Keynote Speaker
Dr. Omeasoo Wāhpāsiw is a nehiyaw iskwew living in Anishinabe territory. Her PhD dissertation is titled Tla’amin Housing, Architecture and Home Territories in the 20th Century: Invisible spaces Shaping Historical Indigenous Education. It explores the ways in which Indigenous people have maintained their cultural and spatial heritage even while forced to inhabit architecture that follows colonial paradigms. Omeasoo co-wrote the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Women’s Commission submission to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People. For the past several years, she has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at the University of Prince Edward Island, where she led a suite of courses on Indigenous culture and values, and the emerging legacy of the residential schools. Omeasoo is cross-appointed with Carleton’s School of Indigenous & Canadian Studies and the Department of History.
Keynote Title
Performer
Kevin McKay
is from Cross Lake First Nation in Northern Manitoba. Kevin has been playing fiddle since he was 12 years old, and he plays for community events across the North. Kevin initiated the Pride Day/Two-Spirited Gathering in Cross Lake. You can see Kevin highlighted in the CBC Docs film, "Twilight Dancers," from 2016.