Reclaiming Métis Ethics 2025 Speakers
Allyson Stevenson
Dr. Allyson Stevenson (Métis, Métis Nation-Saskatchewan, member of Local 43 Weldon/Kinistino) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies at the University of Saskatchewan and the inaugural Gabriel Dumont Research Chair in Métis Studies. (2020-present.) She is an internationally recognized Métis historian of the Sixties Scoop and Indigenous Women’s political activism. She holds a PhD in Canadian History (2015) from the University of Saskatchewan. Her research combines archival research, oral history, and decolonial approaches to generate critical perspectives on Indigenous peoples’ engagement with the Canadian state. Her monograph Intimate Integration: The Sixties Scoop and the Colonization of Indigenous Kinship has been recognized in both Canada and the United States, including winning the Canadian Historical Association’s Clio Prize, Prairie Region and the 2022 Prose Award Finalist, Association of American Publishers in the North American History Category.
She is currently working with the community of Cumberland House SK, and Kinistino Weldon Métis Local 43 on community driven historical projects. Her recent publications include “Coming Home Through Métis Research” in Around the Kitchen Table: Métis Aunties’ Scholarship, “A Day in the Life of John James Fidler: Writing our People Back into History” forthcoming in the Canadian Historical Review, and “Métis Matriarchs in kah–ministik–ominahkoskahk (Cumberland House): mîkisistahikêwin––Beading Together Generations” in Métis Matriarchs: Agents of Change edited by Cheryl Troupe and Doris Jeanne MacKinnon. She was born in Saskatoon and raised in Regina SK and currently resides with her family south of Kinistino, SK in her family’s traditional Métis territory
Bernice Downey
Dr. Downey is a woman of Ojibwe and Celtic heritage, a mother and a grandmother. She is a medical anthropologist and her current research interests include Indigenous Women’s Heart Health, health literacy and Indigenous Traditional knowledge and health/research system reform for Indigenous populations. She is a Heart & Stroke Foundation- CIHR (Early Career) Chair in Indigenous women’s heart and brain health. She is also the inaugural Associate Dean, Indigenous Health for the Faculty of Health Sciences and a former A/Director of the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute.
Cathy Mattes
Cathy Mattes is a Michif (Southwest Manitoba) curator, writer, and Associate Professor in History of Art at the University of Winnipeg. Mattes previously taught art history in Ishkaabatens Waasa Gaa Inaabateg, Department of Visual Art. She also taught for the Gender and Women Studies program at Brandon University, and is an adjunct faculty member in Graduate Studies at OCADU. She is a beadworker, Southern Michif language learner, and holds a PhD in Indigenous Studies from the University of Manitoba. Mattes has served on over 30 university, community, and arts organization committees, and was/is a consultant, board member or advisory council member for various arts organizations
Caroline Tait
Dr. Caroline Tait grew up in a small Métis community, MacDowall, Saskatchewan, and her family have been active citizens of the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan since its inception. Dr. Tait holds a joint appointment as a Professor in the Faculty of Social Work and the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. Dr. Tait has partnered with Métis and First Nations peoples in research for over 25 years, including advancing research and data governance processes. Dr. Tait is the lead author of the Saskatchewan Métis Research and Data Sovereignty Guidelines and is actively involved in education and training that advances the research sovereignty of Métis and First Nations peoples. She is the founder of the First Nations and Métis Organ Donation and Transplantation Network, and the International Indigenous Organ Donation and Transplantation Network. Dr. Tait has held a long term commitment to supporting and mentoring Indigenous student from Canada and internationally, including developing the Saskatchewan Indigenous Mentorship Network.
Chantal Fiola
Chantal Fiola is Michif (Red River Métis) with family from St. Laurent, St. Vital, Ste. Anne, and Ste. Geneviève, MB. Her ancestors, Pierre “Bostonnais” Pangman Jr and Marie Wewejikabawik, were among four Michif families who established the historic Métis community of St. Laurent. Chantal is a registered citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF). She is an award-winning author, including Returning to Ceremony: Spirituality in Manitoba Métis Communities. Currently, with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Manitoba Research
Charlotte Nolin
Charlotte Nolin (Stands Strong Eagle Woman) is a 74-year-old Métis woman, who survived the Indian Day Schools and the infamous 60s Scoop. During her lifetime, Miss Nolin overcame many hurdles placed in her path, such as an early addiction to heroin and violence at the hands of those who paid for her services to surviving a suicide attempt at the age of 21. After facing homophobia and transphobia during her attempted transition at 17, she returned to the closet at 24 rather than face death. Charlotte then entered the world of construction and excelled, becoming a foreman by her third year in the industry.
At 40, Charlotte changed careers and began her journey in social work. This became such a rewarding journey, protecting those that couldn’t protect themselves. Charlotte was instrumental in the repatriation of a 5-year-old girl from B.C. to her relatives in The Pas, Manitoba. After two heart attacks in a three-week period, Charlotte decided to retire in 2020.
Today, Charlotte enjoys life as her true self after completing her transition in 2017. Charlotte now leads her 2Spirit community in Sundance along with her sister Barbara, serves as an Elder-in-Residence at the University of Manitoba and does work for the NRCAN department of the Federal government.
Chelsea Gabel
Chelsea Gabel, PhD, is a card carrying member of the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF), Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Indigenous Peoples' Health (IIPH), Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Well-Being, Community-Engagement & Innovation and an Associate Professor in the Department of Health, Aging and Society and the Indigenous Studies Department at McMaster University. Chelsea is the lead of the Indigenous Mentorship Network of Ontario (CIHR) and a co-lead of the Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research (NEIHR) National Coordinating Centre (CIHR). Chelsea's current research focuses on Métis health and well-being, arts-based research, and intergenerational relationships' importance.
Jennifer Walker
Jennifer Walker is a Haudenosaunee member of Six Nations of the Grand River with a Ph.D. in community health sciences (epidemiology) from the University of Calgary. She is an associate professor at McMaster University in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, & Impact. Dr. Walker’s work focuses largely on Indigenous community-engaged health research using large health services databases through her work as a core scientist and Indigenous Health advisor at ICES in Ontario and through the Health Data Research Network Canada.
Kristen Dejarlais de Klerk
Dr. Kristen Desjarlais-deKlerk is a settler-Metis woman (from Alberta) with nearly two decades of academic experience and peer-reviewed scholarship. Her research has focused on social development topics, including inequality, homelessness, housing, social support, health, and harm reduction. She has served on a variety of community boards dedicated to housing, and poverty reduction. She currently serves as a co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness. She is also a member of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Advisory Committee on Ethics. Dr. Desjarlais-deKlerk has taught at universities and colleges throughout Alberta as well as Cape Breton University in Nova Scotia. She is currently an Associate Professor in Business and Administration at the University of Winnipeg in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Laura Forsythe
Laura Forsythe, Ph.D. is a Michif Assistant Professor at the University of Winnipeg in the Faculty of Education. Forsythe's research focus is Métis-specific contributions to the academy, Métis inclusion efforts, Métis research methodologies, and educational sovereignty. With five co-edited collections, the Metis Awareness Mondays Series, and the circle of editors of Pawaatamihk: Journal of Metis Thinkers, Forsythe has helped lift up Indigenous scholars' work for over a decade. Her kinship ties include the Huppe, Ward, Berard, Morin, Lavallee, and Cyr lines and has citizenship with the Manitoba Metis Federation.
Dr. Pamela Roach
Dr. Roach is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Family Medicine and Community Health Sciences, is Director of Indigenous Engagement in the Vice President Research Office at UCalgary, and a citizen of the Otipemisiwak Métis Nation within Alberta, though she originally comes from the historic Métis community of St. Laurent, Manitoba. Dr. Roach is also the Acting Scientific Director of the O’Brien Institute for Public Health. She holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Health Systems Safety with a focus on dementia and brain health. She co-leads the Indigenous Cognitive Health Program as part of the CCNA and is currently leading work to develop Indigenous-specific approaches to dementia care and prevention.
Robert Henry
University of Saskatchewan (USask) researcher Dr. Robert (Bobby) Henry (PhD), whose work on Indigenous street gangs and lifestyles is internationally recognized, has been awarded a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Indigenous Justice and Well-being.
Tahu Kukutai
Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Co-Director Tahu Kukutai is Professor of Demography at Te Ngira: Institute for Population Research, The University of Waikato where she specialises in Māori and Indigenous demography and data sovereignty. Tahu is a founding member of the Māori Data Sovereignty Network Te Mana Raraunga and the Global Indigenous Data Alliance. She co-edited Indigenous data sovereignty: Toward an agenda (ANU Press, 2016), Indigenous data sovereignty and policy (Routledge, 2020) and The Oxford Handbook of Indigenous Sociology (Oxford) .
Tahu has undertaken research with and for numerous iwi, hapū, and central government agencies, and provided strategic advice across a range of sectors. She is a technician for the National Iwi Chairs Forum Data Iwi Leaders Group and serves on the Board of Pūhoro STEMM Academy. Tahu has degrees in history, demography and sociology from The University of Waikato and Stanford University. She lives in Waikato with her husband, three tamariki and three cats.
Yvonne Poitras Pratt
Yvonne Poitras Pratt, PhD (citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta) is Associate Professor at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. Her family roots trace back to Red River with both parents born and raised in the Fishing Lake Métis Settlement in northern Alberta. Some of the more prominent Métis names in her family tree include Poitras, Parenteau, Fayant, Lemire, and Calliou, where her great-great grandfather Pierre Poitras served on the 1869 Provisional Government. Dr. Poitras Pratt has long been active in the realm of Métis education serving as the first Associate Director, Métis Education at the Rupertsland Institute in 2012-13. She was recruited to the Werklund School of Education in 2013 and continues to serve the Métis community through her academic role at the Rupertsland Centre for Métis Research (University of Alberta). Her 2020 book, Digital Storytelling in Indigenous Education: A Decolonizing Journey for a Metis Community, has sold 300 copies globally. As an award-winning educator and researcher, she has published on reconciliatory and decolonizing pedagogy, critical service-learning, academic integrity from an Indigenous perspective, and the integration of arts in education. Yvonne was awarded the Métis Nation of Alberta (Region 3) – Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023.