Dawn is of Secwepemc ancestry and is the Founder/Curator of Research and Relationships for the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty. Since 1983 Dawn has worked and studied horticulture, ethno-botany, adult education, and restoration of natural systems in formal institutions, as well as through her own healing and learning journey with Secwepemc and Indigenous Elders and knowledge holders. Following the time spent teaching Aboriginal Adult Basic Education, Dawn has been dedicating her time and energy to land-based healing and learning which led her to her life's work of realizing herself more fully as a developing spirit aligned leader in the Indigenous food sovereignty movement. Dawn has consistently organized time and space over the last 18 years for transformational learning in food systems networks that have been foundational for generating a body of research to support decolonizing food systems in community, regional, national, and international networks where she has become internationally recognized as a published author on the topic. Dawn's work on the Third Eye Seeing Methodology is focused on creating ethical spaces of engagement, that serves to balance the cross-cultural burden carried by Indigenous Peoples in the interface where Indigenous food sovereignty meets, coloniality, climate change, and the corporate control of the food system.  

Some of the projects Dawn is leading include: Wild Salmon Caravan, Indigenous Food and Freedom School, Dismantling Structural Racism in the Food System, and research projects including: Mapping out and Advocating for the Establishment of Indigenous Foodland Conservation Areas, and CIHR funded Indigenous Food Sovereignty and Community Wellbeing Amidst a Pandemic, and the “From the Ground Up” Toolkit for Indigenous Food Sovereignty Train the Trainers.