For years, the Lummi Youth Canoe Family helped connect Lummi Tribal members to their culture and other Pacific Northwest Indigenous communities by facilitating canoe journeys throughout the Salish Sea.
Eleven people filled a canoe and paddled hundreds of miles over many days between coastal tribes — a voyage meant to unify and empower native youth.
That program disbanded in 2019. But now, a pair of brothers from the Lummi Nation— who found purpose paddling with the canoe family when they were teenagers — have plans to revitalize it.
“We were introduced to our homelands in a really interesting way being on the canoe paddling around,” said Free Borsey, one of the brothers, in an interview with The Bellingham Herald. “We want to make sure those same benefits and opportunities provided by that program are provided for the next wave of up-and-coming youth.”
The twin brothers, 27-year-olds Free and Raven Borsey, have been environmental advocates for years and were recently recognized as emerging leaders of conservation and environmental justice efforts in the Pacific Northwest by the Washington Conservation Action Education Fund, a nonprofit advocacy organization that fights for environmental progress.
“Committee members recognized their passion — combining traditional ecological knowledge, youth empowerment, and conservation and environmental justice into a plan with tangible impacts for their community and the Pacific Northwest,” WCA said in an announcement about the award.
The group named them the winners of the 18th annual Bullitt Prize, a $100,000 award. The brothers intend to use a portion of the prize to restart and improve the Lummi Youth Canoe Family.
“It’s interesting being a part of the canoe family, you don’t really notice in the moment what’s going on — what you’re learning and what you’re really a part of as a youth — you’re more embracing it. But as you get older, you see the implications of what that work means to the community,” Raven Borsey told The Herald.
The Bullitt Prize is granted annually to an individual or collaborative group, from an underrepresented community, 35 years or younger, who demonstrate academic, professional, or grassroots leadership advancing the environmental movement, according to the organization.
WCA recognized the brothers particularly for their ability to do such impactful advocacy work while persevering through the various challenges in their lives, according to the nonprofit.
Free and Raven Borsey grew up on the Lummi Reservation. They say they faced adversity early in their lives when they entered foster care and continued to push through barriers growing up.
“We were very fortunate to have been raised in the Lummi community because there’s a lot of Lummi and native youth who haven’t had that same privilege and opportunity. But we also share the rough sides of growing up on the reservation with the implications caused by historical and generational trauma,” Free Borsey said.
The brothers say pulling with the canoe family as teenagers gave them the support they needed to channel strength and believe in themselves. They eventually both pursued higher education, to which they attribute much of their success.
“Every student brings their own story into the classroom. I think the instructors lift the students’ stories up so that at the end of the educational journey, everybody is bringing their best version of themselves,” Northwest Indian College Native Environmental Science Department Chair Emma Norman told The Herald. “An investment in one student at Northwest Indian College goes into a family and from a family into a community and from a community into a nation. So we are in the business of nation-building at the college, one student at a time.”
The brothers say the support they’ve received from their community growing up has propelled them forward and helped encourage them to continue in environmental advocacy work.
“I have the privilege to be an aunt to these two young men, hold the story of the last generation, and be able to know that the last generation did everything they did for them and all the young people of Lummi. They had a dream and my mom always said, ‘You’re standing in your grandmother’s dream,'” said family friend of the Borsey brothers and Northwest Indian College wellness advocate Heather Jefferson.
Now, the Borsey brothers want to give back and ensure other at-risk youth have the same opportunities to be successful.
“We fortunately found some healthy outlets in our teenage years — education and sports at school,” Free Borsey said. “Another outlet for us was the Lummi Youth Canoe Family.”
The canoe has been out of commission since 2019 and needs to be refurbished before the Lummi Youth Canoe Family can get back out on the water. Once that work is complete, the brothers hope to inspire their community to participate in the canoe family.
“Even though the youth may not know what they’re a part of — they’re in a safe environment, they’re learning what they need to learn and they’ll understand why they’re learning it later on,” Raven Borsey said.
