Kim Haxton – IndigenEYEZ:

Kim Haxton is a multifaceted, multidimensional educator, rooted in knowledge and steeped in community. She is Potowatami from Wasauksing. She has worked across Turtle Island and abroad in various capacities, always emphasizing local leadership development toward genuine healing. In her work with Indigeneyez, a creative arts based organization she co-founded, Kim works with Indigenous communities toward decolonization and liberation. Grounded in the arts and the natural world for embodied awareness and facilitated rites of passage, Kim develops de-escalation skills, trauma recovery, diversity and anti-oppression education. She had been working with traditional plant medicines. Kim has developed and facilitated programs in over 8 countries, and has been working in land-based education and leadership in corporate and non-profit agencies for the past 25 years. 

Erica Ellis – Environmental Youth Alliance

Erica is a second generation settler of Japanese and mixed European ancestry residing as an uninvited guest on Skwxwú7mesh Nation territory. She has an educational background in Natural Resource Conservation and a Masters in Education for Sustainability which she puts towards her passion of environmental education.  Erica has been facilitating and coordinating land-based programs for several years in Vancouver & Squamish and feels grateful for the opportunity to nurture transformative experiences in Nature with children and youth.  In her practice she is constantly learning from land and the original stewards of the land and has been excited to contribute to the Environmental Youth Alliance’s work in the position of Program Manager for their youth employment programs for the past year.

Nicole North Peigan – Native Youth Program

Hello my name is Nicole North Peigan, and I’m Blackfoot a member of the Piikani Nation located in treaty 7 territory in southern Alberta and Anishinaabe from Wiikwemikoong Unceded territory in Ontario. I am in my second year at the University of British Columbia and I’m this year’s Manager for the Native Youth Program.

The Native Youth Program (NYP) is a summer and winter program for urban Indigenous youth, ages 15 to 18, currently enrolled in secondary school. It provides employment and training to six urban Indigenous high school students and one university students as program manager.

The goal is to produce young Indigenous leaders, provide meaningful direction and mentoring, enhance employment opportunities for Indigenous youth and promote public understanding of the diversity and richness of Indigenous cultures within the UBC community. Participants benefit from a well-supported opportunity to safely explore their culture and identity among peers, and develop important knowledge, skills and confidence for future creative and academic endeavours. NYP has graduated over 200 Indigenous students, many who have gone on to successful post-secondary education. NYP’s proven model has been adopted around the world.

This fall the Native youth program students curated a tour in response to Kent Monkman’s Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience. This exhibition provides a critique of Canada’s colonial policies, past and present. It is a journey that reclaims and reinserts Indigenous voices into the collective memory of our country, and challenging colonial ideas in our history.