2019 Speakers
Please look below for a tentative speakers list for IHC 2019. More speaker announcements will be release soon!
Jan Kahehti:io Longboat
Keynote Speaker
Jan Kahehti:io Longboat, Turtle Clan of the Mohawk Nation, is an Elder, educator, writer, herbalist, cultur al advocate, and visionary, having dedicated her life to the dissemination and learning of Indigenous language and culture.
Longboat ran a ten-year program called Idawadadi, which won the Aboriginal Healing Foundation’s best practices award and an outgrowth project entitled Dotah’s House to assist Indigenous women survivors to heal from the abuse of Residential Schools while strengthening their communities through cultural knowledge.
Frequently called on as a counselor, committee, and board member, Kahehti:io has served on the Centre for Indian Scholars and Association of American Indian Physicians, Chiefswood National Historic Societies Board, Six Nations Elders Council, Kanatsiohare:ke Mohawk Community, the Children’s Aid Society of Brant, among others. Longboat continues to serve as a board member at the St. Michael’s Hospital Well Living House project in Toronto as well as the on the Elders’ councils at the University of Toronto, Enaahtig Healing Lodge and Learning Centre, and the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto.
Jan Longboat is currently an Elder Advisor to the Ministry of Justice: Indigenous Peoples’ Court in Brantford. She taught at Mohawk College, McMaster University, and the University of Toronto and has worked with several Indigenous health centres including Wabano, Desdwadadesnye, and SOHAK.
Kahehti:io received her degree as a Natural Health Practitioner from the Canadian College of Natural Medicine and received a degree in counseling from Laurentian University. She continues to live, teach, write, and garden on the Six Nations of the Grand River, where she was born and raised.
Jan will be giving a talk titled “The Three R’s: Planting Roots, Nurturing Roots, and Harvesting Roots” .
Dr. Karen Hill
Keynote Speaker
My name is Karenna’on:we (Ga-law-naw-ooh-way) and I am Kanyenke:haka (Gone-yun-gay-haw-gaw: Mohawk) Wakenyaten (Wa-gan-ya-ta:Turtle Clan) from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. I am a daughter, sister, wife, mother, auntie, and friend. My work is as a family physician. I work closely with several practitioners of traditional medicine and together we bring our gifts and strengths to help our people to heal. My vision is to see our people standing up in the wholeness of who we are as Indigenous people – which I see as our true healing.
Dr. Dawn Martin-Hill
Workshop Facilitator
Dawn Martin-Hill (Mohawk, Wolf Clan) holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology and is one of the original founders of the Indigenous Studies Program at McMaster University and Paul R. McPherson Indigenous Studies Chair. She is a CIHR – College of Reviewers and Indigenous advisory committee. Her primary research for two decades includes: environmental – health research, mental health/youth gendered governance & equity, traditional medicine and well-being, Indigenous Knowledge and ways of knowing methodologies and pedagogy. She is a PI Co-Creation of Indigenous Water Quality Tools for Global Water Futures, and several CIHR, NSERC and GWF Indigenous water security and climate change highlighting diverse challenges identified by Indigenous Peoples in obtaining water security. She is lead investigator he co-creation of tools for monitoring ecosystem and health data, water governance and culturally relevant tools to build long-term and sustained community capacity through training and certifying Indigenous youth in sustaining water quality monitoring. Numerous Indigenous communities, organizations are collaborators and will stand to benefit from the collaborative methodologies and pedagogies of integrating western and Indigenous knowledge, expertise in creating tools to be gained, shared and sustained through this project.
Click here to learn more about Dr. Dawn Martin-Hill’s keynote address.
Terrylynn Brant
Workshop Facilitator
Terrylynn “Será:sera” Brant (B.A., B.Ed., M.Sc., Mohawk Turtle Clan) is a traditional Seedkeeper from Six Nations, a retired teacher and university instructor of Indigenous Science. She authored “Culturally Relevant Aboriginal Education” and the column “In My Longhouse Basket”. She speaks internationally and at the UN on Indigenous Agricultural practices and Food Security. Living 25 years off grid, lead to building an Earthship Agricultural School at “Mohawk Seedkeeper Gardens” specializing in Haudenonsaunee foods, seeds and sustainable farming. She frequently visits indigenous farms throughout Turtle Island.
Dr. Hannah Tait Neufeld
Workshop Facilitator
Dr. Hannah Tait Neufeld is an Assistant Professor at the University of Guelph in Applied Human Nutrition. Her research focuses on Indigenous health inequalities, taking into consideration community interests, along with environmental factors influencing maternal health, and Indigenous food systems.
Click here to learn more about Dr. Hannah Neufeld’s workshop.
Erica Gray and Joce Tremblay
Workshop Facilitators
Joce Two Crows Tremblay: Two Crows is a Great Lakes metis of Mohawk, Pottawatomi, Francaise and Ashkenazi ancestries. They were raised on the Land, practicing ecological stewardship with family in Southwest Ontario and has been a lifelong Earthworker in and around Tkaronto, Penetanguishene and Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. Two Crows is committed to Indigenous Land Sovereignty work across our diverse communities, cultural revitalization, seed saving, deepening knowledge of Land-based ceremonies and honoring the sacred mounds.
Erica Gray: Erica is Kanienkehá:ke from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory where she sits with the Wolf Clan. She is learning to speak Kanien’k, and enjoys travelling to other Haudenosaunee communities as she gathers knowledge about Onkwehón:we culture.
Dr. Harriet Kuhnlein
Workshop Facilitator
Professor Harriet Kuhnlein (PhD, LLD hon.) is a nutritionist and Founding Director of the Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment (CINE) at McGill University. She is a member of several nutrition societies, and recipient of awards for distinguished service in nutrition. Harriet has conducted participatory research on food and nutrition with many cultures of Indigenous Peoples in different parts of the world demonstrating that Indigenous Peoples’ biodiverse food systems foster food security and good health.
Click here to learn more about Dr. Harriet Kuhnlein’s workshop.
Jennifer Redvers
Workshop Facilitator
Jennifer is a Métis Dënesųłiné from the Northwest Territories now living in the Yukon and working as a youth counsellor. She holds a Masters in Environmental Design, a Bachelor of Science and various counselling certifications. She is an outdoor enthusiast, traditional hide tanner, researcher, and has worked in a many supporting youth and young adults out on the land.
Her research has looked at the health benefits and positive community outcomes from land-based programming and practices, especially in supporting Indigenous resilience and mental wellness in Northern Canada.
Dr. Bernice Downey
Workshop Facilitator
Dr. Bernice Downey is a woman of Ojibwe and Celtic heritage, a mother and a grandmother. She is a medical anthropologist with research interests in health, health literacy and Indigenous Traditional knowledge and health/research system reform for Indigenous populations. Bernice is currently cross appointed to the School of Nursing and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences and is the Indigenous Health Lead for the Faculty of Health Science at McMaster University. Most recently, she was awarded the Heart & Stroke Foundation – Canadian Institute of Health Research – Chair in Indigenous Women’s Heart and Brain Health.
Click here to learn more about Dr. Bernice Downey’s workshop.
Sonia Hill
Workshop Facilitator
Sonia is a Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk) woman of the Haudenosaunee confederacy from Six Nations of the Grand River territory and a hand drum carrier. She was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. Sonia is currently working towards a master’s degree in sociology at McMaster University with a focus on Indigenous womxn’s water rights and Haudenosaunee relations to the waters.
More speaker announcements, and the full 2019 Speakers List , will be released soon! Please look below for speakers who have presented at IHC in the past!
Previous Speakers
Louise McDonald
Dr. Marcia Anderson
Dr. Lana Whiskeyjack
Lindsay DuPré
Makasa Looking Horse
Amber Skye
