Mrs. Ellen White was a teacher, author, story-teller and medicine woman widely known for her dedication to education as key to social change and community building.

Also known as Kwulasulwut (“Many Stars”), Mrs. White was a member of the Snuneymuxw First Nation in Nanaimo. She worked as a social activist for 60 years, successfully campaigning to get electricity onto the reserve, to establish schools closer to the reserve, as well as the establishment of a substance abuse rehabilitation facility and the Friendship Centre in Nanaimo, B.C.

Mrs. White worked in the school system to bring cultural education to native and non-native students through traditional teachings, Hulquminum language lessons, dance, stories, foods and lectures. She published books of Coast Salish stories in English, building bridges between cultures. She also wrote about native plants and created one of the first English – Hulquminum dictionaries.

Mrs. White worked with the Nanaimo Museum on First Nations’ artifacts. She served as Elder in Residence at Malaspina University-College, now Vancouver Island University. She spent ten years lecturing to native students at summer programs of the University of British Columbia. She was named Nanaimo’s Woman of the Year and Mother of the Year.

After a long and distinguished career serving her community and her province, Mrs. White retired in 2006 at the age of 83.