Ts'eko Nàgeètso Speaker Series
As we continued to navigate COVID-19 into the winter of 2021, Dechinta created a 7-month long speaker series in order to create spaces of learning, knowledge creation and dissemination by Northern women activists and scholars. Hosted by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, the Ts'eko Nàgeètso speaker series featured the brilliant voices of 8 Northern Indigenous women, each presenting on their personal experiences and academic work. The speakers included Mandee McDonald, Dr. Lianne Marie Leda Charlie, Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser, Siku Allooloo, Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, Tiffany Ayalik, Dr. Anita Lafferty, and Dahti Tsetso.
You can also watch the series on our YouTube Channel
“Regenerating Indigenous Governance: Theories in Hide Tanning” with Mandee McDonald
Mandee McDonald is a hide tanner, facilitator, and a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta where her work focuses on Indigenous governance and land-based learning. She is a co-founder and the Managing Director for Dene Nahjo, an Indigenous innovation collective that strives to foster Indigenous leadership skills and values through resurgence-based initiatives. Mandee is Maskîkow (Swampy Cree), originally from Mántéwisipihk (Churchill, MB), and has resided in Sòmba K’è (Yellowknife) for the past twenty years. Her writing has been published in Decolonization: Indigeneity and Education Society, Northern Public Affairs, and in Visions of the Heart: Issues Involving Indigenous Peoples in Canada 5th Edition.
“The Moose and Northern Tutchone Governance in the Making” with Lianne Marie Leda Charlie:
Over a six-week period in 2018, Lianne -- along with friends, family, and 30 Whitehorse-based community members -- made a life-size hot pink papier mâché bull moose out of the Umbrella Final Agreement, the framework that guides modern-treaty making in the Yukon. While the objective from the outset was simply to create the art piece, Lianne did not predict that making the moose would become a project in governance. What can art-making reveal about creating and sustaining alternative governance models that are rooted in Indigenous values and desires? This presentation will put a chapter from Lianne's dissertation into conversation with the community. Her work explores arts-based pedagogy, building Indigenous-centered spaces, facilitating settler responsibility, and re-creating ancestral governance models.
“Histories of Indian Residential Schools in the North During the Era of Reconciliation” with Crystal Gail Fraser
Crystal Gail Fraser is Gwichyà Gwich'in and originally from Inuvik and Dachan Choo Gę̀hnjik. Her late grandparents are Marka Andre and Richard Bullock. Crystal is a historian and Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta.
"Tracing My Mother's Lines: Represencing Historic Indigenous Women's Activism" with Siku Allooloo
Siku Allooloo is an Inuk/Haitian/Taíno writer, interdisciplinary artist and community builder from Somba K'e, Denendeh. She is the daughter of Marie-Hélène Laraque of Haïti and Titus Allooloo of Mittimatalik, Nunavut, as well as Francois and Lesley Paulette of and Tthebatthi. Siku is an alum of Dechinta's first pilot semester, and has served as a facilitator for several semesters over the years. Her writing and multimedia work have been featured in The Guardian, Canadian Art Magazine, Chatelaine, The Capilano Review, The Malahat Review, and various art galleries across Canada. Siku is a programmer with Available Light Film Festival and this year’s imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, and is currently leading a series of experimental and documentary film projects in honour of her mother and her life's work.
Remembering our Intimacies: Moʻolelo, Aloha ʻĀina, and Ea, with Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio
Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio is a Kanaka Maoli wahine artist / activist / scholar / storyteller born and raised in Pālolo Valley to parents Jonathan and Mary Osorio. Heoli earned her PhD in English (Hawaiian literature) in 2018 from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Currently, Heoli is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous and Native Hawaiian Politics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Heoli is a three-time national poetry champion, poetry mentor and a published author. In 2020 her poetry and activism were the subject of an award-winning film, This is the Way we Rise (directed by Ciara Lacey), which was featured in Vogue.com and at Sundance Film Festival. She is a proud past Kaiāpuni student, Ford fellow, and a graduate of Kamehameha, Stanford University (BA) and New York University (MA). Her book Remembering our Intimacies: Moʻolelo, Aloha ʻĀina, and Ea was published in 2021 by The University of Minnesota Press.
Itqaqhaijuq/Tries to Remember, Tiffany Ayalik Discusses Her Most Recent Work
In this talk, Tiffany discusses her most recent work Itqaqhaijuq/Tries to Remember, a live multimedia performance. Tiffany is an actor, TV host, throat singer, producer and composer from Yellowknife, NT and is Inuit from the Kugluktuk region. It was in the North, listening to stories from her elders, that she discovered her love of storytelling, and the powerful change that hearing a story can bring about.
kenahndíh: Stories to Live By with Anita Lafferty
Anita Lafferty is a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta in the Faculty of Secondary Education. She is ts’élî- iskwew (Dene Cree) and a citizen of the Lı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation in Northwest Territories. Her doctoral research examines approaches of Indigenous curriculum perspectives that are grounded in Dene k’ęę (philosophy) on the Land. She was awarded the 2022 Margaret “Presh” Kates Aboriginal Doctoral Award in Education for her doctoral dissertation. Her research includes learning from/with the Land, experiences of Indigenous youth, identity, healing, and matriarchal wisdom. She takes a multidisciplinary approach in her research drawing on the fields of photography, art, poetry and storytelling.
Asserting Indigenous Nationhood Through Conservation with Dahti Tsetso
Dahti Tsetso is the deputy director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative. She is Tłı̨chǫ Dene and played a leading role in the launch and operation of the Dehcho K'éhodi Stewardship and Guardians Program and the establishment of the Edéhzhíe Dehcho Protected Area and National Wildlife Area. Before joining thne ILI, Tsetso served as the director of Lands & Resources for Dehcho First Nations in Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories. She worked collaboratively with the Nation’s ten member communities to develop a Guardians program that approaches conservation from the Dene perspective. The Dehcho K'éhodi program is founded on honouring the Dene Laws, strengthening the Dene language, and fostering connections between Elders and youth and currently employs about 20 Guardians a year.