Name: Kelsey Arnouse, Registered Social Worker (RSW) (she/her/hers)
Job Title: Indigenous Cultural Safety Educator
Years of Service: 8
Worksite: Sahali Mall, Kamloops
Community: Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc
Ancestral Territory: Secwépemc Nation
Favourite Quote / Advice to live by: “It’s education (that) got us into this mess, and education (is what) will get us out of it.” - Justice Murray Sinclair
Born in the traditional, unceded Stó꞉lō Nation territory and raised on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of her Secwépemc Nation, Kelsey Arnouse is a proud community member of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc.
Kelsey's maternal family is from Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc and her paternal family is from Sexqeltqin; both communities are within the Secwépemc Nation. She also acknowledges her roots as a third-generation Irish settler.
Learn more about Kelsey’s journey with IH
Kelsey has worked in a few roles throughout Interior Health and has a lot of pride in the work she has done in these roles. One of her proudest achievements is the relationships she built along the way with coworkers, peers and Nation members.
As an Indigenous person, building and maintaining relationships has been learning modelled to her by her families and is now instilled in Kelsey.
“Interior Health services both my maternal and paternal families’ communities. I have always felt the work I do contributes to creating culturally safe experiences and working from within the system allows me to facilitate change and directly impact those services.”
Kelsey is passionate about working with people on their journey to Indigenous cultural safety and about working with IH to achieve the recommendations from the In Plain Sight Report.
Kelsey has two daughters, both named after or in remembrance of their grandmothers.
She spends a lot of time supporting her children's extra curricular activities (which include biking, swimming, and gymnastics) saying, “Their hobbies are now my hobbies.”
Kelsey also enjoys spending time with her family and visiting, and hill biking, which is, as she describes “like mountain biking but with less mountains.”
Kelsey is an emergent beadwork artisan actively learning to revitalize some of her community’s handwork traditions. She was gifted a hand drum from her grandpa when she started working with Indigenous Partnerships and has been working towards learning traditional songs.
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