MC And Food Security Workshop Facilitator

Dawn is of Secwépemc ancestry and is the Founder/Curator of the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty. 

Since 1983, Dawn has worked and studied horticulture, ethno-botany, adult education, and restoration of natural systems in formal institutions, as well as through her own healing and learning journey with Elders and traditional knowledge holders. Following the time spent teaching Aboriginal Adult Basic Education, Dawn has been dedicating her time and energy to land based healing and learning which led her to her life’s work of realizing herself more fully as a developing spirit aligned leader in the Indigenous food sovereignty movement. 

MC Traditional Food Storyteller

Is Saulteau First Nation from Moberly Lake, British Columbia. His upbringing was deeply rooted in Cree culture, where he learned traditional skills such as hunting, fishing, and cooking. It was through his grandparents, especially his grandmother and aunt, that Napoleon gained a profound appreciation for Indigenous culinary traditions.

Indigenous Foods Educator - Keynote Speaker

Jared Qwustenuxun Williams is a passionate Indigenous Foods educator who spent his youth immersed in Salish culture. After graduating from culinary arts he spent over a decade working in restaurants before moving back home to Quw’utsun to take the role of Elder’s Kitchen Manager. Now, after more than 13 years of cooking for his elders, Qwustenuxun works as an Indigenous foods educator, writer, and consultant for various universities, ministries and health authorities. Most recently Qwustenuxun won several Canadian Online Publishing Awards, gave a TEDX talk on the power of Indigenous Foods, and presented at the UN World Food Forum in Rome. When he is not working on furthering Indigenous food sovereignty Qwustenuxun spends much of his time with his wife and children either on their small hobby farm in Quw’utsun.

Rachel is a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes from Lax Kw’alaams, a Ts’msyen community located 30km by boat from Prince Rupert where she was born and raised. She works with the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council and is undertaking her PhD at UBC, looking at how food system engagement and traditional approaches to health and healing can support diabetes resiliency in Nuu-chah-nulth communities.

Tabitha Robin is a mixed ancestry Metis and Cree researcher, educator, and writer. She is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia. She spends much of her time learning about traditional Cree food practices. 

Melissa Meyer is Tsimshian from Lax kw'alaams, BC (Island of Wild Roses). She is Eagle clan from the Gis pax'loats tribe (people of the Elderberry). She is a Mother of two teenagers that also share Nuxalk ancestry. Melissa is a Traditional Plant Practitioner for the Nisqually Tribe in Washington. Prior to Nisqually, she served for over 3 years at the Seattle Indian Health Board as their Traditional Plant practitioner. She stewards a 1 acre farm named after her home village, Rose Island Farm, in the ancestral territory of the Puyallup Nation, or Tacoma, WA. She grows food and medicine with our local bipoc community and centers all indigenous foodways through collaborative community sharing.

For Indigenous peoples across Canada, diabetes can be understood as both a symptom and a disease of colonialism. Through the deliberate eradication of land-based food sources, and the destruction of native ecosystems, Indigenous food systems were targeted to force the “surrender” of lands and to replace the lands with settler agriculture. In this talk, we will overview the colonial effects on our food systems, and how this has resulted in a burden of diabetes in our communities.

Joshua Charleson grew up with his mother, father, and 5 older siblings in the Hesquiaht Community of Hot Springs Cove on IR#5. I am a happily married father of three that has a deep love and connection to the ocean, shorelines, rivers, and everything that water connects in the Nuu-chah-nutlh Territory that I call home. As a Hesquiaht I grew up as a salt water person and have remained a salt water person working in and around the ocean my whole life. The First paid Job that I had was as a deckhand in 2002 for my father Stephen Charleson on the Sashmaray II; fishing Area A Sockeye in Hesquiaht and Ahousaht Traditional Waters. My goal is to leave the oceans and everything that it connects in a healthy and thriving state so that it can take care of the next generations the way it has taken care of me and my family our entire lives.

Spencer Greening (La'goot) is from the Tsimshian community of the Gitga'at First Nation. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Interdisciplinary studies at Simon Fraser University. His research looks at the relationship between Gitga'at traditional ecological knowledge, language, and history in the context of Indigenous resource management.  All his work revolves around his deep connection to his home community, elders, territories, and the self-determination and decolonization of Indigenous peoples.

This workshop will seek to answer your burning questions about how to access grants for your community programs.  You can expect to learn about what to consider, as well as approaches to grantwriting that will bring greater success,as well as leave with a resource list of potential funding sources.

Elise Boulanger is an ally and works with the Strathcona Community Food Hub. She is passionate about food security, food sovereignty, mitigating climate change and music.

I am the conservation director for the West Coast Indigenous protected/conserved Areas (WISP) and my co-worker food security specialist, D’arcy Cyre (Cree)

are part of an Indigenous-led conservation organization that supports Indigenous nations and communities in their development of their own IPCA or how they perceive land/water relationships to Indigenous title and rights.

Our WISP program helps build inter-tribal unity, cultural activities, conservation economies, food sovereignty and restoration efforts that have been disrupted from industrial impacts.

Haida knowledge keeper, food harvester and processor and Haida lead for the Local Food 2 School program for the last 3 years. She was an Aboriginal Justice Worker and ran the Haida Gwaii Legal Project Society for over 20 years. She also has a long history of language advocacy work on Haida Gwaii, organizing Haida language gatherings in the early 1990’s. Elizabeth challenges regulations that prevent traditional food from entering institutions by advising Environmental Health Officers, Conservation Officers and Health Leaders.

Qualified ECE at Skidegate Daycare Center on Haida Gwaii. The center has an Aboriginal Headstart Parent and Tot Program where Jenny passes on knowledge of traditional cultural teachings. These include Haida language, song, and dance, harvesting and processing of seafood, medicinal plants, wild berries. Jenny and the Headstart program collaborate with island organizations, knowledge keepers and elders. Jenny is passionate about passing on the knowledge of the ancestors to the next generations. She is also a traditional Haida singer who teachers’ song and dance to the children in the community.

Cliff Atleo (Wickaninnish) has been part of the FNHC since 2009, and now serves as its Elder Advisor. Born and raised in Ahousaht, he went to day school until grade four and Alberni Indian Residential School at age 10 for nine years. In 1978, he began working for the Native Brotherhood of BC and served as its executive director for six years where he negotiated salmon and herring contracts with the Fisheries Association of BC. Cliff was appointed to the Pacific Salmon Commission, Salmon Enhancement Board, Pacific Area Regional Council and the International Halibut Commission. He was Board member and president of the Nesika Lodge Society which provides support to young Indigenous women in Vancouver. He also served as President of an Aboriginal Business Association and Native Peoples Credit Union. He has represented Ahousaht as negotiator for the forestry conflict in Clayoquot Sound and continues his work as advisor for Ahousaht’s reconciliation talks with BC and Canada and as lead negotiator in the fight to re-establish a way of life of harvesting and commercially selling aquatic resources.