Uxwin Mimne Daycare Centre

Uxwin Mimne Daycare Centre is hosted on Snuneymuxw territory by Tillicum Lelum Aboriginal Society. Uxwin Mimne means ‘small, precious, dearest one.’

We are committed to loving, caring, supporting, educating and advocating for our children and their families/caregivers. We do this by providing a safe, loving and respectful environment, so children and their families/caregivers feel welcomed and supported. 

Most of our families are First Nations from Vancouver Island. Families are always welcome to come in to have a coffee/tea and a chat. Building a strong, positive, respectful and loving relationship is very important to us. Families are welcomed to our Elder Parent Informing Circle, and every Friday we have Family Breakfasts from 8:30-9:30. We also have traditional parenting nights, meet and greet pizza parties, and drum making for families with children moving on to kindergarten.

Languages shared in the program include Kwak̓wala and Hul’q’umi’num’, and Culture is quite visible from books to art, lunch time prayer and land acknowledgement.  The curriculum follows a cultural calendar that we created through AHS. Since creating the original, we have added more local and island Indigenous culture thanks to our Knowledge Keepers, families and Qualicum First Nation resources and workshop. 

We are lucky to have two fantastic Elders/Knowledge Keepers, from Snuneymuxw and ‘Namgis First Nations. They teach us all about culture, protocol, stories, drumming, and traditional songs. They are invited to our events, parent nights, professional development days and planning and programming. Elders are our most valuable resource. 

We are located on Barsby High School property, which provides us with a school garden, skate park, city water park, large play park, lacrosse box and many sports fields. We have a bus stop just outside of our daycare and that enables us to take field trips, for many learning opportunities.