Mahalia Reiner

Mahalia Reiner

Organizer

mahalia@sierraclub.bc.ca
250-386-5255 ext 110

Mahalia is a community organizer who is passionate about supporting sustainable, interdependent relationships. Born and raised on the unceded and ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nation, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation, and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nation, Mahalia is a settler of Ashkenazi and Greek ancestry. Mahalia comes to this work motivated by the Ashkenazi concept of “Doikayt,” or “Here-ness,” which encourages diasporic people to live with devotion to the lands they live on and to all beings they live alongside. Shaped by their youth spent reading under willow trees, swimming in local waters, and taking in the PNW rains, Mahalia grew their own sense of devotion here with slowness, playfulness, and reverence. Mahalia listens for ways they can understand and live out their obligations as a settler on these lands, and they are grateful for the opportunity to put their learnings into meaningful action through their projects with Sierra Club BC.

Raised valuing collaborative, interdisciplinary ways of living, Mahalia carries with them experience in healthcare, conflict transformation, urban farming, and community building. Outside of the professional world, you might find Mahalia on the soccer pitch, fumbling contently through a local dance class, crafting, offering hand sniffs to local dogs, or — and most often — eating and sharing in ritual with their beloveds.