazing to be welcomed back into a family that I’ve never known. It was hard but it’s been worth it and I’m grateful to have them in my life.

It’s been a very healing Journey at the same time. To finally have answers, to know who you are and where you come from, and although there is a lot of misunderstanding between Nation to Nation it feels very good to be able to say who you are and it helps me empathize and care for those who are disconnected, who have been removed from their communities and don’t have those answers.

I can’t imagine what that’s like for someone who continues to feel like they don’t belong. This has opened my eyes to the fact that we can all share in this space, and we all have a voice and my experience is still a lived indigenous experience.

I’m sure there’ll be others like me, and I hope that my story will help them feel like they’re not as alone as I felt during that process.

Kim: How do you envision your story reaching and resonating with individuals who are struggling with their sense of belonging and who may feel that they’ve got that Indigenous ancestry that they’re missing?

Nadia: I think everybody is going to have a different answer on who gets to claim Indigeny and how you should present yourself. I think the biggest thing that I have learned is how important it is to do the work, and not for other people, but for yourself. Yes, it can be very expensive to do your DNA, so I tell people if it’s something they want, save up, and do the research because it is important when we look at cultural variations regarding various Nations.

I think the main goal is for people to know that it’s okay to be you, to know that there are always going to be naysayers, you’re not going to make everyone happy, you’re never going to check off all of the boxes for every single person who is judging your journey, but that journey is your own.

Stay true to your journey and do what you need to do while also making sure you’re protecting your heart, and allowing your body to feel and process what it needs to feel.

As I said, we all have a voice that matters. There’s enough space for everyone to share in this and reconnecting is an important piece for cultural revitalization. It’s important to decolonize systems, but it’s also important because we’re able to hold and be proud of things that our ancestors were unable to do because of survival. I think about that every day as I continue to learn about my Nahua roots, this is something that was taken from my great-grandmother. She was old enough to remember and to know it, but she was never free to be herself and when she did have those moments where she could be it was in secrecy, it was in hiding.

I don’t know how she felt, but what I can say is it empowers me to want to teach my son, to want to talk about it and share about it, and to tell other people to be proud of who they are.

 We have just less than a hundred original Nahua speakers and the language, if we don’t do something about it, it will die, and how sad is that?  So, everybody will identify how they choose to, but I think reconnecting to those roots is not only important for our healing, it’s what our ancestors would have wanted. I’m sure they’re out there smiling, knowing, and seeing what’s going on right now for Indigenous people all across the Americas. The youth are starting to challenge systems and I think it’s amazing.

Kim: You’re an advocate for mental health as well, how does that play out in your life?

Nadia: Mental health has always been there, I’ve been in Social Services as a therapist for close to 15 years now. I think if you asked my mum or my dad, I’ve been very outspoken and I was a very blunt child, I did not hold back. I think that comes with being the oldest and I think even in the places that I’ve worked I’ve always advocated for what I felt was right and sometimes that gets you into some trouble, but sometimes it also wakes people up.

So the mental health advocacy as a social worker, my lived experiences with the child welfare system and understanding where it’s lacking. Now as a working professional in the therapy field and as an advocate sitting on a board for an organization that focuses on policy. You start to see that there is such a lack of research that gives any kind of evidence to show the way that we are doing things, especially for foster kids, is working.

So for me, it was really about how do we better these systems, how do we start evaluating these systems, but how do we start having these conversations without being attacking or targeted, and instead more solution-focused? We understand that this stuff wasn’t working, so how do we make sure it begins to work now? Where do we need to start doing the research? Where do we need to start having these conversations? I think one of the things that I noticed the most is the idea that we just aren’t answering to our bodies. We’ve gotten so far into this medical model of continuous narrative therapies, looking at the neurological things that happen, and medications are great, but when we don’t come from a holistic perspective of answering what our bodies need, all of that trauma just gets held there. Then the medications and other therapies are band-aids because we’re not getting to the root of the issue.

Now we are starting to see a bit of a shift which is lovely, we’re starting to see more doctors being open to the idea of you know sematic therapies and also with the understanding of the different types of Developmental and complex PTSD are, and how they affect the brain and how many people have gone their whole lives misdiagnosed. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done and I’m very happy to talk to people about it.

Kim: I love your passion for your work, and you’re such a strong powerful voice in the world. What is your focus right now? How can people help how can people jump on board if they want to?

Nadia: My three main focuses are clean drinking water, the man who raised me got fatally ill due to contaminated drinking water and I watched him slowly fade away as that just took over his body. He passed in 2001. So, if I’m able to prevent another person from having to watch that or go through that, I will do what I can. That’s why I advocate so strongly for safe and clean drinking water in Indigenous communities.

I was just out in BC looking at these custom-built water treatment plants that are going into First Nations communities that will be providing them clean and Safe Drinking Water. The company that is doing this, and for the right reasons, is called Clear Flow Solutions and they’re just they’re amazing. Along with Water First, does the water internship programs and gives back to those communities by giving paid internships to Indigenous young adults who want to get trained so that way they can be water operators in their community.

Then, the mental health advocacy for foster kids and getting them opportunities in the workforce, making sure that they have equal opportunities and the support that they need to go, or go back to postsecondary.

And then, because I am an actor, and have played roles that are very traumatic and with heavy content, I understand that these things can deeply affect us. When I look at people like Robin Williams and Keith Ledger and I’m sure there are many more that I’m not even aware of, I think actors get neglected.

It’s thought that we’re professionals, we’re supposed to be able to compartmentalize, we’re supposed to be able to know that this isn’t real. Our bodies don’t know when it’s not real. As an actor, if you’re fully putting yourself into that character, you’re feeling what that character is feeling. So, we’re living in these moments, and for some of us, very long periods of time.

I think that is something that we need to start talking more about in the entertainment industry. I think about thrasher films, or anything like that where there is consistent violence, I know just as a viewer how that leaves me feeling.

Now that’s not to say that actors can’t do their jobs, that they aren’t professionals. I give all the kudos to anyone who can get in there and do it and leave and have their own processing method. But when I think about new actors and young actors, when I think about any actor who has personally lived that experience, if we haven’t gone through the processes of healing those pieces we are going to be triggered and that trigger is just going to ignite everything.

I’ve turned down opportunities to audition for films because I have enough history of abuse in my own life that I’m still working through, so there was just no way.

This is something that I’m trying to get out there because we need to stop neglecting the people who work in the entertainment industry.

Kim: Is there anything else that we’ve not spoken about that you feel is important?

Nadia: I think through all of the things that I do, whether it be about the clean drinking water, environmental activism and mental health. One of the things that I want people to start examining in their own lives is sustainability.

I would want readers to think about how sustainability affects us spiritually, mentally and physically along with our Earth. She’s our medicine so we have to be hers, or it’s never going to work.

If there is anything they can do to do. We don’t all need to donate money, there’s a role for everyone. I volunteer my time with organizations whenever I can to make sure people are getting clean drinking water or have better access to it. But not everybody has the availability to do these things.

Not everybody wants to be a speaker and be in front, so even just having those conversations at your dinner table when someone says something off-sided. Be brave. Let people know that we need to have these conversations in our kitchens, with our children, and that’s where it really starts. We work on recognizing our unconscious biases and, analysing our inner selves our inner dialogue, and saying, “Okay, where can I make those changes?” Sometimes that’s the advocacy, that’s allyship right there. A lot of people think broadly, they think big picture about when they want to help, but sometimes it’s just going in a march, and sometimes it’s sharing something on Facebook. Sometimes, It’s banging on the door, and sometimes, it’s sticking your foot in the door so you can scream on the other side of it.

I guess that’s what I’d want to leave your readers with – we can all make change; we don’t all have to be doing something big and visible for it to matter.

Image credits: Nadia George’s personal collection