Moose Factory Ministik School is so incredibly proud of Ministik alumni and former Ministik teacher, Dr. Candace Linklater as she has recently completed her PhD.

You are an inspiration to so many 👩‍🎓💖I completed my PhD!!! I am now Dr. Candace Linklater 🤩

Rez kids, you can do ANYTHING 💫💫

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My Heartfelt Acknowledgements:

To my loving Alex, my sweetheart: you have been my soft landing, my courage, and my steady heart. Your faith in me brought me here, to this moment, and I am endlessly grateful. You are my everything, and every step of my study’s journey was taken with you devotedly beside me.

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to my parents, my sister, and my best friend. Your relentless support and love have been my anchor, and your compassion flows through this work, filling it with care and depth.

To my community, Moose Cree First Nation—the People, Land, and Waters: thank you for keeping me grounded and loved. And of course, I acknowledge, with so much love, all my previous students. You are in every word, every essence of my work.

To those who resisted the birth of this study: I acknowledge you too. I hope that one day, you open yourself to the kind of love that extends beyond walls of bigotry. Despite your resistance, here my work stands—alive, breathing, and complete.

Lastly, to the moss—the inspiration and quiet teacher of my study’s journey. I will keep learning from you, and letting your quiet resilience guide me. This work, like you, stretches forward, rooting, nurturing, and reaching toward light.

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My PhD dissertation’s title is Pedagogy of Moss in School Leadership for Indigenous 2SLGBTQ+ K-12 Students.

My committee members will be nominating my dissertation for an award, and I can’t wait to share it with you all!

It will be available in the coming weeks–I’ll make an announcement when it’s published!

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At the core of my study is an invitation to honor humanity and embrace relational growth, understanding that transformation, much like moss, unfolds slowly and steadily, even within moments of disruption.

Just as moss turns what seems barren into something alive, the process of collective actualization allows us to transmute our shadows—our fears, our discomforts—into alchemy. Growth is holistic; it comes with stumbles, yet we can grow regardless.

Each student, each educator, and each connection are an essential part of a larger, interconnected whole, like the spectrum of colors that blend into one. If you see only five colors, you’re blind to the full rainbow; if you hear only five sounds, you’re deaf to the full symphony. Similarly, when we restrict human expression and love to rigid binaries, we limit our own humanity, disconnecting ourselves from the oneness of all experiences.

We must open our eyes, ears, and hearts to the full spectrum of human expression—embracing the complex, fluid, and expansive ways we all exist. By doing so, we create spaces where all forms of expression are celebrated, just as moss nurtures life in its quiet, resilient growth.

Through honoring each other’s aliveness, we invite a new vision of education and the world: one that nurtures, connects, and transforms. Just like moss.

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I cannot imagine getting upset with moss
For not growing like the trees.
I cannot imagine telling moss
That it needs to look more like the flowers.

Gender expression and identity
Attraction and love
Are like the moss.
Expansive. Non-binary. A forest.

So why
Oh why
Are you upset
When someone doesn’t grow
The way you want them to?

Try getting mad at moss
For not being the grass.
Or yelling at the moss
For not being like the vines.

Let moss
Be moss.
Let humans
Be human.
Let love
Be love.

An Invitation to Love by Dr. Candace Linklater

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Photographer: My sweetheart, Alex Manitopyes @alexmanitopyes
MUO: @amavi_beauty
Hair: @sydironstarbeauty
Set Assistant: @twospiritsonelove ... See MoreSee Less