Day in the Life: Charlotte Charlie

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF Charlotte Charlie is all about community. Not only does she work in UVic’s Office of Community-Based Research (OCBR) as the new administrative coordinator, she volunteers at various events and, as the mother of an 11-year-old son, knows intrinsically how important it is to give back something of herself.

When she’s not chauffeuring her son to after-school lessons or papering campus with OCBR posters for upcoming lectures, she volunteers for local associations such as Surrounded by Cedar Child and Family Services and the Victoria Native Friendship Centre as well as sports tournaments and holiday feasts. Being a mother always comes first for Charlie, and she has convinced her son at an early age of the importance of volunteering to help others.

She recounts one occasion when he was paid an honorarium for assisting at National Aboriginal Day celebrations. “He was so surprised to be paid,” she remembers. “He thought he was just ‘helping out.’”

During weekdays, Charlie is most often sitting at her desk sending emails to OCBR networks, preparing correspondence, faxing materials and getting documents ready for programs and speaking engagements. The OCBR is the first university-wide initiative of its kind in Canada and is helping to lead the way with internationally significant, locally relevant and socially driven programs that enrich communities and transform research into action.

Charlie joined the OCBR team in June 2009 and says she’s found her footing. She is also “very passionate about all the different streams of higher learning” that OCBR is involved in, including campus sustainability initiatives and community mapping projects.

Charlie was born and raised in the Cowichan Tribes (Khowutzun Nation), BC’s largest First Nations community. She also has ancestral ties to the local Songhees/ Lekwungen peoples and the Skatin Nation.

Charlie attended UVic as an undergraduate history student before joining the OCBR and was involved in the Native Student Union while taking classes full-time for two years. She quickly discovered she was “missing out on the sweetest time” with her son especially during his grade-school years, and she is now working toward her undergraduate goals at a more measured pace.

After 25 years of playing soccer, Charlie certainly knows how to pace herself. She became involved in high school at Cowichan Senior Secondary and the Native Soccer League with the Victoria T-Birds, then the Lower Island Women’s Soccer Association league with Gorge and Vantreights, and is now playing for the Victoria Scottish “Over 30s” women’s league. Her son is an enthusiastic soccer player too.

“My son also talked me into music lessons,” says Charlie. “I followed my son’s lead and now I play the guitar. I’ve always been a ‘wait-and-see’ kind of girl, but motherhood has got me to some great places.”