Workshops
Bapiiwin: Surviving and Overcoming on the Multiple Loss Journey
Albert McLeod, Indigenous Cultural Facilitator
Bio: Albert McLeod is a Status Indian with ancestry from Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation and the Metis community of Norway House in northern Manitoba. He has over thirty years of experience as a human rights activist and is one of the directors of the Two-Spirited People of Manitoba. Albert began his Two-Spirit advocacy in Winnipeg in 1986 and became an HIV/AIDS activist in 1987. He was the director of the Manitoba Aboriginal AIDS Task Force from 1991 to 2001. In 2018, Albert received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Winnipeg. Albert lives in Winnipeg, where he works as a consultant specializing in Indigenous peoples, cultural reclamation, and cross-cultural training. www.albertmcleod.com
Workshop: The impact of Indian Residential Schools and Day Schools forced generations of Indigenous communities to discard traditional knowledge, language, and land-based ways of life along the path of forced assimilation. For many of us, the assumptive (assumed) world we envisioned as children was drastically changed into one of coping with anti-Indigenous racism, domestic and social violence, and ecosystem dislocation. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the MMIWG Inquiry has revealed the extent of these losses, however our ancestors left us with the knowledge and tools to overcome the most difficult of challenges.
This workshop addresses the Healing of Multiple Ongoing Trauma-related Loss and Community Devastation framework and the strategies used to heal and ultimately to survive and thrive. Participants will learn how to support themselves and others who experience multiple losses due to unexpected, overlapping, and multiple losses of people, places, and things.
Indigenous Genealogy: An Introduction
Margie Roxborough, Genealogist
Bio: I grew up in Oromocto as a civilian in a military town. I hold a B. A. in history from Mt. A., a B.Ed. with a specialty in Social Studies from UBC and Professional Learning Certificates in Genealogical Studies, Genealogical Studies: German Records and Genealogical Studies: Canadian Records, all With Distinction, from the National Institute for Genealogical Studies.
I taught as a supply teacher for 11 years at the Middle and High School level and worked with the Dept. of Education’s Distance Learning program as both an editor and teacher. One of the courses I edited was the Introductory Mi’kmaw Language course, which introduced me to the differences between noun-based and verb-based languages.
My interest in history started with my grandmother and a trip to Great Britain when I was about 12, but genealogy remained a hobby for me until 2015, when I finished my first Genealogical Studies program and started to work professionally as a genealogist.
Except for two sabbatical years, one in Germany and the other in France, I have lived in Fredericton for the last 22 years. My husband of almost 30 years and two adult children display admirable patience for combining vacations with genealogical research, for which I am very thankful.
Workshop: This introductory workshop will cover the basics of genealogical research with a focus on research in New Brunswick. No prior experience in genealogy is necessary. We will talk about oral history, the major categories of government records, newspapers, church records and historical images. We will briefly explore some Indigenous genealogical records at the provincial and national archives and techniques for locating other Indigenous sources. During the workshop there will be four different exercises to give participants some experience with the early stages of genealogical research and navigating the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick and Library and Archives Canada websites. If time allows, genealogical genetics and subscription services will be discussed.
Culturally Safe Lawyering: Training Law Students to Assist Indigenous Clients
Dr. LA Henry, Lawyer at LA Henry Law
Bio: Dr. LA Henry is a family law and criminal defence lawyer in Fredericton N.B., and the Executive Director of the Fredericton Legal Advice Clinic (FLAC) and the Youth Access to Justice Clinic and Outreach Program, and teaches the Community Clinic Course at UNB Law. She is the 2016 recipient of the E. Neil McKelvey QC Pro Bono and Volunteer Service Award from the Canadian Bar Association—New Brunswick. LA articled at the New Brunswick Court of Appeal in 2010-2011. Dr. Henry received her PhD from the University of New Brunswick (1997), her MA (1986) and BA (1984) from the University of Ottawa in English Literature. She worked part-time as a professor of English Literature prior to attending law school at both St. Stephen’s University (SSU) and UNB while raising her four children in Harvey NB. She currently resides in Fredericton, N.B.
Benson Barnaby, Articled Clerk
Bio: Benson Barnaby is an ex-police officer with 13 years of experience. He is a 2020 graduate from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University, and currently a Student at law with LA Henry Law in Fredericton N.B. He has worked as the Consultation Coordinator for the Listuguj Mi’gmaq Government (LMG) in Foresty, Fisheries and Wildlife, and has teamed with focus groups made up of LMG employees to address up the Land Code and Election Code files in an effort to move away from the Indian Act. He is currently the Chair of the Listuguj Cannabis Control Office, and the newest member of the New Brunswick Barristers Society’s Equity and Social Justice Committee.
Workshop: The legal system in Canada is fraught with access to justice barriers for First Nations and urban Indigenous people. It is colonial, it is built on systemic oppression of Indigenous people, and as a result Indigenous people have been over-represented in both criminal court and child protection matters.
The workshop will be built around three themes:
1) Helping law students locate themselves in the topography of cultural privilege, entitlement, and unconscious bias;
2) Understanding the history of trauma for Indigenous Canadians and how their inter-generational experience informs their engagement with the legal system;
3) Building on Indigenous cultural strengths to incorporate best practices in working with clients.
Learning better practices that make client interaction safer is an ongoing process. Key to learning cultural safety is listening to elders from Indigenous cultures. I will be assisted by my current articling student, Benson Barnaby, who is Mi’kmaq from Listuguj Quebec.
Nu’gmijinagig Glusuwa’nuwal/ Our Ancestral Grandmothers/Clanmothers Teachings: Rematriation of Indigenous Languages and Women’s Leadership Traditions
Miigam’agan, Elder in Residence, St. Thomas University
Bio: Miigam’agan is a Wabanaki/Mi’kmaw grandmother of the Jagej Clan from Esgenoôpetitj/ Burnt Church. She is a mother of three wonderful people and a grandmother to four beautiful grandchildren. Her life has been devoted in rematriation of Wabanaki languages and awakening matricultural systems. Miigam’agan is an appointed tribal subchief in her ancestral sovereign Gespegawagi Tribal Council. She also holds a position as the Elder-in-Residence at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, NB, a role in which she provides support for Indigenous students and offers opportunities for the students and faculty to learn from Indigenous knowledge keepers. Miigam’agan sits on the national steering committee on Adult Education Initiatives for the Catherine Donnelly Foundation and a co-chair for the Wapna’kikewi’skwaq/Women of First Light, an Indigenous women-led organization on adult education for radical social change.
Workshop: This presentation will share insights from Grandmothers /clanmother’s understanding of our creation stories and the importance of language to oral traditions. The acknowledged, deep, love we hold for the Earth, our Mother, is experienced within the ceremony in our Bodies, cycles of our Life, and Consciousness made Whole by our language. Our ancient societies were mother centered and mother-based; motherhood is the foundation of our ancestral ways. What does it mean and why is this knowledge so important for our communities today? The feminine lens of our Clanmothers and Grandmothers provide deeper understanding our Selves, of our History, Values, Beliefs and Practices. All through our History, it was understood women were the life-givers and the first teachers. As these oral traditions indicate, our indigenous languages expressions are reflections of all that we know; this is the Way of our living Cultural Life.
Kindness Doll Workshop
Rose Moses, Artist, Native Women’s Association of Canada
Bio: Rose Moses is an Ojibwe First Nation Doll Maker from Northern Ontario. She has been creating dolls for over 30 years and is self-taught. Moses has taught numerous Doll –Making workshops in colleges, schools, community groups-Native and non-Native. Her inspiration comes from other First Nation Doll makers and she owns an extensive collection of various dolls from around the world which she uses in her workshops.
Workshop: The Kindness Doll workshop is about 2 hours long…it will begin in a traditional manner…and while the women are sewing their dolls by hand…Rose will share her personal journey of how she became a doll maker. She will then explain the history of doll making as it pertains to First Nations cultures…after that she will share her private collection of native and non native dolls from around the world-where we will try and guess where they are from just by what they are wearing…we will see how they are dressed and how they are put together. As the women finish sewing the doll body , then we will move to dress the doll and while the women are sewing that part of the doll…Rose will speak about Kindness as a medicine and how First Nations have used kindness to survive and still use Kindness in our culture….While the women are sewing on the doll’s hair etc. Rose will continue to talk about her other dolls and how they came to be. Each workshop takes about 2 hours and it is a very interactive workshop.