Walking with Lillian
Promoting cultural reconnection, identity reclamation, and finding belonging.
Cultural Reconnection
Identity Reclamation
Finding Belonging
Cultural Reconnection Identity Reclamation Finding Belonging
Cultural Reconnection
Identity Reclamation
Finding Belonging
Cultural Reconnection Identity Reclamation Finding Belonging
Our Mission
Every person deserves to know where they come from, who they are, and that they belong.
Walking With Lillian was created from a deeply personal journey of searching for identity, connection, and belonging. Like many others, I experienced what it means to ask difficult questions about family, culture, and where you fit into this world. Along that journey I discovered that healing isn’t something we do alone - it happens when someone is willing to walk beside us.
That’s why this initiative exists.
Walking with Lillian is more than a personal story. It is a community dedicated to supporting individuals who are reconnecting with their identity, culture, heritage, and sense of belonging. Whether you are Indigenous, adopted, reconnecting with your roots, or simply searching for where you belong, you deserve resources, encouragement, and a place where your story matters.
Our mission is to provide tools for reflection, opportunities for connection, and a growing community where every person is reminded that their journey is important.
The name Walking With Lillian reflects the simple belief: none of us should have to walk alone. Every path is different, but together we can create spaces where stories are honored, cultures are celebrated, and healing becomes possible.
This is an invitation to walk with us - to learn, to reconnect, to share your story, and to help build a future where everyone knows they belong.
Meet the Founder
My Great Grandmother Lillian May Marion was a remarkable woman. She was married young and lived a majority of her life being a single mother to my grandfather and his five siblings. Stories of her humor and spirit echo through our family histories still to this day.
I never had the pleasure of meeting Lillian, but if I had, I feel we would have been like two peas in a pod.
When I was fourteen I began looking deeper into my fathers Indigenous background. The culture I was raised in had always been clouded in shame and secrecy, and I became curious. This journey of education and reconnection I have embarked on over the last five years has been a difficult, emotionally taxing, and quiet one.
Any clues I was able to locate along the way always seemed to link back to Lillian. Band card application papers sent to my grandfather when my father was still a child, hidden away in an old envelope for years. Family photo books passed down to my grandfathers sisters. And stories of residential schools, and Indian day schools.
My experience of relearning a language and a culture that was stripped away from us has translated into my passion for finding identity.
No one should have to lay awake at night wondering who they are, where they come from, or what their family used to be. My goal is to make the search for identity, belonging, and healing a bit more accessible.
Lillian left clues behind throughout her life for future generations to follow and one day reconnect to who we were, her efforts will not be forgotten.
- With love and adoration, Neela Elizabeth Fleury ♡
The Project
Walking with history
We walk alongside the evidence left behind by former generations to form an understanding of who we are, where we come from, and where we belong.
Listening
We have meaningful conversations and listen with open minds and open hearts.
Inspiring
We use these stories to education, and to inspire future generations, While also creating meaningful change.