Reflections from TEDx Victoria 2025
A theatre full of mostly strangers, with just a few familiar faces—Tessa from KWENCH, Carla from Design Victoria, Rhudey, Molly, and Alysha from the Aunty Collective, who opened with a beautiful First Nations welcome. I love all their work, and honestly? There’s a special kind of comfort that comes from seeing people like that show up for our community. It makes you feel like you’re in the right place. Like community is actually possible.
It felt so familiar. Like being in a room full of people who get it—who care deeply about creating, connecting, and shifting things for the better.
what really hit me?
How essential community spaces are—and how many of them are disappearing, decomposing, or hard to access in Victoria.
Thanks to TEDxVictoria for filling the room and filling my mind with innovative and future-positive thoughts. These rooms are essential if we want to see our local community thrive.
We’re losing these spaces.
- The Victoria Event Centre? Closed.
- Dance and rehearsal studios? I still have yet to find a suitable space to practice dance in the downtown core.
Places like the McPherson Theatre shouldn’t feel like a rare, lucky thing.
We need more places where people—especially youth—can connect outside of school, outside of competitive sports, outside of performance pressure.
a few speaker moments that stuck with me:
- “Look for who is missing, invest there.” Especially when you’re trying to make an impact.
- “Let go of the ego that says you know how the money will be spent. People trust billionaires to improve the world, and yet they don’t trust the unhoused to feed themselves.”
- “Save 20%, savings = freedom.”
- “People with the least often give the most.”
- “Meeting strangers can save your life.”
- “You take from nature. How are you giving back to her?”
There was one story about a man standing on the edge of a bridge, ready to jump.
He finds a harmonica on the train tracks—and instead of ending his life, he plays.
That simple act becomes a thread back to meaning and purpose.
Art saved him. And now, he shares his story to help others.
Another speaker talked about how isolation breeds depression.
Another reminded us how simple it is to find miracles—by just paying attention.
He started recording hummingbirds, and it reconnected him to nature… and to himself.
getting outside.
Connecting to nature as a way to find yourself again.
To connect to your mind. To your body. To the world around you.
To make better decisions.
We’re so often stuck in our heads, trapped inside screens.
But when we step outside, slow down, and get grounded—everything shifts.
That connection isn’t extra. It’s essential.
Another quote that I haven’t stopped thinking about:
“I continue to dream, because it’s too painful not to.”
Even when the system feels broken.
Dreaming isn’t a luxury—it’s survival.
Especially for folks recovering, parenting, caregiving, rebuilding.
Many of the speakers were recovering addicts.
They’ve made powerful changes in their lives and were given space to share their stories—to show others it’s possible to keep going.
One woman talked about how motherhood cracked her open—how it forced her to ask for help, and build connection in ways she never had before.
I felt that.
i don’t have a tidy conclusion. Just this:
We need more spaces where people can just be.
Where art, nature, story, and community intersect.
Where you can show up unsure, and still be welcomed.
Because sometimes a harmonica—or a hummingbird—is all it takes.
