
A Bison at the Centre of Social Innovation
Give a person a fish, you feed them for a day. Teach them to fish, you feed them for a lifetime.
“But what if the lake is polluted? What if there are no fish? What if the fish are toxic?” asks Diane Roussin [BSW/96] in her 2018 TED Talk on Indigenous social innovation.
By reframing this familiar proverb, Roussin emphasizes that the challenges faced by Indigenous families are the result of systemic design, not personal failings. As project director of The Winnipeg Boldness Project, an Indigenous social innovation lab, she leads a community-driven effort to unpollute the lake.
Growing up in rural Manitoba, Roussin, Anishinaabe and a member of the Skownan First Nation, experienced the constant presence of racism.
“Outside my home, I was treated as a second-class citizen. I just thought that’s the way the world was,” Roussin says.
Yet within the walls of her family home, there was love, culture and a strong sense of identity. Her father, who attended a church-run school in a Métis community, and her mother, a residential school Survivor, spoke Anishinaabemowin to each other. They didn’t teach it to their children, however.
“My mom was told that if she wanted her children to achieve anything in life, they had to know English,” Roussin says. “So we grew up listening to the language but weren’t taught to speak it.”
In school, Roussin excelled. She was always at the top of her class—a natural overachiever with a competitive spirit.
“I had the top marks in every subject. But no one talked to me about university. I had no clue what post-secondary was,” Roussin says.
It was through the encouragement of a friend that she found herself stepping into an unfamiliar world. She began her studies at Brandon University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in sociology. While studying, she worked in child welfare, where she saw firsthand the limits of her role and the depth of systemic inequities.
“I couldn’t change anything or create anything,” Roussin says. “You care for the kids, feed the kids, get them to school and appointments, but you have no power over the bigger decisions, like whether they get to see their families.”
What troubled her most were the reasons children were removed from their families.
“Some situations needed addressing, but there were also kids taken for what seemed like such minor issues. Why would you pull a child from their family for something so small?” Roussin says.
(The problem wasn’t new then, nor has it improved much over time. In 2022, Indigenous children made up 90 per cent of those in the care of Child and Family Services in Manitoba.)
Determined to address these issues, Roussin enrolled in the concentrated Bachelor of Social Work program at the University of Manitoba to focus on Indigenous policy.
“I was very clear—I didn’t want to work in child welfare; I wanted to change it,” Roussin says.
UM didn’t have practicum placements in Indigenous policy at the time, so Roussin sought out opportunities in Winnipeg’s North End. There, she connected with Indigenous matriarchs across a variety of agencies whose work resonated with her upbringing and values.
“Everything they were doing spoke truth to me,” Roussin says. “It affirmed what I knew from my family and my culture. That’s when I thought, ‘This feels right.’”
As the project director of The Winnipeg Boldness Project, she centres Indigenous knowledge by co-creating solutions with residents of Winnipeg’s Point Douglas neighbourhood. This means actively involving community members in identifying problems and designing initiatives that reflect their lived experiences, cultural values and needs.
This approach has led to initiatives like the Baby Basket, which provides culturally grounded support and supplies for new parents; the Indigenous Doula Initiative, focused on pre- and post-pregnancy care rooted in traditional knowledge; and programs to strengthen family bonds, such as the North Point Douglas Men’s Sharing Circle for dads.
“We don’t need saviors. That’s what got us into this mess,” Roussin says. “We need collaboration and co-creation. Everyone has something to bring to the table.”
Point of View // DIANE ROUSSIN ON SOCIAL INNOVATION
For Diane Roussin, social innovation stems from an Indigenous worldview that prioritizes relationships over the transactional models that typically dominate our social systems. This perspective shapes how Roussin’s team approaches their work.
“You can’t tackle complex issues without trust and connection,” Roussin says “When we prioritize relationships, it fosters interdependence—where every being and relationship matters—and creates space for honest and meaningful collaboration.”
And true social innovation requires we value all living beings as being interconnected. This is how collaborative solutions are born.
At the University of Manitoba, Bisons are at the centre of health care, finance, Reconciliation and so much more. Wherever there’s a challenge, you’ll find UM alumni leading the charge. Explore the Bisons at the Centre campaign and meet other alumni who—like Diane Roussin—are shaping Manitoba and beyond.