Waitaha Taiwhenua ki Waitaki iwi/tribe, Aotearoa New Zealand

Dr. Makere Stewart-Harawira is Professor, Indigenous, Environmental and Global Studies, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta. She is an enrolled member of the Waitaha Taiwhenua ki Waitaki tribe in Aotearoa New Zealand and has been actively engaged in issues related to global transformation, fresh-water governance and Indigenous knowledges and ethics for several decades.

Dr. Stewart-Harawira is an Expert Member on a number of Commissions for the International Union for the Conservation including the Commission on Ecosystem Management, joint Specialist Group on Indigenous Peoples, Customary & Environmental Laws and Human Rights and is a National Board Member for Keepers of the Water, Canada.

Makere’s engagement and research reflect her passion for and commitment to global transformation, climate change, freshwater protection and governance, multispecies justice and our co-habitation of planet earth. As global society struggles to transition to new modes of co-existence, the contributions of Indigenous communities and Indigenous traditional knowledge systems are critical to this process.

Her published work includes Troubled Waters: Maori Values and Ethics for Freshwater Management and New Zealand’s Fresh Water Crisis. WIREs Water, 2020; Resilient Systems, Resilient Communities, 2018; Returning the sacred: Indigenous ontologies in perilous times in Williams, Roberts & McIntosh, Radical Human Ecology: Intercultural and Indigenous Approaches, 2012; The New Imperial Order. Indigenous Responses to Globalization, 2005.

Ullrich Kockel is Professor of Creative Ethnology at UHI. He taught at Leeds Polytechnic and University College Galway before receiving his PhD from the University of Liverpool, where he was appointed to the first-ever full-time post in Irish Studies at a British university. Ullrich also taught Geography at University College Cork for ten years. Subsequently he held chairs in European Studies (University of the West of England, 2000-5), Ethnology and Folklife (University of Ulster, 2005-12), and Cultural Ecology and Sustainability (Heriot-Watt University, 2012-21). A Visiting Professor at the Center for Social Anthropology, Vytautas Magnus University Kaunas, Lithuania, since 2011, and at the Latvian Academy of Culture (2020-22), he was President of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF, 2008-13) and was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 2012.

Franconian, Albingian, New Scot/Alba

My name is Danielle Alphonse ~ Qwul’stun’a’wat is my traditional name passed down from my late grandmother Philomena Alphonse. My grandparents are late Philomena Alphonse & Dennis Alphonse, on my dad’s side Olwen Mc Neil and late Bill Mc Neil and late Donna Galloway and Charles Galloway. My parents are Lucy Galloway, and my two fathers Doug Regan and David Galloway. I am the oldest of three sisters and I am the oldest grandchild in my family. I am Cowichan & Irish on my mother’s side and Kahnawake, Welsh, Scottish on my father’s side. I am currently in my ninth year as the BC Regional Innovation Chair for Aboriginal Early Childhood Development at Vancouver Island University. Also, I teach in the Early Childhood Education and Care program. My educational background is: Early Childhood Education, Child and Youth Care, and Education.

Wahsayzee Deleary is an Anishinabekwe from Oneida Nation of the Thames and Deshkaan Ziibii (Chippewa of the Thames First Nation) as well as Kitigan zibi Anishinanbeg First Nation. Wahsayzee’s lineage on her fathers side is Pottawatomi, Ojibway, Otomi, and Irish ancestry. From her mothers lineage she is Algonquin, and French/German. Wahsayzee is Midewewin, and a member of the Three Fires Midewewin Lodge. She is Loon Clan, and is a mother and grandmother. She has been advocating for water and teaching about Anshinabe knowledge and lifeways for a majority of her life. She believes that this knowledge must be passed into the future and is a part of her life’s purpose to do that work. Wahsayzee has spent over 20 years in the fields of education and health and has begun a new career path in the area of child welfare.

Introduction Sound File

My name is Bethany Macleod and I am a fluent Scottish Gaelic Speaker. My family are from the Outer Hebrides off the west coast of Scotlandin the Gaidhealtachd

Dionovan Grosbeck is Anishnaabe from Deshkaan Ziibii (Chippewa of the Thames First Nation). He is Turtle Clan. Dion has been working within his community in many ways including: land based child and youth programming, street outreach and homelessness prevention and most recently in the role of Okaadenige Anti-Human traiffcking male lead at Atlohsa Family Healing Services. He is a lifelong learner and has been advocating for the importance of teaching about Anshinabe knowledge and life.

Tansi, Carmin Blomberg, nisîthikâson, Peter Ballantyne (Bear) Nêhiyaw Nation, Pelican Narrows Saskatchewan, ochi nitha.
(Hello, Carmin Blomberg is my name, Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, Pelican Narrows Saskatchewan is where I’m from).

I am Woodland Cree and Norwegian Sweden Jewish through my father, and French and Scottish through my spirit mother. It is important for me to acknowledge myself as a whole, with all my ancestral backgrounds, especially as my role in reconciliation and an Indigenous Settler. As an Indigenous Settler; in my accountability as a visitor who does not intend on leaving anytime soon, I acknowledge my privilege of being born and raised on the lək̓ʷəŋən, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ territories of the Coast Salish Peoples.

I identify as Two Spirit and my pronouns are She/Her/They/Them. I am an artist who focuses on painting, drawing, beading, sewing, and carving teachings taught from my Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis brother from Gilford Island. My Kwakwaka'wakw siblings offered my initial understandings to Indigenous cultural teachings and continue to guide and support me as I reclaim my Woodland Cree ancestry. I am grateful for their guidance and unconditional love.
I am also a student in my final semester of my Bachelor of Social Work Indigenous Specialization Degree at the University of Victoria. I work with Youth, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers and as a Youth Board Member in community development projects centered on healing colonial violence and reclaiming identity.

As a multi-cultural Two Spirit young person, I work with and walk alongside individuals on their journey through interconnected traditional practices that center cultural resurgence and decolonial healing. Through restoration of traditional practices like beading, singing, and sharing circles, I weave together healing, relationality and cultural connections. To grapple with the nuances of reconciliation, I am passionate about honoring each and every individual wherever they are at on their journey. I recognize that each individual experience life from many intersecting lenses; this is at the forefront of my wholistic, land-based, art-based approach as I walk alongside people on their journey. With genuineness, humility, reciprocity, resurgence, reclamation, responsibility, and accountability, I seek to communicate from the heart and listen to guidance from my family, Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and spirit to carry myself and gifted traditional teachings in a meaningfully impactful way. By emphasizing the continual importance of our youth, Elders and community relationships, we learn from one another and carry forward ways of being that will reflect how one cares for themselves and each other for generations.

Kahkithaw niwahkômâkanak, (All my relations in Cree),

Carmin Blomberg
Maskwa (Bear) Nêhiyaw (Cree), Peter Ballantyne Cree First Nation
with Norwegian Sweden Jewish, Scottish and French Descent

Clan: Mkwa (Bear)
Community: Whitefish River First Nation

Hillary McGregor is a 25yr-old Anishnaabe youth from Whitefish River First Nation. Hillary received an Advanced Diploma in Sport Management from Humber College in 2017 as well as a Diploma in Anishnaabemowin and Program Development at Georgian College in 2020.

Hillary has served as a youth lead in consulting and working with just over 500 Indigenous youth from across North America on leadership, mental health, sport, and wellness. He currently works at Indigenous Services Canada in Child and Family Services Reform. Hillary is passionate about Indigenous language and cultural revitalization, and Indigenous youth leadership.

Nō ngā iwi o Ngāi Te Rangi, Kōtirana (Scotland), Wera (Wales) and Hāmene (Germany) ōku tīpuna. Ko Ngāi Tūkairangi, Tauranga Moana, ko raua Nan Argeantaich, Eilean Arainn ngā hapū. I whānau au ki Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), ā, I auraki au ki Tauranga Moana te tūrangawaewae tō ōku tīpuna tāria te wā.

My ancestors are of the people of Ngāi Te Rangi, Scotland, Wales and Germany. Ngāi Tūkairangi (Tauranga Moana) and Nan Ageantaich (Isle of Arran) are my clans. I grew up in Auckland and eventually returned to the Tauranga Moana, the homelands of my Ngāi Te Rangi ancestors.

I am an interdisciplinary, Indigenous, feminist scholar-practitioner and I identify as takatāpui (two spirit). I’m most at home in the bush, by the sea and in the mountains and am continually deeply moved by Papatuānuku’s (the Earth Mother) generosity towards us as human kin. Growing up in Aotearoa / New Zealand I initially qualified and practiced as a social worker and community developer.

I am also the Founding Director of the Alliance for Intergenerational Resilience https://www.intergenresil.com/ an Associate Professor of Indigenous and environmental Studies, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Western Ontario. I am happy to have recently published a book “Indigenous Intergenerational resilience: confronting cultural and ecological crisis”. But perhaps some of my deepest joys are in collaborative gatherings such as these Wisdom Councils, and past comings together such as the Elder’s Voices Summit and Radical Human Ecology Dialogues http://kalewiswilliams.com/

Shetland, Alba/Scotland