Miranda Lesperance is an Anishinaabekwe from Opwaaganisiniing (Red Rock First Nation), on the shores of Lake Helen and the mouth of the Nipigon River.  She is a Ph.D. student at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.  Her research interests include Indigenous people’s health, social justice, health labels and behaviours, and the social determinants of health.  After 15 years in Toronto, Miranda has recently returned home to the Thunder Bay region to complete her Ph.D. research and be closer to family and the land/culture.  She spends as much time as possible on Oliver Lake with her partner and her two children, Nodin and Waseya.  After many years of successful fruit and vegetable gardening in zone 6, she is re-learning zone 2-3 gardening by trial and error…emphasis on the error.  Her house plants, however, are thriving in all the natural light