Whether you are passionate about interdisciplinary human rights research, social justice programming, or student training and mentorship, the University of Manitoba offers opportunities to support the opportunities most important to you.
The Last Drop: Indigenous Science Fair Panel Discussion
Event Date: March 19, 2026
Event Location: Zoom Webinar & 222 Education
Event Time: 11 am
Student participants in the Indigenous Science Fair will share their science research, contributing to broader conversations about water, Indigenous knowledge systems, and sustainability. Join us for a conversation with Janelle Malcolm, Angie Papineau, Boston McKay and Nishae Paupanekis.
No registration required for in-person attendance. The in-person panel will take place in 222 Education, 71 Curry Place at the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry Campus.
Whether you are passionate about interdisciplinary human rights research, social justice programming, or student training and mentorship, the University of Manitoba offers opportunities to support the opportunities most important to you.
Methods and Mediums: Screen-Printing Basics - Building Community through Art
Event Date: March 19, 2026
Event Location: 342 Education Building
Event Time: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Join us for a workshop with Natalie Baird and Toby Gillies on basic screen-printing techniques. The workshop will be held on Thursday, March 19, 2026, from 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm in Room 342, Education Building, Fort Garry Campus – University of Manitoba.
In this workshop, you will learn basic screen-printing techniques to create your own prints. You will have the chance to use art as a medium for exploring and communicating ideas about how to build community and find connection.
All are welcome to attend. All materials and light refreshments provided. Registration is encouraged.
For more information, please email chrrman@umanitoba.ca.
About the Presenters
Natalie Baird and Toby Gillies work on art projects together nearly every day. Their shared practice is rooted in collaborative experiments and a playful exploration of materials and ideas. Multigenerational relationships, characterized by a curiosity about personality, imagination, and memory, are a cornerstone of their work. For many years, Natalie and Toby have been artists-in-residence alongside Francesca Carella Arfinengo at Misericordia Health Centre, creating projects with patients and long-term care residents. In 2024, they released their short animated documentary Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying, produced by the National Film Board of Canada. In 2025, they started working with Madeline Burghardt from the University of Manitoba and survivors of the Manitoba Developmental Centre on the Manitoba Development Centre Artefact Project, a collaborative art project in which survivors are reclaiming and transforming artefacts from the recently-closed institution into artworks.
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Whether you are passionate about interdisciplinary human rights research, social justice programming, or student training and mentorship, the University of Manitoba offers opportunities to support the opportunities most important to you.
Everyone is welcome to come spend the day with Anishinaabe-Kwe as they share ceremony, teachings, and conversations grounded in their sacred relationship with water.
The gathering will feature a water ceremony with water drum along with teachings respecting spiritual connections and water stewardship with Nookomis Hilda Atkinson, Roseau River Anishinaabe First Nation, and her grandchildren. Nookomis Louise Pierre, along with her daughter and granddaughters, will embark in discussions regarding water lineage teachings and the responsibilities they carry. You will hear Anishinaabe grandmothers, mothers and youth offer songs for the water.
In the afternoon, Dr. Tasha Beeds will speak about her experiences participating in water walks across Canada and the United States and raising awareness about the condition of our water systems. We will close the day with storytelling shared by Taylor Galvin and Kookum Nameo.
Hilda Atkinson is a Fourth Degree Midewiwin of the Three Fires Lodge and Minweyweywigaan Lodge in Roseau River.
Since 2006, she has participated in sacred water walks around Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior alongside her family and her adopted mother, the late Josephine Mandamin. She also walked in the 2011 Four Directions Water Walk from Churchill, Manitoba to Bad River, Wisconsin, and has continued to support the Anishinaabe Migration Water Walk.
Hilda carries the Little Boy Water Drum and has been entrusted with sacred water songs passed down through her family. She continues to uphold the responsibility of caring for the water and sharing its teachings.
Boozhoo, Dabasasheek Indizhinikaz, Mikinak Dodaim, Niizhing gi biindigah Midewiganing, Midewahnikwe Indow, Bagwaniskoozibiing Indoonjiba. My English name is Louise Pierre, I am from the Turtle Clan, I have entered the Midiwiwin Lodge twice. I was raised as Grandmother of the Three Fires Midiwiwin Lodge Water Line along with my daughter, Belinda Johnson and two grand-daughters Trinity and Paige. We are from Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation. Along with my sisters, Hilda, Joanne and Barb and our sons and our grandsons and grand-daughters, we have walked with our adopted mom/grandmother, the Late Josephine Mandamin around the Great Lakes in Ontario as she raised awareness for the state of the waters.
Dr. Tasha Beeds is a Black‑Indigenous scholar of nêhiyaw, Scottish‑Metis, and mixed Bajan ancestry from the Treaty 6 Territories of Saskatchewan. She moves through the world in the layered fullness of those lineages. She lives her work through many intertwined roles: mother, kôhkom, Aunty, creative artist, poet, Water Walker, and Midewiwin woman from Minweyweywigaan Lodge, grounded in the territories of Roseau River First Nation and Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory.
Internationally recognized for her research and Water protection work, Tasha has been supported by the Bibliographic Society of America, NdN Collective, and Na’ah Illahee, and has held various roles with the University of Saskatchewan, University of Windsor, Carleton University, Queen’s University, and Kenjgewin Teg.
Carrying Water Walk teachings from the late Josephine Mandamin‑Ba, Elder Shirley Williams‑Ba, and Liz Osawamick, Tasha has Walked for the Water for 16 years around the Kawartha Lakes, Otonabee River, the Great Lakes, Junction Creek, and the Saskatchewan River.
Her academic, creative, and life’s work honours the brilliance and sovereignty of Indigenous nations, carrying forward the memories, teachings, and responsibilities entrusted by her Ancestors for the future generations.
Taylor Galvin Ozaawi Mashkode-Bizhiki (Brown Buffalo) is a proud Anishinaabe woman from Brokenhead Ojibway Nation and a member of the Sturgeon Clan. She is a graduate student at the University of Manitoba, where her Master’s thesis explores Lake Sturgeon conservation through Indigenous science, oral storytelling, and community-based knowledge. She is also one of the lead plaintiffs and knowledge keepers in the Lake Winnipeg personhood case, advancing Indigenous water governance on the legal stage.
Taylor served as the Brokenhead Wetland Ecological Reserve Chair and is the community coordinator for an Indigenous-led environmental monitoring project in Tataskweyak Cree Nation. She is a lifelong student of many Elders and Knowledge Keepers across Manitoba. She walks in both worlds, using Western and Indigenous sciences to guide her work in land guardianship, ceremony, and environmental protection.
Taylor’s advocacy centers Indigenous youth, especially young women, whom she mentors through teachings on plants, medicines, and ceremony. She brings them into spaces of leadership to see themselves reflected in this work. Taylor has shared Indigenous knowledge internationally – from the Netherlands to Belize to World Water Week in Sweden to the United Nations in New York City – and attributes every opportunity to the strength of her people, the power of ceremony, and the resilience of community teachings.
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Whether you are passionate about interdisciplinary human rights research, social justice programming, or student training and mentorship, the University of Manitoba offers opportunities to support the opportunities most important to you.
Methods and Mediums: Indigenous Feminism and Critical Approaches to Relationality
Event Date: February 27, 2026
Event Location: New Location! 200 Education Building
Event Time: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Join us for a talk by Dr. Gina Starblanket on Indigenous feminism and critical approaches to relationality. The talk will held on Friday, February 27th, 2026 from 12:00 pm – 1:30pm in Room 200 Education, Fort Garry Campus – University of Manitoba.
This talk explores Indigenous feminist and other critical approaches to relationality in academic research and writing. It provides examples of applied practices and reviews the implications of Indigenous feminist approaches across diverse sites and scales.
For more information, please email chrrman@umanitoba.ca.
This workshop is a part of CHRR’s Methods and Mediums workshop series which explores different research methodologies and ways to publish research within human rights and social justice.
Funding for this event is made possible, in part, by the Canada Research Chair in Miyo We’citowin and Digital Sovereignties and the Faculty of Law Endowment Fund.We are grateful to the Faculty of Education for their in-kind contributions.
About the Presenter
Gina Starblanket is an Associate Professor in the School of Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria. She is Cree/Saulteaux and a member of Star Blanket Cree Nation in Treaty 4 territory. Her work is rooted in prairie Indigenous political life and examines Indigenous–settler relations through the lens of treaty, Indigenous governance, and relationality. Dr. Starblanket’s scholarship brings together Indigenous political thought, the on-the-ground politics of treaty implementation, and Indigenous feminist analysis. She is co-editor of NAIS, the journal of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association and her publications include Making Space for Indigenous Feminisms, 3rd ed. (Fernwood Press, 2024), Storying Violence: Unravelling Colonial Narratives in the Stanley Trial (ARP Press, 2020), and Visions of the Heart: Issues Involving Indigenous Peoples in Canada, 5th and 6th eds. (OUP, 2019 & 2025).
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Whether you are passionate about interdisciplinary human rights research, social justice programming, or student training and mentorship, the University of Manitoba offers opportunities to support the opportunities most important to you.
Gender-Based Violence and Displacement: The Human Cost of War, Colonialism and the Climate Crisis
Event Date: March 05, 2026
Event Location: Winnipeg Art Gallery - Qaumajuq, 300 Memorial Blvd.
Event Time: 12:30 pm - 3:00 pm
In honour of International Women’s Day, please join the Centre for Human Rights Research and Giganwenimaanaanig on Thursday, March 5th for a panel discussion titled “Gender-Based Violence and Displacement: The Human Cost of War, Colonialism, and the Climate Crisis.” This discussion will explore gender-based violence in the context of conflict, structural violence, and displacement, and the ways in which love — for the lands, waters, and for all our relations — can sustain us.
The event will take place in the Learning Steps of the Winnipeg Art Gallery – Qaumajuq.
Doors will open at 12:30pm with light snacks and refreshments in Ilavut — the Entrance Hall. This will be followed by the panel discussion in Ilipvik (the Learning Steps) beginning at 1:00pm.
We are grateful to Aubrey Yuol for their artwork for the poster.
To ensure we have enough food and space, registration is required. Register now via Eventbrite.
Joy Chadya is a twentieth century social historian whose interests are on Africa in general, but Southern Africa in particular. She is interested in transnational histories of liberation struggles, cross-border migration of labor in the Southern African region; women and urbanization; Zimbabwean the shifting practices in the Zimbabwean deathscape since the inception of colonial rule and African diaspora.
Brenda L. Gunn is a Professor in Robson Hall Faculty of Law. She has a B.A. from the University of Manitoba and a J.D. from the University of Toronto. She completed her LL.M. in Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy at the University of Arizona. She articled with Sierra Legal Defence Fund (now Ecojustice Canada). She was called to the bars of Law Society of Upper Canada and Manitoba. Brenda also worked at a community legal clinic in Rabinal, Guatemala on a case of genocide submitted to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. She has also worked with First Nations on Aboriginal and treaty rights issues in Manitoba. As a proud Red River Métis woman and citizen of Manitoba Métis Federation, she continues to combine her academic research with her activism pushing for greater recognition of Indigenous peoples’ inherent rights as determined by Indigenous peoples’ own legal traditions. Her current research focuses on promoting greater conformity between international law on the rights of Indigenous peoples and domestic law. She continues to be actively involved in the international Indigenous peoples’ movement, regularly attending international meetings. She developed a handbook on understanding and implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that continues to be a main resource in Canada on the UN Declaration and has delivered workshops on the Declaration across Canada and internationally. In 2013, she participated in the UNITAR Training Programme to Enhance the Conflict Prevention and Peacemaking Capacities of Indigenous Peoples’ Representatives, which continues to impact her research.
Professor Gunn is the Expert Member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 2026-28.
Helga Hamilton is the Health Director for Cross Lake Health Services, where she provides the delivery of comprehensive, community centered health programs. With experience in health administration, emergency management, and intergovernmental collaboration, she works alongside Chief and Council, and regional and federal partners to strengthen access, continuity, and culturally respectful health care.
Helga played an integral role in coordinating and supporting health services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and has been a key member of the Emergency Management Team during the wildfire evacuations of 2023 and 2025. She is currently involved in community evacuation efforts related to the December power outage, assisting with coordination alongside the Red Cross, Chief and Council, and emergency response partners. Helga is a strong advocate for community driven solutions and sustainable health systems that meet the evolving needs of Cross Lake and its members.
Helga’s grandchildren are her primary source of motivation and inspiration in all that she does. She is deeply committed to helping create a better future for them and for the generations to come, with a strong focus on ensuring they grow up grounded in their cultural identity and spiritual way of life. Helga believes that teaching and preserving these values provides a foundation that will guide them throughout their lives.
Olga Khamedova is a feminist media scholar from Ukraine who has been researching media coverage (news reports and crime reporting) of violence against women, including harassment, rape, and murder, for several years. In 2022, she arrived in Canada due to the Russian–Ukrainian war and worked as a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies | German and Slavic Studies at the University of Manitoba. She is the author of the book Gender Display in the Ukrainian Press of the 1920s–1930s: Representations and Interpretations, in which she analyzes some of the earliest crime news reports on violence against women, examining them in the context of postcolonial discourse and trauma. She currently teaches the course Ukrainian Feminism, Media, and Popular Culture at the University of Manitoba.
Check back soon to learn more!
Shirley A. Robinson is a dedicated Indigenous leader from Pimicikamak, a Cree community in Northern Manitoba with a population of 10,000 people, both on and off reserve. With extensive experience in local governance, Shirley has served multiple terms as an Executive Council Member for Pimicikamak, including holding leadership positions such as Acting Chief and Vice Chief. Her commitment to her community is evident through her tireless advocacy, crisis response efforts, and negotiations with provincial and federal governments.
Shirley has been a prominent voice in addressing critical issues affecting her community, including social health, infrastructure disparities, and Indigenous rights. She has played a pivotal role in responding to Emergency Crisis in Pimicikamak including seeking immediate supports from government authorities to provide services, resources, and other urgent needs. Her leadership during crisis highlights her unwavering dedication to the well-being of her people, and her advocacy have solidified her reputation as a trusted and impactful leader in Northern Manitoba.
In addition to her crisis response efforts, Shirley has been an advocate for addressing the historical and ongoing impacts of development on Pimicikamak. She continues to speak out on behalf of her community, ensuring their voices are heard and their needs are prioritized.
Her expertise in emergency management extends beyond crisis response, as she continues to advocate for long-term solutions to systemic issues such as mental health, healthcare access, and infrastructure disparities. Shirley’s ability to navigate complex negotiations with government authorities has been instrumental in securing resources and support for Pimicikamak during times of critical need.
As a mother and grandmother to six grandchildren, Shirley remains deeply connected to her community and its future. Her leadership and advocacy have made her a respected and influential figure, committed to creating positive change and addressing the urgent challenges facing Pimicikamak.
Dr. Alex Wilson (Opaskwayak Cree Nation) is an acclaimed educator, scholar, and researcher. She is a professor in the Department of Educational Foundations in the College of Education at the University of Saskatchewan. Dr. Wilson’s work has greatly contributed to building and sharing knowledge about Two-Spirit identity, history, and teachings; Indigenous research methodologies; and the prevention of violence in the lives of Indigenous peoples. Her work in and with Indigenous communities has focused on revitalizing culture through land based education.
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Whether you are passionate about interdisciplinary human rights research, social justice programming, or student training and mentorship, the University of Manitoba offers opportunities to support the opportunities most important to you.
Stitching Histories: A Scholar-Artist in Archives and Museums
Event Date: March 11, 2026
Event Location: 108 St. John's College
Event Time: 1:00 - 2:30 pm
In collaboration with the Faculty of Arts, the Centre for Human Rights Research (CHRR) is hosting Dr. Sherry Farrell Racette for a lecture titled ‘Stitching Histories: A Scholar-Artist in Archives and Museums’.
The lecture will be held on Wednesday, March 11, 2026 from 1:00 – 2:30 pm in 108 St. John’s College at the University of Manitoba – Fort Garry Campus. For information on getting to the University of Manitoba, see: https://umanitoba.ca/about-um/our-campuses/getting-here
This is a free event. No registration is required.
This seminar is a part of our annual Critical Conversations seminar series. This year, the seminar series will focus on feminist research methodologies.
About the Lecture
Constructing Indigenous art histories bears a remarkable similarity to beadwork and other stitch-based artforms. Many Indigenous belongings in museum collections have lost their stories. Building object-biographies and larger aesthetic histories relies on reading the living object and following the faint traces in provenance records. A surgeon, old letters, a Cree woman, an 18th century coat, and a smallpox epidemic. An 1851 newspaper article, three journals, and painted and beaded coats in different museums. It is non-linear, multi-disciplinary, painstaking – and fun. One stitch at a time.
About the Speakers
Sherry Farrell Racette is an interdisciplinary scholar with an active artistic and curatorial practice. She was born in Manitoba and is a member of Timiskaming First Nation in Quebec. Her work as a cultural historian is grounded in extensive work in archives and museum collections with an emphasis on Indigenous women and recovering aesthetic knowledge. Beadwork and stitch-based work is important to her artistic practice, creative research, and pedagogy.
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Whether you are passionate about interdisciplinary human rights research, social justice programming, or student training and mentorship, the University of Manitoba offers opportunities to support the opportunities most important to you.
The Resurgence of Traditional Media and Acts of "Doing" in Contemporary Indigenous Art
Event Date: March 04, 2026
Event Location: Skylight Gallery, WAG-Qaumajuq (300 Memorial Blvd)
Event Time: 6:30PM
with Sherry Farrell Racette (Métis, Anishinaabe-Algonquin, and Irish)
Professor, Department of Visual Arts, Faculty of Media, Art and Performance, University of Regina
In Learning Together (2013) Keith Goulet unpacks Nehiyawak concepts of knowledge as a merger of doing, being, becoming and acting. His analysis helps us understand beadwork’s transformative shift from community spaces to art galleries, and the revitalization of hand-tanned hide, porcupine quillwork and tufting. Artists are leading a virtual explosion of collaborative reclamation, opening galleries, residencies, and studios to the big, messy, labour-intensive practices of processing natural materials. They are merging spaces of artmaking, language-learning, and education with the broader task of activating Indigenous knowledge in the 21st century. It is a future-focused practice with roots in the past.
This lecture will take place on March 4, 2026 at 6:30pm in the Skylight Gallery at WAG-Quamajuq. It’s part of WAG Wednesday Nights, with free admission to the galleries from 5-9pm. There will be light refreshments available from Feast Cafe Bistro starting at 6pm.
This is a free event. No registration is required.
About the Presenter
Sherry Farrell Racette is an interdisciplinary scholar with an active artistic and curatorial practice. She was born in Manitoba and is a member of Timiskaming First Nation in Quebec. Her work as a cultural historian is grounded in extensive work in archives and museum collections with an emphasis on Indigenous women and recovering aesthetic knowledge. Beadwork and stitch-based work is important to her artistic practice, creative research, and pedagogy.
Photo credit for headshot: Nadya Kwandibens
This event is a collaboration between the Centre for Human Rights Research, Women’s and Gender Studies, the Department of Indigenous Studies, and the School of Art at the University of Manitoba and WAG-Qaumajuq. Funding provided by the UM Distinguished Visiting Lecturer Program.
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Whether you are passionate about interdisciplinary human rights research, social justice programming, or student training and mentorship, the University of Manitoba offers opportunities to support the opportunities most important to you.
Abortion in Manitoba: A Feminist Community-Based Approach to Abortion Access Research with Dr. Lindsay Larios and Emma Cowman
Event Date: January 28, 2026
Event Location: 108 St. John's College
Event Time: 1:00 - 2:30 pm
In collaboration with the Faculty of Arts, the Centre for Human Rights Research (CHRR) is hosting Dr. Lindsay Larios and Emma Cowman for a lecture titled ‘Abortion in Manitoba: A feminist community-based approach to abortion access research’.
The lecture will be held on Wednesday, January 28, 2026 from 1:00 – 2:30 pm in 108 St. John’s College at the University of Manitoba – Fort Garry Campus. For information on getting to the University of Manitoba, see: https://umanitoba.ca/about-um/our-campuses/getting-here
This is a free event. No registration is required.
This seminar is a part of our annual Critical Conversations seminar series. This year, the seminar series will focus on feminist research methodologies, exploring various ways research is done within feminist and anti-oppressive scholarship.
About the Speakers
Dr. Lindsay Larios is an assistant professor in social work and interdisciplinary critical policy researcher. She studies citizenship and immigration in the Canadian context, in particular, as it intersects with family and reproductive politics and policies. Her most recent work focuses on the politics of pregnancy and childbirth and precarious migration as an issue of reproductive justice.
Emma Cowman (she/they) is in her second year of the Master of Social Work program. In 2023, Emma graduated from the University of Regina with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (honours) and a Bachelor of Arts in Women and Gender Studies. Her research interests include reproductive justice, 2SLGBTQIA+ rights, and gender-based violence. Emma is currently working on her thesis which explores 2SLGBTQIA+ experiences of accessing abortion care in Manitoba. Emma is also working on the “Abortion in Manitoba” project with Dr. Lindsay Larios, and working on various projects with RESOLVE. Outside of university, Emma is on the National Youth Advisory Board for Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights. Emma is working with the CHRR as a research assistant on the Just Waters project.
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Whether you are passionate about interdisciplinary human rights research, social justice programming, or student training and mentorship, the University of Manitoba offers opportunities to support the opportunities most important to you.
Faces of Palestine, 1972: From a Document in 'The Manitoban' to the Current Crisis
Event Date: January 22, 2026
Event Location: 307 Tier Building, University of Manitoba
Event Time: 3:00 - 4:30pm
with UM Alum, Rachad Antonius [MSc/1973]
In collaboration with the Faculty of Arts and the Institute for the Humanities, the Centre for Human Rights Research (CHRR) is pleased to support UM Alum Rachad Antonius for a lecture titled Faces of Palestine, 1972: From a Document in The Manitoban to the Current Crisis.
The event will be held on Thursday, January 22, 2026 at 3:00pm in Room 307 Tier Building, University of Manitoba. For information on getting to the University of Manitoba, see: https://umanitoba.ca/about-um/our-campuses/getting-here
This is a free event. No registration is required.
About the lecture:
While a graduate student pursuing his Masters degree in Mathematics at the University of Manitoba between 1970 and 1973, Rachad Antonius helped publish a fascinating yet almost completely unknown dossier of articles, “Faces of Palestine”, in The Manitoban. This document was for him the beginning of a long-term engagement with the question of Palestine. He will present this archival document as an introduction to the problematics of campus activism on the question of Palestine from the early 1970s to the present. As well, he will propose a critical reading of the current situation in Gaza based on a historical perspective of the processes that led to it.
Rachad Antonius, who until his retirement in 2021 was a Full Professor in the Department of Sociology at the Université du Québec à Montréal, is an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, contemporary Arab societies, Arab uprisings, political Islam, and Arab and Muslim minorities in Canada. His recent books include La conquête de la Palestine. De Balfour à Gaza, une guerre de cent ans (Écosociété, 2024) and Islam et Islamisme en Occident. Éléments pour un dialogue (University of Montreal Press, 2023, co-authored with Ali Belaïdi). He is also a frequent commentator on events in the Middle East, appearing on networks such as CBC, BBC, France24, and Radio France International.
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Whether you are passionate about interdisciplinary human rights research, social justice programming, or student training and mentorship, the University of Manitoba offers opportunities to support the opportunities most important to you.
On Tuesday, January 13, 2026, join us for a winter storytelling gathering rooted in First Nations tradition with MC Rylee Nepinak, and storytellers Elder Margaret Lavallee, Jason Bone, Dennis Chartrand and Jason Parenteau. Doors open at 9:25 am.
Jason Bone is a cultural facilitator at Manitoba First Nation Education Resource Centre. He graduated from the university of Manitoba with a Masters of Arts, and a Bachelor of Arts, Indigenous Governance, from the university of Winnipeg. Jason is from Keeseekoowenin First Nation, near riding mountain national park. His cultural knowledge comes from the midewin teaching lodge, and from being an oshkaabewis (helper/writer) to the late Midewid(one who works with the sound of the drum) Ron Indian Mandamin (Iban).
Dennis Chartrand, a member of Minegoziibe Anishinabe (formerly known as Pine Creek). He currently works at NCI FM and hosts Da Minos Music Lodge Monday to Thursday evenings from 8 pm to 9 pm. He has also worked with the University of Winnipeg’s WiiChiiwaakanak Learning Centre, Indigenous Engagement, and the Oral History Centre, U of Manitoba, Indigenous Languages of Manitoba, NCI, and Mazinaate Publishing on an Indigenous Language radio show entitled ‘Aakoziiwigamig: An Ojibwe Radio Drama’. Chartrand is as known as voicing Darth Vader in the Ojibwe-dubbed Star Wars film, “Anangong Miigaading: A New Hope’.
Rylee Nepinak is a proud Anishinaabe who grew up off-reserve in Winnipeg’s North End and is a member of Sagkeeng First Nation in Treaty 1 Territory.
Rylee is one of the Co-Founders of Anishiative, a grassroots community organization that connects Indigenous youth to land-based education, Inner-city cultural and mental wellness opportunities.
Motivated by a state of emergency In Tataskewayak Cree Nation, Nepinak cycled across Canada raising money and promoting awareness about Indigenous youth suicide. Nepinak finished his journey in 40 days.
Rylee has also been involved in supporting relatives experiencing houselessness by means of coordinating the community warming tipis at the Thunderbird House every winter. The efforts of which helped lead to the beginning stages of an Indigenous-led warming space for houseless relatives called N’dinawemak.
Practicing lateral kindness, reclaiming identity, and promoting Indigenous youth voices are the driving forces behind Rylee’s mission here on Turtle Island.
Margaret Lavallee is an Anishinaabe Ikwe from Sagkeeng First Nation and an Elder in Residence at Ongomiizwin Education from the Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing at Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba.
Margaret’s experience comes from over 40 years in varied Human Relations responsibilities within the health care field. Margaret holds a degree in Bachelor of General Studies from Brandon University. She was also honoured by the University of Manitoba, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences with an honorary doctorate degree for her lifelong work for the Indigenous community in the health care field.
Margaret’s role as Elder in Residence for the last 17 years ensures Indigenous knowledge and world views are incorporated into all levels of student support at the University of Manitoba. Margaret assists with research, classroom presentations, and traditional cultural teachings for both staff and learners.
Jason Parenteau, a Lenape man born in Vancouver, a member of Moravian of the Thames Delaware Nation, and a recognized member of the Indigenous community in Manitoba. He has worked with Manitoba Justice and Dakota Ojibwe Child and Family Services providing culturally appropriate services. He founded the Roseau River Jiu Jitsu Club and he operates Miikwan Consulting & Indigenous Education.
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Whether you are passionate about interdisciplinary human rights research, social justice programming, or student training and mentorship, the University of Manitoba offers opportunities to support the opportunities most important to you.