Every community needs a person like Tina Fox. The type of person who lives their life so selflessly that they are not only role models to those around them but their actions also inspire enduring change. For the people of the Stoney Nakoda First Nation and the community of Morley, such a person is embodied in Tina Fox, who was honoured by the Rotary Club of Cochrane with its prestigious Integrity Award on the evening of May 12. Judy Bopp, one of the people who nominated Fox for the award, spoke during the evening and she characterized it best as she tried to convey the importance of Fox's life by asking, "How one tells the story of a life," especially one of such immensity as Fox's. She, along with her husband, Michael, retired judge John Reilly and Warren Harbeck nominated Fox for the award. The stories Bopp, Reilly and Michael told during the evening outlined Fox's achievements, strength and dedication to helping others and painted a picture of a lifelong philosophy that is the living embodiment of the meaning of integrity As Bopp's question so aptly implies, it is difficult to adequately do justice to a life lived as richly as Fox's has been. The three speakers, all with different perspectives of how Fox has enriched lives, including their own, painted a tapestry that depicted a person who shaped the world around her. That speaks to Fox's character. She grew up in a world that was plagued with abuse and obstacles. From the horrors of residential school and systemic racism, to fighting the patriarchal and colonial mindset institutionalized in her own community, Fox never bent under the pressure and pain of her life's events – she rose to not only stand above them but worked to reshape them. Instead of vengeance, she taught forgiveness. She did this with such conviction and sincerity that she inspired a Canadian judge to fight against the injustices within the justice system, especially as it applied to First Nations people. Instead of meek compliance, she taught strength of will. This she demonstrated in her battle against patriarchal attitudes to become the first woman to serve as councillor on the Stoney Nakoda First Nation, using her role to fight for improved accountability. Instead of continuing the cycle of pain inflicted upon her by residential schools and society, she chose to become a healer. Using her compassion, empathy and love for those around her, she worked as a nurse, in hospice and helped to start the Stoney Nakoda Health Centre. A woman of great humility but enormous presence, Fox defies her diminutive stature with an essence that exudes wisdom as she speaks with careful thoughtfulness. Despite the pain she has seen and experienced, pain her people continue to suffer as a result of generational trauma, she remains hopeful that by reinvigorating the culture they lost, they can be made whole again. While the story of Fox's life will be remembered in the history books, it will also likely live on infused in the world around her, so profound has her impact been and will continue to be.
