Can you tell us a bit about who you are, your name, and where you are from?
My name is Mackenzie Rosene. I am from Victoria, but I’ve lived all over the world, Africa, Hawaii, and a couple of other places, but Victoria has always been home. I have some ties to Germanic and Cree-Métis nations, and I’m going through a lovely journey of reconnecting with my culture at the moment!
What is your new title, and what are you going to be doing with Tsartlip?
I am the new Marine Liaison for the Tsartlip Nation, and I’m going to be doing a lot of very cool projects. Working on oil spill management and planning, beach cleanups, restoration, and much more!
What background and experience do you bring to this position?
Most of my background is research and marine biology based! I’ve worked as a research scuba diver, and trained many many people in that field also. I’ve worked as a boat captain for various dive operations in Victoria and in Mozambique. I’ve been a small business owner, a “mobile lunch lady”, if you will. I also worked for Sea Change as a coastal biomapper, and now I’m a marine liaison! It’s been a wild ride; every time I think about it, I’m like, wow, how did I get here? This is cool!
What kind of impact do you hope to have during your time at Tsartlip?
A positive one! I hope to aid the community in whatever way I can. I hope to be a positive source for anybody that I meet, to have a good environmental impact, and be able to maintain and help build procedures.
What do you like to do outside of work?
Oh man, a lot of things. I am admittedly a horse girl, I ride, help train, and manage horses locally. I scuba dive–I’ve been teaching that since I was 19, so I’ve got many years of that under my belt. Huge reader also, love doing art, and recently have been getting into beading. I also have four lovely, beautiful pet snakes, so a lot of my time is spent giving them enrichment time!
Anything else to add?
That’s mostly it! I just hope that during my time here with the Tsartlip Nation I can be as positive and helpful as I can be. I’m very, very excited to be here with this opportunity.
