Schedule for Truth and Reconciliation Week (Educators)

Eighteen-year-old Emma Stevens from Eskasoni First Nation (NS) has become a music sensation all before graduating high school. With the release of Steven’s debut song “My Unama’ki,” in 2018, her musical journey was just beginning. “My Unama’ki,” a celebration of the strength and resiliency of Mi’kmaq culture in Cape Breton has become Steven’s signature song and is regularly a part of events across Cape Breton Island.

As an artist, Emma is passionate about bringing awareness to important issues facing First Nations people across Canada, including the loss of language and the staggering number of
missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG). In 2019, Emma recorded Paul
McCartney’s “Blackbird” in Mi’kmaq to help bring awareness to the United Nations’ observance
of the International Year of Indigenous Languages. Since its release, Steven’s version of “Blackbird” has garnered international attention and has helped bring awareness to various efforts being undertaken to revitalize endangered Indigenous languages around the world, notably so in Steven’s own Mi’kma’ki where there are fewer than 10,000 speakers of the Mi’kmaq language remaining.

Stevens has performed across Canada and internationally with
performances in Nairobi, Kenya, Abu Dhabi, Parliament Hill in Ottawa and the UAE for United Nations assemblies where she sang and spoke to leaders and policy-makers from around the
world.

On July 1st, 2021, Steven’s released “I Want to Rise”, a song written to help bring awareness to the more than 4000 missing and murdered First Nations women and girls from across Canada
and the many thousands more MMIW in the United States of America, and, as well, to help empower First Nations youth to rise above the many challenges they face being Indigenous
youth in Canada today.

Educator, musician and producer, Carter Chiasson, is based in Cape Breton Island (NS), where, for the past 9 years he has taught high school music and technological arts in Eskasoni, First Nation, the largest Indigenous community in Eastern Canada.

As an educator, Carter is passionate about working with youth to create authentic and unique experiences and artworks. Carter regularly uses music and various technologies to help students engage with, share and celebrate their cultural identities as well as address local and systemic social issues.

Shawnee Kish discovered music as medicine at a very early age. Born dreaming about being on stage and starting her journey toward a career in music at the age of 12, music has quickly become a source of self-empowerment for the Two Spirit soulful singer. Fuelling her with purpose and reason, making music has allowed Shawnee to stand tall in her personal strength and power. Named the winner of CBC’s 2020 Searchlight talent competition, this fierce, powerhouse artist has been celebrated as one of North America’s Top Gender Bending Artists (MTV), named by Billboard as an Artist You Need To Know and continuously uses her music to empower.

Listening to her chart-topping releases one can easily recognize that, as an artist, Shawnee has been influenced by the strong, confident voices of female performers such as Melissa Etheridge, Etta James, Nina Simone and Amy Whinehouse. Her deeply personal and always poignant lyrics are rooted in healing allowing both herself and her listeners to find purpose and reason in the stories she tells.

An outspoken advocate for her Indigenous and LGBTQ2+ communities, Shawnee is a proud Two Spirit Mohawk who has shared the stage with some of the world’s biggest names – Lady Gaga, Madonna and Alicia Keys to name a few. 2020 saw her step into the world of virtual performances without hesitation, taking part in The Canada House/UK Commerce International Women’s Day Virtual Performance, performing at The Songwriter Series with Serena Ryder and participating in the RBC’s Emerging Artist program. In addition to virtual performances, Shawnee raised her voice on a Grammy Museum Discussion Panel (Being an Artist During COVID) and joined the National Arts Centre of Canada on a collaborative youth project (ongoing).

2021 will see the Edmonton-based artist release a new EP that addresses her personal struggles of the past twelve months – “The main theme will be lighting up what used to be and getting on with what is now. The songs represent becoming yourself, finding out where you were was not where you wanted to be and fully embracing that in order to let go. Light the Place up, even if it’s unintentional” – and hopefully return to touring.

She will also continue her work with the We Matter Campaign and Kids Help Phone in hopes of empowering youth, providing strength and hope through music.

Rebecca Thomas is an award winning Mi’kmaw poet and activist who does not want to be a poet or activist. She just happens to be good enough at poetry and persuasion to get people to listen but her ultimate goal is to make Canada a better place for her Indigenous community because so many people tend to forget they were here first. She has accidentally found herself as the former Poet Laureate of Halifax. She has performed with a Tribe Called Red and has spoken and lectured at conferences and coffee houses from coast to coast. She writes kids books about growing up the child of a residential school Survivor. She has written for the CBC, Washington Post, and Bon Appetite Magazine but has yet to make a chapbook. She collaborated with composer Laura Sgroi to bring together a three poem story and full orchestral score which had its debut with the Kitchener Waterloo symphony in the spring of 2019. Her first book I’m Finding My Talk has been shortlisted for the First Nations Community Reads Award. Her most recent collection of poetry called “I place you into the fire” was listed as one of CBC’s top 20 books of 2020. Her book “Swift Fox All Along” was a finalist for the 2020 Governor General’s Award for children’s literature. She pays her bills by helping students who are overwhelmed with life and studies as a Student Services Advisor at the Nova Scotia Community College. She also feels real uncomfortable writing bios about herself. She’s done some other things here and there but has reached her tolerance for hearing her accomplishments listed off.

Kyle Kaayák’w Worl is an award winning Arctic Sports athlete and coach
currently residing in Juneau, Alaska. He is Tlingit of the Lukaax̲.ádi clan,
Deg Hit’an and Yup’ik. Over his 12 year career in the sport he has won over
80 medals, traveling from Alaska to Greenland to compete in various
events. Along with training and coaching year round in Alaska, Kyle travels
across the world to demonstrate Arctic Sports, including the Riddu Riddu
Festival in Northern Norway, Orenda Art International Gallery in Paris, and
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

Julie Pellissier-Lush is an actress, and bestselling author of My Mi’kmaq Mother, and Mi’kmaq Campfire Stories of Prince Edward Island.  She is the Poet Laureate for PEI, recipient of the Queens jubilee medal in 2013, the Meritorious Service Medal recipient in 2017, and the Senators 150 medal in April 2019. She grew up all over Eastern Canada and spent several years in Winnipeg, Manitoba, before coming back home. Julie is a graduate from the University of Winnipeg in 2000 with a double major in Psychology and Human Resource Management. She works as a Knowledge Keeper for L’nuey, the Epekwitk Mi’kmaq-rights initiative and the Board of Director for the Native Council of PEI.  She writes, acts, and does photography to preserve the history and culture of the Mi’kmaq for future generations. Julie wrote the poems for the play Mi’kmaq Legends which has been performed on many different stages in the Atlantic region. Julie lives in PEI with her husband Rick, her five children, and her granddaughter Miah.

Monique Gray Smith is an award-winning, and best-selling author of books for children and youth, as well as adults. Her children’s books include; My Heart Fills With Happiness, You Hold Me Up, When We Are Kind. Her YA/Adult books include; Speaking our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation, Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience, Tilly and the Crazy Eights and Lucy and Lola. She is a proud mom of teenage twins, and is of Cree, Lakota and Scottish ancestry. Monique is well known for her storytelling, spirit of generosity and belief that love is medicine. She and her family are blessed to live on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen and WSÁNEĆ people, also known as Victoria, Canada.

Shelagh Rogers is a veteran broadcast-journalist at the CBC, currently the host and a producer of The Next Chapter, a radio program devoted to writing in Canada.

In 2011, she was inducted as an Honorary Witness for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She committed to sharing the truth of Survivors and their families so that Canada never forgets its true history. Also in 2011, she was inducted into the Order of Canada as an Officer, for promoting writing in Canada, adult literacy, mental health and truth and reconciliation. She holds eight honorary doctorates. Shelagh is currently Chancellor of the University of Victoria. Shelagh is a member of the Metis Nation of Greater Victoria. She is honoured to be talking with Monique Gray Smith from the unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation where she lives as a grateful visitor.

Teresa Edwards is a member of the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation in Quebec. Her ceremonial name is Young Fire Woman, a name that she strives to fulfill through her work as an International Human Rights Lawyer. Teresa is a mother to three amazing souls – Ashley, Dakota, and Derek, and the grandmother (Giju) to Alivia and Avery, who all inspire her to work towards bringing equity to Indigenous Peoples by improving socio-economic conditions and their overall well-being. For over 30 years, she has been a strong advocate for Indigenous Peoples by championing changes in programs, policy, and legislation from within government and while working with National Indigenous Organizations such as the Assembly of First Nations, Native Women’s Association of Canada, and from within her own legal practice.

Teresa has been the Executive Director and In-House Legal Counsel for the Legacy of Hope Foundation (LHF) for 4 1/2 years. The LHF is a national Indigenous-led charitable organization founded in 2000 to educate and raise awareness about the history and existing intergenerational impacts from the Residential and Day School System, Sixties Scoop, and links to the impacts facing Indigenous Peoples today.

Please join us to hear our Guest Speaker: Teresa Edwards, (Young Fire Woman), who is the Executive Director and In-House Legal Counsel of the Legacy of Hope Foundation. She will speak about Residential and Day Schools, the Sixties Scoop, and other colonial acts of oppression, and how they continue to impact Indigenous Peoples today. Teresa will also discuss how to take action to be an ally and what can be done to foster Reconciliation in Canada.

Lori Marchand took up her role as the first managing director of Indigenous Theatre at the National Arts Centre (NAC) in April 2018, where she is ensuring First Nations, Métis and Inuit stories are brought to the national stage. Ms. Marchand is a nationally recognized leader within the professional theatre community who made a significant impact as executive director of Western Canada Theatre (WCT) in Kamloops, BC, for 19 seasons. A member of the Syilx First Nation, she has played a key role in the encouragement, development and production of Indigenous work.

Ms. Marchand graduated from UBC in 1985 with a degree in English literature. After experience with the BC Native Women’s Society, as executive director of the Ontario Native Women’s Association and then as a human rights officer with the Ontario Human Rights Commission, she returned to her love of theatre in 1989.

After a decade of theatre roles in Alberta and Saskatchewan, she returned to Kamloops in 1999 to join Western Canada Theatre. Her leadership in making live theatre accessible, innovative, powerful and financially sustainable has helped make WCT the southern Interior’s largest professional theatre company; a company recognized for developing new work and new talent, producing work of exceptional caliber and, through partnerships and touring, impacting the national stage.

Throughout her career, Marchand has passionately supported Indigenous art and artists, including the commissioning and production of Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout by Tomson Highway and the development of the Governor General Award-winning drama Where the Blood Mixes by Kevin Loring. She is currently working with Loring, who was appointed as artistic director, to build the new Indigenous Theatre section at the NAC.

Her contributions in BC and nationally also include serving in many capacities for the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres, helping to drive policy relevant to all theatre practitioners in Canada. She was an active member of the BC Arts Council from 2010 to 2017, chairing the strategic planning and program committees and serving as vice-chair.

Ms. Marchand was recognized for her commitment to live theatre and the production of Indigenous work that has contributed to the arts and to Reconciliation with a Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, from Thompson Rivers University in June 2018.

Albert Marshall, Elder, LLD is from the Moose Clan of the Mi’kmaw Nation. He was married to the late Murdena Marshall and together they lived in Eskasoni First Nation in Unama’ki-Cape Breton, Nova Scotia; they have six children, 14 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. Albert and Murdena have long been passionate advocates for the preservation, promotion, and revitalization of Mi’kmaw Traditional Knowledge, including language, spirituality, stories, practices, and ways of knowing. In 2009, Albert and Murdena were awarded Honorary Doctorates in recognition of their devotion and commitment to this work. Their energy, wisdom, and knowledge helped create the innovative Integrative Science academic program at Cape Breton University in the 1990s. Together, Albert and Murdena have developed KECCA (Knowledge Education & Culture Consultant Associates) to better enable their work and to encourage a strong future for the Mi’kmaw Nation and its peoples. Albert is a passionate advocate of cross- cultural understandings and healing and of our human responsibilities to care for all creatures and our Earth Mother. He a fluent speaker of Mi’kmaw and the “designated voice” for the Mi’kmaw Elders of Unama’ki with respect to environmental issues. Albert sits on various committees and boards that guide initiatives in natural resource management, Aboriginal health research and education, or that serve First Nations’ governance issues or that otherwise work towards ethical environmental, social and economic practices. For example, he is a member of the Advisory Council for Unama’ki College of Cape Breton University, the Steering Committee for the Collaborative Environmental Planning Initiative (CEPI) for the Bras d’Or Lake, and the Advisory Board for the National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health headquartered at the University of Northern British Columbia. Albert also served for several years on the board for the Bras d’Or Lake Biosphere Reserve Association, the group that successfully obtained UNESCO designation for the biosphere. He is the person who coined the phrase Two-Eyed Seeing / Etuaptmumk as a guiding principle for collaborative work which encourages learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing … and learning to use both these eyes together, for the benefit of all. In 2009, Albert was awarded the Marshall Award for Aboriginal Leadership as part of the Eco-Hero Awards delivered by the NS Environmental Network (an umbrella organization of provincial environmental and health organizations). Albert was born in Eskasoni, NS. As a young boy, he was taken away from his family and spent many years as an inmate of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School on the mainland of Nova Scotia. Albert was profoundly affected by this experience but today seldom talks about those many painful and traumatic years. Rather, the experience has led him on a lifelong quest to connect with and understand both the culture he was removed from, and the culture he was forced into … and to help these cultures find ways to live in mutual respect of each other’s strengths and ways.

Stephen Augustine is a Hereditary Chief on the Mi’kmaq Grand Council and the Associate Vice-President Indigenous Affairs and Unama’ki College at Cape Breton University. Previously (1996-2013) he was the Curator of Ethnology for Eastern Maritimes, Ethnology Services Division of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, in Gatineau/Ottawa. He holds a Masters degree in Canadian Studies from Carleton University focussing on traditional knowledge curriculum development in the context of the education system and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Political Science from St. Thomas University.

Over the years, Mr. Augustine has shared his expertise in research and traditional knowledge with many organizations, including government departments, the Assembly of First Nations, and various Aboriginal communities across Canada. He is part of an advisory panel on biodiversity issues and has worked extensively with the United Nations programs on development and the environment. He taught sessional courses in Canadian Studies at Carleton University for ten years (course: Aboriginal Peoples and the Knowledge Economy) and recently has taught in Mi’kmaq Studies (courses: Mi’kmaq Traditional Knowledge, Mi’kmaq Oral History, Mi’kmaq Knowledge Economy, and Learning from the Knowledge Keepers of Mi’kma’ki). He has been invited to speak at both national and international conferences. He has published papers, been recorded for radio and various video programs on traditional knowledge, Maritime history and treaties, and storytelling. He has organized cross-cultural workshops and made presentations to a wide variety of institutions (U.N., federal and provincial departments, universities, museums, UNESCO and The Vatican). His book on the CMC collections (Mi’kmaq & Maliseet Cultural Ancestral Material, Mercury Series, CMC, 2005) has proven a valuable resource for academic researchers and educators alike.

He has been accredited as an expert witness in various court cases, involving Aboriginal access to resources in the Maritimes, being recognized for his knowledge both of oral history and ethno-history, and of the treaties in the region. He has recently been named the recipient of the 2009 National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Culture, Heritage and Spirituality and the 2009 New Brunswick Lieutenant-Governor’s Dialogue Award. He has also been named (fall 2008) member of the Sectoral Commission for Culture, Communication and Information for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. He has been Elder Advisor to the Federal Court of Canada Judges, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Human Rights Commission of Canada. In his role as a hereditary Chief on the Mi’kmaq Grand Council and by Elders’ training since an early age, Stephen J. Augustine has a thorough command of traditional practices, his language and the history of his people.

Dr. Perley is a member of St. Mary’s First Nation who is currently the Elder-in-Residence at Chief Harold Sappier Memorial Elementary School.  She is also a part-time instructor at UNB teaching Wolastoqey Language and Wabanaki Worldviews courses. Imelda is retired from her position as Elder-In-Residence for the University of New Brunswick. She continues her role as cultural advisor for community organizations, provincial and federal agencies. She is a Cultural Consultant for two Health Canada initiatives titled “Oluwikoneyak Weckuwapasihtit (From the Womb to Beyond) within the Maternal Child Health program and “’Ciw Wolakomiksuwakon” (For Healthy Mind, Body and Spirit) within the Maliseet Nation Mental Wellness program. Her traditional roles within the community include Sweatlodge Keeper, Medicine Wheel Teacher, Sacred Pipe Carrier, and Keeper of the Women’s Ceremonies.

To date, Imelda has been acknowledged for her language and cultural contributions through many awards, certificates and medals.  In 2012, Imelda received the Queen Jubilee Medal for community service. She was also awarded the 2017 Governor Generals Sovereign Medal for Volunteers for delivering language and cultural activities. In 2017, Imelda was one of Canada’s 150 Ambassadors and continues to share with Canada her language through language teaching tweets at askomiw150.  Maine State Legislative Assembly also recognized her dedication to language revitalization efforts within both university and community programs.  In May of 2019, Imelda received an honorary doctorate of letters degree from University of New Brunswick for her “incredible work contributing to the support, education and visibility of Indigenous peoples at UNB and across the province”.