Á’a líya Warbus used her keynote at the Indigenous Partnerships Success Showcase on November 13, 2025, to anchor economic reconciliation in language, land, and the next generation, and to urge leaders to “sit on the same bench” and tackle problems together.
Warbus opened in Halq’eméylem, explaining why she begins in her language. “I like to start and ground myself by speaking in my language,” she said, noting that certain words do not translate cleanly into English and carry ways of knowing tied to land and kinship.
She framed identity not as a place name or label, but as a relationship: “There’s no way in our language to say you own the land… We’re in relationship to the land. We are the land.”
That theme ran through a wide-ranging talk that blended personal history, community stories, and a call for practical collaboration. Warbus described teachings about stewardship and ceremonies that link people and place across generations, and she contrasted those teachings with the colonial notion of ownership. She also recounted how ancestors returned their loved ones to the land, reinforcing a view of stewardship rather than possession.
Leadership as shared responsibility — not division
Much of her keynote turned to leadership and how to lower the temperature in polarized debates. “It’s not me versus you, it’s us versus the problem,” she said, stressing that leadership means bringing “everybody around the table”, from small communities without clean water to advanced urban centres grappling with artificial intelligence, and “you don’t leave anybody out.”
She tied that ethic to respect: “A leader doesn’t put themselves above the people. You sit with the people because you work for the people.”
Warbus wove in a teaching she encountered about peoples of the world coming together “as equals,” and said progress often stalls when fear takes hold. To her, the work is to keep moving toward understanding and reconciliation, sitting “on the same bench” and choosing problem-solving over point-scoring.
Culture and youth as the foundation of resilience
She also pointed to cultural revitalization as a practical strength.
In Stó:lō territory, she said, bringing culture back is “what’s saving our children,” keeping them engaged in the longhouse, on the water, and in games and song. “They love their culture. They love to sing and to dance and to drum,” she added, telling a light story about a teacher who called to ask for advice when the boys began drumming on their desks.
Warbus returned repeatedly to youth. “You’re not alone. I need to hear those words. We’re not alone,” she told the room, before adding that “it’s our kids that are going to show us,” with their innovation and energy.
Her son and his siblings, she noted, were helping close out the event, a small sign of how cultural practice, family, and public life intersect.
Teachings carried through generations
Personal history underscored the keynote’s sense of responsibility. Warbus shared a family story about an ancestor who, during the smallpox epidemic, asked two boys to return after four days and, if needed, bury him to prevent others from becoming sick. When they returned, he told them a healer had helped him and instructed him to go back to help his community, a lesson about service that has been carried down through her family.
Warbus’s trajectory helps explain her emphasis on culture-anchored leadership. A Stó:lō Nation member and daughter of former B.C. lieutenant-governor Steven Point, she holds an MFA in film production, has taught in Capilano University’s Indigenous digital film department, and served as Director of Cultural Communications at the Stó:lō Xwexwilmexw Government, experience she has linked to youth mentorship and storytelling.
A message of humility — and shared work
Across 20 minutes, Warbus blended the practical and the spiritual, urging industry and community leaders to proceed together, with humility. She closed by putting her hands up to the attendees and offering a song. The message was simple, she said: keep doing the work, and keep doing it together.
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