Mackenzie Griffin
Songs of the Betweeen
Storyteller | Facilitator | Speaker
Cultivating Spaces for Becoming Better Relatives
Meet Mackenzie
I’m a Cree and Saulteaux storyteller, facilitator, and speaker based in Kelowna, BC. I cultivate spaces where people can deepen their relationships with the self, Creator, human beings and the more-than-human world around them.
About Songs of the Between
Songs of the Between is an emerging kinship practice supporting learning and shared action related to truth and reconciliation among Indigenous peoples, settlers, and newcomers in Canada. My work is rooted in relationality, land-based wisdom, storytelling, and Indigenous asset-based community development. I collaborate with individuals and communities to explore connections to people and place and the responsibilities that arise from those relationships.
Where Would You Like to Begin?
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Learning Opportunities
Explore learning opportunities and ways of bringing this work into your community or organization.
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Speaking & Facilitation
Explore speaking engagements and Indigenous Appreciative Inquiry.
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Writing
Personal reflections, community stories, poetry, songs, and published works.
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Upcoming Gatherings
View upcoming courses, workshops, and events.
Work With Me
I offer learning opportunities, speaking engagements, and facilitation through Indigenous Appreciative Inquiry to help individuals and communities deepen relationships, engage in truth & reconciliation, and imagine practical ways to become better relatives together.
Learning Opportunities
How to Be a Better Relative
Knowing Yourself, Knowing Others
Indigenous Appreciative Inquiry
Speaking Engagements
Songs of the Between is an invitation to participate in the work of becoming better relatives.
Testimonials
“The activities were helpful because they required us to work collaboratively with others, to act things out, and explain our understanding. The course created room for me to question certain things I have believed and done my whole life. It deepened my love for my more-than-human kin, which is something I have become very intentional about. It also taught me how to be a better relative in society, leading with love and kindness.”
— Anonymous How to Be a Better Relative Participant.“Thank you, Mackenzie, for taking us on this path, for guiding our understanding of ourselves in relationship with what and who we live with. I found the outside ceremonies and the storytelling very meaningful experiences because they offered new and deeper ways of being human. The course has reminded me of a few things—to be aware of, to care for, to learn from, and to honour our non-human relatives, even in small ways.”
— Gerry Hewitt, Kelowna, BC, How To Be a Better Relative Participant.Writing
I began writing stories when I was twelve, long before I had language for many of the experiences and questions I was trying to hold together. Writing remains one of the primary ways I listen, make meaning, and explore the spaces between faith, culture, land, identity, and relationship.
Through Songs of the Between, I share personal reflections, community stories, poetry, songs, and published works. Across these different forms, I return to questions of belonging, truth, justice, and what it means to become better relatives.
Walking the Good Road
Personal reflections on faith, reconciliation, community, and the world around us.
Explore Walking the Good Road ↗
Relatives in Reconciliation
Mapping stories of truth and reconciliation in the Central Okanagan.
Explore Relatives in Reconciliation ↗
Unite With Me
Creative work from the spaces between.
Explore Songs and Poetry ↗
Published Writing
Selected essays, poetry, academic writing, and creative projects published elsewhere.
View Published Writing ↗
Upcoming Gatherings
View upcoming learning opportunities, workshops, and gatherings.
Songs of the Between is made possible through the partnership and support of Red Clover Initiatives. Beginning in fall 2026, I will join Red Clover as a part-time staff member to develop and lead this work.
If you would like to support this work of cultivating spaces for learning, deeper relationships, and reconciliation, you can donate to Red Clover through my Charitable Impact Giving Group.
Support My Work
Begin a Conversation
We break patterns and open doors to solutions once thought unreachable.