Third generation do-gooder does it all

By Catherine Tammaro –

Fresh-faced Siobhan Bonisteel sits amid the organic market on a sweltering Tuesday afternoon in Riverdale Park. Her father, Cabbagetown’s country-blues musician Johnny Pearl, has just finished helping her to set up her tent and pulls away in his bright turquoise pickup truck.

Women dancing their Nia workout, mothers and babies, artists, musicians and beautiful organic fruits, flowers and vegetables line the pathway that runs toward the Riverdale Farm. A Buddhist Lama slowly walks through the park in the heat and haze and all seems to come to a peaceful, momentary stop. The community comes together, conducts commerce and social intercourse here, every Tuesday from 3:30 to 7 p.m. until October.

For the busy Bonisteel, these hours at the park might even be considered her break time.

Bonisteel’s big blue tent is filled with neighborly women on chairs and mats and her line of all natural, body-loving products called Sacred Lotus. The title reflects Siobhan’s interest in the spiritual world and her philosophy and practice of sustainable, organic living.

She comments, “I started Sacred Lotus because I wanted to create products that were healthy for the body and spirit, which offer an alternative to our constant chemical overload. I believe that everything we need to sustain ourselves, is given to us by the Earth and my products reflect that.”

Bonisteel industriously makes soaps, lotions, massage oils and special products for mothers and produces all of these at home in her wonderful, vintage kitchen located in a stately, heritage apartment building just off the park.

In addition to working from home, her co-op unit is home base for her activism. Bonisteel is the president of the board of directors for the building. She is also the editor and co-founder of the newsletter collective there and is most likely one of the youngest presidents of any co-op board in Canada.

“I think that we have a responsibility to our local and global communities, to be involved and active in facilitating change and peace,” Bonisteel says. “My Mother taught me that it is important to speak up for what I believe in and I believe in community and equality for everyone.”

She cites her grandfather, well-known humanitarian and journalist Roy Bonisteel, as a major influence in her life. The elder Bonisteel, former host of the CBC program Man Alive, was the winner of two awards of excellence in broadcast journalism and has also received a number of honorary doctorates. He was also made a member of the Order of Canada.

Her other influences have been her grandmother, a holistic healer and nurse, and her musician husband Charles Topping.

Surrounded by exceptional people, she has accumulated much worldly experience in her 23 years. She and her sister Kassia went to secondary school in war torn Bosnia and Herzegovina while her mother Mandy was involved in rebuilding there. They were the only foreign children to be enrolled in local schools with Bosnian teens.

After high school, Bonisteel entered UofT where she is working toward an honours bachelor of arts and sciences degree. Her double major is English and women’s studies. She was also the students’ representative for her women’s history class in 2005 and 2006, and she also recently completed a documentary called Standing Still—An Exploration of Native Identity. Bonisteel wrote, edited and filmed the piece, which won her an honours mark.

As if all that isn’t enough to keep her completely occupied, Bonisteel has recently been hired as summer projects coordinator for the Nook at the Christie Ossington Neighborhood Centre, a non-profit organization that helps children from low-income families. She will be helping to design and implement a bike-borrowing program, which she has dubbed Pedal Pushers. The programme provides community children with free bicycles they can ride at no cost.

Bonisteel is also an active volunteer with the George Brown College family medicine project.

For fun, Bonisteel and her husband compose and record music in their home studio.

“My music is important to me as it reflects me as a human being. I feel like I am a piece of all the people who have taught me! All those things that they are, I have inherited and mixed them together in my own way. I do holistic work, music and am active in my community. It’s because of the people that I come from, that I am who I am.”

Used bicycles may be donated to Pedal Pushers by calling (416) 534-8941 ext 33. Bonisteel’s music is online at www.myspace.com/siobhansound.