Piwapan Women’s Centre
With deep sadness we bid good bye to an advocate, an ally and a friend. A former board member, Val joined many causes to better the lives of community members. Her dedication to community, her adopted home town, was unmatched. We will miss you at events, gatherings and our day to day activities. You will be missed, you are irreplaceable and so much a part of the community, so many of us feel this loss.
Written by Larissa Muirhead
on behalf of For Peat’s Sake
Val was a constant in our For Peat’s Sake group since its inception. She knew the importance of speaking up on important issues and dedicated her time serving her community.
She leaves a legacy of decades of commitment to environmental advocacy. She was someone who saw the importance in embracing Indigenous worldviews to heal our broken systems and spirits.
Val was a keeper of many stories and shared the wisdom she had from years of advocacy work. She attended every event in town. We could always count on Val to be there in her leggings and pig tails-ready to listen, learn, and share what she held in her heart to be true.
We honor the time she spent writing articles informing the public of our work, her presence at our events and the help she provided in planning and participating. We will truly miss her tiny self, her bright blue eyes, gentle whisper of a voice, and the smile she gave when she listened to you share a piece of your heart with her.
It was a blessing to have her as a part of our group and we will honor her by carrying forward the lessons she left with us. Until we meet again sister, rest in peace.
Written by Tristen Durocher
La Ronge lost a local icon.
Dear Valerie Barnes-Connell,
News of your passing reached me unexpectedly yesterday. It made me stop to look at a lifetime of memories that you were a part of. From circus performances and plays at my local elementary school, there you were with a notebook in hand ready to write a story in the paper about supporting youth and the arts in the north, to my first times playing fiddle for elders gatherings in public, everything, all our gatherings in our community, you were there, listening, watching, asking questions.
You lived in a way that you became a welcome and supportive presence in our lives, not just a journalist who lived among us, but one of us.
Thank you for telling our stories with care and witnessing the unfolding of our history.
Your archive will be cherished, as will the moments you shared with us.
With admiration and respect, always, your friend.
Written by Henry Potts
Teacher at the Senator Myles Venne School
Val and I lived together for many years. Well, actually, we lived in the same apartment building, but not in the same apartment. I can just hear Val chuckling at my initial, misleading sentence. I definitely could bring Val to laughter with my sometimes unusual, politically naïve, silly ideas.
The respect I felt for Val, that very same respect that I feel today, is considerable and deserved. What do I honour? I honour her determination to learn essential, conversational Cree when many others of her generation had moved on. I honour her principled beliefs that if the posted highway speed is 100 kilometres per hour, then that is what we should be driving. I honour her participation in every LGBTQ- Two-Spirited Parade where she was quite heedless of the ones who lacked her courage.
Val’s fondness for the truth never waned, even when I tried to cajole her into adopting a softer, less ministerial stance.
Bravo, my friend! A life well lived is one where we see you in our mind’s eye still vibrant, still strong, still concerned about the decisions of the elite or well-connected, still caring for those quieted ones we, sometimes without charity, shuffle over to the margins.
