Lillian Eva Dyck

Lillian Eva Dyck is a former Canadian senate who has paved the path and has became a role model for many other indigenous women. Dyck was the first female First nation senator as well as the first First Nation woman to obtain her PhD in Sciences in Canada.

Dyck was born in 1945 in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Her father, Quan Leen Yok, had immigrated to Canada from China. Her mother, Eva Quan (McNab), was Cree and a member of the Gordon First Nation. This makes Dyck of Chinese and Indigenous descent. Because of Canada's blood quantum law, she is not recognized as indigenous by the government. Her mother's indigenous status was also taken away because she married a non-status man. Additionally, her mother was also forced to attend residential school where she was taught to be ashamed of her indigenousness. Suffering from generational trauma, Dyck and her brother was taught since a young age to not recognise their indigenous identity and to pretend to only be Chinese in order to receive less racism in Canada.

Dyck earned three degrees from the University of Saskatchewan, obtaining a PhD in biological psychiatry in 1981. She was a professor in the Neuropsychiatry Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry and an associate dean in the College of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Saskatchewan. In 2005, she became the first female First Nations senator and is the chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples. Dyck is well known for being an outspoken advocate of equity for Chinese Canadians and Indigenous peoples of Canada.