About Conflict Witch

I became a student of conflict very young. My community of origin was my first teacher about the destructive and constructive powers of conflict and contact with the criminal legal system. I grew fascinated by how conflict was a microcosm of the whole world, of communication, culture, and trauma. That fascination brought me to years of deep academic study, with a Master’s in Peace & Conflict Studies from the United Nations University for Peace and an undergraduate degree in Conflict Resolution Studies with a specialization in Restorative Justice and a minor in Indigenous Studies. I spent years studying conflict from every angle with classmates from all around the world and continued my learning outside of university with hundreds of hours of training in trauma-informed conflict transformation, mediation, and restorative and transformative justice.

I went on to manage a city’s Restorative Justice Program, consult on complex cases along the coast, and do private mediation, handling hundreds of high-stakes cases from community, police, and provincial and federal Crown lawyers for everything from intimate partner violence, drug trafficking, gender-based violence, and serious assaults. I worked with hundreds of people who have caused and experienced harm, their families, and their communities. I was honored to witness immense change, repair, and growth and affirmed my calling to support movements for meaningful justice outside of the criminal legal system. My favorite cases involved clients who were interested in incorporating their cultural traditions, rituals, and spirituality, and that inspired me to found Conflict Witch!

I am a queer, white, cis-gendered settler, primarily of Swiss and French ancestry, with Irish and Scottish roots as well. On my paternal side, my long-ago great-great-great-grandfather was born out of wedlock in Switzerland, faced persecution, and then decided he would start his own family on stolen Indigenous land on eastern Turtle Island. My paternal family migrated westward to settle on unceded Anishinaabe Algonquin land (Ottawa, Ontario). My maternal line is originally from France (our last name, “Rivet,” meant “by the river,” and I have coincidentally spent most of my life in homes next to rivers) and settled as uninvited trespassers on Nipissing First Nation land (North Bay, Ontario). My parents met on Anishinaabe Algonquin land and decided they would start their family on the West Coast, and so one day under a spring full moon, I was born next to the Salish Sea.

When I think of my body, I think of what it loves: forest walks, jumping into cold oceans, rivers, and lakes, hugs and belly laughter with chosen family, cuddling up with beloveds, and drinking a really good cup of tea.

I’ve been a witch since I was making potions of mud and flowers by the river and seeing fairies amongst the flowers. I’ve trained for the last 13 years with mystics, witches, and edgewalkers in ritual, divination, and magic—in covens, at witch camps, in mystery schools, and in the forest. I have Priestexxed (a gender-neutral term for Priestessing or leading) hundreds of rituals. I am often asked how I know magic is real. The truest answer is that I know magic is real because it has made all my dreams come true. Ritual is like breathing for me—it is everywhere and all around me in my work, my home, my relationships, my days, and my nights.

I have found one of my spiritual homes within the Reclaiming Tradition and another within my European pagan ancestry lineages. Most of all, though, my magic belongs to the earth and to spirit, and I align with adrienne maree brown’s description of her magic in Fables and Spells (2022):
"I am definitely an intuitive witch. I answer the call and I trust the love in the universe to guide my actions. And I use my witching for liberation."

My kind of magic is emergent, embodied, and elemental and doesn’t require any special tools or supplies. It is magic that sparkles and bubbles up from our bodies, from nature, from the moment, and from deep listening. It is a magical practice that does not borrow from other traditions without consent and that is deeply rooted in liberation for all people. It is a magic that has its boots firmly on the ground in material reality and yet its head in the clouds, open to the felt but unseen.