BEENDIGEN 

Anishinabe Women's Crisis Home & Family Healing Agency

INFORMATION SESSION

Monday, October 25, 2021 - 11 am to 12 pm EST 

In person in the Gakina Nindinawemaaganag Lounge - UC1007

Also via Zoom

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://lakeheadu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIocOGhpzstG9aSOODTbx3mO6x8D...

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Find out about the FREE support and services Beendigen provides women and children to ensure a safe environment to live in, free from violence.

MANDATORY COVID-19 VACCINE PASSPORT and DAILY SCREENING REQUIRED.

For more information, contact adm.issc@lakeheadu.ca 

Dr. Jessica Jurgutis, Ledah McKellar, Jerri-Lynn Orr

Reconcili-Action Campus Walk

This walk is open to faculty members who are interested in learning more about colonial history in local, regional and national context, and how they might play a role in unlearning and challenging colonial assumptions and narratives. Over the course of our time together we will visit key campus sites as entry points for exploring Lakehead’s own colonial history and to prompt conversation and reflection about what taking action towards reconciliation means at Lakehead and in the larger post-secondary context. Teachings of Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, Responsibility will be woven into each site visit.

Please wear sturdy shoes and clothing appropriate for the weather. There will be a reflection circle and light refreshments to conclude this walk.

Meeting Location: meet at the front doors Bora Laskin Faculty of Education 

Join us for a talk on MMIWG2S (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirited) Indigenous Anti HumanTrafficking with the Thunder Bay Ontario Native Women's Association.

Speakers: Community Development Managers: Michele Solomon and Collin Graham.

 Friday October 8, 2021 via Zoom 

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://lakeheadu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYpfumtqjIvGNHBCAuDVwt7-Q5Wv...

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Michele Solomon is a member and an elected Councillor for Fort William First Nation in her third term of office.  She is a proud mother and grandmother. Michele earned a BA Indigenous Learning degree (Lakehead University) and Social Service Worker Diploma (Confederation College)

One of her many roles as Councillor is to provide guidance and knowledge towards a substantial portfolio area for the First Nation, which includes; Health and Community Services, Finance and Administration, Youth and Social Development.  She is also a board representative with Dilico Anishinabek Family Care.  

Michele’s main area of expertise is Mental Health and Addictions stemming from her many years of employment as a Team Leader and Manager at Dilico Anishinabek Family Care and Health Centre Manager for White Cedar.  From her background in these areas it has allowed her to obtain a strong knowledge of opioid addiction and treatment.  Michele also has a passion for Restorative Justice and contributed to Nokiiwin’s  Access to Justice Forum for two years. 

Most recently, Michele works as a community Development Manager at the Ontario Native Women’s Association where she also volunteered and was part of the Board of Directors 1988-1993. In her role as Community Development Manager, Michele leads programs focused on Indigenous Women’s Leadership.

Collin Graham is from Ochiichagwe’ Babigo’Ining Ojibway First Nation.  He grew up in Thunder Bay, ON.  Collin has been an advocate in community development for over 20 years. Mr. Graham currently works at the Ontario Native Women’s Association as a Community Development Manager.  His past work includes working in the Sexual Health sector, in the Mental Health sector, as well as working with youth.  Collin is a huge advocate for the youth and empowers the 2S-LGBTQ community through experiential learning.  

Collin obtained his diploma through Confederation College and graduated in the Indigenous Wellness and Addictions Prevention Program.  He completed the Life Skills Coaching Human Relations and Family Management Counselling Program in White Rock, British Columbia.  Collin is passionate about deconstructing colonialism at different levels through community, as well as on an individual basis.  “It’s important that we have conversation with ourselves and to look at how we play a part in upholding structures of power.”  Collin is known for using humour as he believes it’s a pillar of resiliency amongst Indigenous communities and be used as a healing tool.  

Red Dress Pin Beading 

Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 - 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Gakina Nindinawemaaganag Lounge - UC1007

In person event ISSC

EVERYONE WELCOME

Looking Back, to go Forward

Dr. Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux

Thursday, September 30, 2021 - 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm

via zoom

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://lakeheadu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwvd-GpqD4pGNLsm4sdWurLNu-lV...

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Cynthia will highlight where we have been, where we are now, and where we must go to improve relations with Canada and to ensure Indigenous peoples have a positive future!

Dr. Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux served as Vice Provost for Indigenous Initiatives at Lakehead University for three years. Effective September 2016 she was appointed as the 1^st Indigenous Chair for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada for Lakehead University and continues to develop pathways forward to reconciliation across Canada. 

Cynthia was the inaugural Nexen Chair for Indigenous Leadership at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and remains a faculty member in the Indigenous Learning program. She is the Chair of the Teach for Canada non-profit which recruits teachers for remote First Nation schools. Cynthia was inducted as a “Honourary Witness” by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2014, and is the Chair of the Governing Circle for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba. 

She is a member and resident of the Chippewa of Georgina Island First Nation in Ontario and has dedicated her life to building bridges of understanding. She sees endless merit in bringing people from diverse cultures, ages, and backgrounds together to engage in practical dialogue and applied research initiatives. She is deeply committed to public education and active youth engagement from all cultures and backgrounds. She co-founded a youth project out of the University of Toronto, the University of Saskatchewan and Lakehead University. More information on the Canadian Roots Exchange (CRE) can be found at: www.canadianroots.ca.

EVERYONE WELCOME

Reconcili-Action Campus Walk

FACULTY SPECIFIC (MAXIMUM 10 PEOPLE):

Dr. Jessica Jurgutis, Ledah McKellar, Jerri-Lynn Orr

Friday, October 8th, 2021 - 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Meeting Location: Meet at the front doors of the Bora Laskin (Faculty of Education) Building (Thunder Bay Campus Map)

Registration is required for this event to a maximum of 10 participants as the snack/food order is based on numbers.

https://forms.gle/qGycLxK1HFmCafxL8

This walk is open to faculty members who are interested in learning more about colonial history in local, regional and national context, and how they might play a role in unlearning and challenging colonial assumptions and narratives. Over the course of our time together we will visit key campus sites as entry points for exploring Lakehead’s own colonial history and to prompt conversation and reflection about what taking action towards reconciliation means at Lakehead and in the larger post-secondary context. Teachings of Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, Responsibility will be woven into each site visit.

Please wear sturdy shoes and clothing appropriate for the weather. There will be a reflection circle and light refreshments to conclude this walk.

Meeting Location: front doors of the Bora Laskin (Faculty Education) Building Thunder Bay Campus.

Circle conversation: Indigenization through a Reconciliation lens Module Virtual Circle

with Jerri-Lynn Orr & Kelly Brennan

Wednesday, October 6, 2021- 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm

via zoom

(20 participant max)

Description:

This virtual Circle Conversation will give you an opportunity to share and reflect with other students and discuss what you have learned from completing the Indigenizing through a Reconciliation Lens and what questions you may have moving forward.

You can access the Indigenizing through a Reconciliation Lens module under the "Self-Registration: Academic Support and Training" on your mycourselink homepage.

(release date to students: September 27, 2021)

Kairo Blanket Exercise - In person event

Friday, October 1, 2021

10:00 am to 12:00 pm EST

Agora Circle (depending on weather)

20 people Max capacity

Must preregister: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeZ5UobioRyBapqTERUa8wORycBTO2T...

Are Prisons the New Residential Schools? Understanding and teaching the relationship between imprisonment and settler colonialism in Canada. 

Dr. Jessica Jurgutis

Wednesday, Oct. 6 - 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

via zoom

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://lakeheadu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIkcOmpqTIqGdCDoFdiRP9z7nQ0r...

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Description

This workshop will examine reconcili-action in the context of teaching about the criminal justice system in Canada with a special focus on incarceration. Participants will leave the workshop with an understanding of how taking for granted mainstream understandings of the history and purpose of imprisonment in Canada perpetuate colonial institutions and ideologies. Alternatives for challenging these assumptions in our teaching and learning will also be provided.

Biography

Dr. Jessica Jurgutis is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Gender & Women’s Studies and Indigenous Learning at Lakehead University. Her work explores imprisonment in Canada through an anti-colonial and abolitionist feminist lens.

EVERYONE WELCOME

An Exploration of Land as Teacher in the Context of Indigenous Science

It is time to shake up and expand beyond the eurocentric construct of science which currently monopolizes education. Shake-up does not mean throw out. Rather to shake-up is to arrive with innocence, to re-examine with self-honesty, and to be willing to let go of what no longer serves all of Life.

This narrative-based exploration of Land as Teacher offers a humble invitation to re-member we are the Land and to consciously trust the Heart as a place of sophisticated intelligence.

Land encompasses everything: rocks, soil, water, plant beings, birds, sky, insects, the wind, flowing processes, communication via fungi, the stars, sun, and moon, and people---all that resonates with meaning. The mixed-wood boreal forests and living shores of Gitchii Gamii (Lake Superior) continue to provide daily whole-person sustenance—mind, body, and soul. These Land communities and the natural areas at Lakehead University (Thunder Bay) play a vital role in shaping my evolving Land-inspired pedagogical praxis. I am ever grateful to the original and on-going Stewards of the Land, and to all the Wisdom-keepers who have touched my heart and expanded my mind.

Speaker: Dr. Willow Curthoys

When: October 5, 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm

Location: Zoom