Long time friend and devoted advocate of our First Nation’s neighbours, Mavis Gillie, passed away on March 28, 2021.
Mavis was a founding member of Project North (an ecumenical social action group) and Aboriginal Neighbours. She worked with the Dene and Inuit peoples in their struggles against the Mackenzie Valley pipeline in the 1970s and helped to organize support for the Nisga’a Treaty. Mavis was instrumental in stopping a proposed Marina being built in Saanichton Bay (an important fisheries for the Tsawout people) in 1987. This was as important a battle as the ones for South Moresby, Meares Island and the Stein Valley.
She was an originating member of the Anglican Church’s Public and Social Responsibility Unit and in 1991 was awarded the Anglican Award of Merit for her years of dedicated service to the church. She received an Honorary Doctor of Laws at the University of Victoria in 2016. Aboriginal Neighbours will always remember Mavis Gillie’s dedication to the First Nation’s people over many year.
Maureen Applewhaite;
Aboriginal Neighbours
(Mavis Gillie Obit will appear in the Autumn issue of ICN)
