Biographies
Presenters and Participants
Welcome Keynote
John B. Zoe, LLD
John B. Zoe is a member of the Tłįchǫ First Nation. Until recently he served as the Tłįchǫ Executive Officer for the recognized Tłįchǫ Government, where the major art of his work was managing the development of the governance and corporate structures. Mr. Zoe was born and raised in Rae-Edzo in the Northwest Territories, and he still resides in this community. In the early years his community spoke only the traditional language, and stories were an everyday natural routine. In 1992, Mr. Zoe became the chief negotiator for the Tłįchǫ First Nation (Dogrib Treaty 11 Council). He participated in the negotiations with the governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories to help settle the land claim and obtain self-government, completed in 2005. Under the self-rule agreement, the Tłįchǫ First Nation is responsible for 39,000 square kilometres of land between Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake, an area about the size of Belgium. The agreement is built on the stories that he and the team had heard, and with the help of the elders, this story has been added.
Wednesday Lunchtime Keynote
Larry W. Emerson (Dine) PhD
Larry W. Emerson, Diné Nation, is a community activist, scholar, and artist. He has an interest in community wellness, Indigenous decolonization theory and practice, Indigenous studies, Indigenous research, social justice, and Native traditional knowledge. Emerson has a Masters of Arts in Counselling from San Diego State University, San Diego, California and a doctoral degree in educational philosophy from the Joint Doctoral Program of San Diego State University and Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California.
Presenters
Andre, Alestine
Alestine, a Gwichya Gwich’in from Tsiigehtchic, is the Heritage Researcher with the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute where she has worked since 1994. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Women’s Studies and an Interdisciplinary Master’s degree in Ethnobotany or medicine plants used by NWT Gwich’in. In 2006 Alestine was a recipient of the prestigious National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the category Heritage, Culture and Spirituality. Alestine grew up on the land in the 1950s with her extended family as they moved around the Travaillant Lake and Tree River areas to their hunting and fishing areas.
Antoine, Jonas
Jonas (Deh Cho) represents the Deh Cho First Nation on the regional Protected Areas Steering committee, and the Nahanni Management Team and Expansion Working Group. Jonas grew up at the Rabbitskin River in Deh Cho territory. His training comes from the knowledge that was passed on to him by his family, and the elders that raised him. In the late 60s he studied communications at Ryerson Tech, and started working with CBC interviewing elders. He travelled around the United States for about 20 years, and returned to renew his relationship with his traditional homeland in 1989.
Arteau, Jean François
Jean François completed a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from Université Laval and a Master’s Degree in Law from Université de Montréal. He occupied several senior positions within the Kativik Regional Government as Associate Director General and Chief Legal Counsel. Since 2005, Jean François is Legal Counsel and Executive Assistant to the President of Makivik Corporation, Pita Aatami. He is the author of several legal articles and was invited as guest speaker by several organizations, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and the United Nations, to make presentations on the Inuit of Nunavik (northern Quebec, Canada).
Balanoff, Helen
Helen Balanoff has lived in the north for over thirty years. She has taught in grade schools, in adult education programs and at university. She was a Director in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. She has been a researcher on the Legislative Assembly’s Special Committee on Education, and the Special Committee on the Review of the NWT Official Languages Act. She has also coordinated a number of community-based research projects. She is the PI on a visual repatriation project with the British Museum that is examining Ulukhaktok literacies. She is Executive Director with the NWT Literacy Council and adjunct professor at the University of Lethbridge.
Barnaby, George
George (K’asho Got’ine) has lived on the land as a hunter and trapper and has been involved in governance issues for many years. George is active in self-government and has held positions as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Sahtu Region, Vice-President of the Indian Brotherhood, Fort Good Hope Settlement Councillor, and Sahtu Land Claims Negotiator. He was part of the Bourque Commission on constitutional development in the western arctic. Currently, George is a member of the K’asho Got’ine Charter Community Council and the Sahtu Land and Water Board.
Bayha, Walter
Most of Walter’s early years on Mother Earth was out on the land with all of his grandfathers, travelling and learning the Dene traditions of Sahtú (Great Bear Lake). After 32 years in the resource development fields with both governments of the day, he switched to the private sector for a few more years, mainly with First Nation governments. He is currently Implementation Director for the Délįnę Governance office, Special Advisor to the Sahtu Renewable Resource Board, and member of the Sahtu Land and Water Board as well as the Mackenzie Land and Water Board.
Beaulieu, Danny
Danny (Dene Sǫłįne) works as a Wildlife Officer for NWT Environment and Natural Resources, and is a member of the Traditional Knowledge Committee that was set up by the Deputy Minister. Danny comes from Fort Resolution, and has been a trapper in the Rocher River area for many years. He has been working with elders to understand how their knowledge can be applied in resource management.
Brock, David
David Brock is a public policy strategist who has frequently advised governments and organizations with polar interests. He lives in Yellowknife, where he currently works as a strategic planning analyst for the Department of Executive of the Government of the Northwest Territories. In 2005 he was named a Fellow of Action Canada, a national program in leadership and public policy. He is a member of the education team for Students on Ice and has served on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Political Science Association. He studied political science at Dalhousie University, the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of Western Ontario. His political commentary has appeared in Policy Options, the Toronto Star, and The Mark.
Caine, Ken
Ken Caine holds a PhD in Rural Sociology from the University of Alberta and was a Pierre Elliot Trudeau Scholar from 2004 to 2008. Currently, he is an IPY Post-Doctoral Fellow in northern governance and resilience at the University of Alberta. Ken lived in Délįnę, Northwest Territories from 2003 to 2006 conducting his doctoral ethnographic research on the development of the Great Bear Lake Management Plan and long-term protection of Saoyú-ʔehdacho aboriginal cultural landscape. He also assisted in the development of the community-based Délįnę Knowledge Centre, and participated in daily community life including on the land activities and coaching youth hockey. Previously Ken lived and worked as an extension forester with the government of the Northwest Territories, and as a natural resource extension specialist with a research and extension cooperative in Northern British Columbia. His interests include adaptive resource governance in the Canadian North, community-based natural resource management, resource co-management, social-ecological change and local culture, and social impact assessment.
Cash, Alan
Originally from the Maritimes with a background in history and museums, Alan moved to the NWT 20 years ago and for the last ten year has served as Deputy Secretary to the GNWT Cabinet. The Deputy Secretary position is responsible for providing Cabinet with independent and objective policy advice and for coordinating and promoting a consistent and coherent approach to the design and implementation of Cabinet approved policies.
Cassell, Elizabeth
Elizabeth Cassell is a PhD student with the Department of Sociology and Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK. Having practised as a lawyer, she spent eighteen years as Principal Teaching Fellow in Law at the University of Essex. After spending a sabbatical year at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge researching the Truth & Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential Schools, she took early retirement to pursue her study of indigenous land rights, working with the Band Council of Matimekush, Northern Quebec on an oral history project to support land claims negotiations.
Chambers, Cynthia
Cynthia Chambers is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge where she teaches curriculum studies, language and literacy, and Aboriginal/Indigenous studies. At present she is part of a SSHRC-funded research team situated in Ulukhaktok, NWT, exploring Aboriginal literacies of place, human relations and the material world (such as clothing and tools). She also works with scholars from Red Crow Community College on the curriculum and pedagogy of place, particularly in Blackfoot territory.
Chocolate, Madelaine
Madelaine (Tłįchǫ) is from the community of Gamètì. She has always been interested in promoting the cultural history and the traditions of her people, and has experienced much on the land. Madelaine worked with the Tłįchǫ Regional Elders’ Committee between 1994 and 2001. She focused on learning the stories and understanding the meanings of the elders’ phrases and terms. Madelaine worked with other members of the research team to verify Tłįchǫ terms and their spellings. She has been instrumental in assisting with training the young TK researchers to think about the conceptual meanings of terms.
Coulthard, Glen
Glen Coulthard is a member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and an assistant professor in the First Nations Studies Program and the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. Glen has written and published numerous articles and chapters in the areas of contemporary political theory, indigenous politics, and radical social and political thought. He currently lives in Vancouver with his partner and two young children.
Daniels, Anita
Anita was born in Behchokǫ̀ and lived in the Tłįchǫ region all her life, mainly in Behchokǫ̀ and about 10 years in Whatì and has one handsome son, 20 months old. Anita has worked for the TCSA for the past 10, as Board Coordinator and now a member of CART – Tłįchǫ Community Services Agency – Special Projects Coordinator.
Dunn, Jennifer
Jennifer Dunn is from Whitehorse, Yukon and is a student at McGill University. She is a member of the organizing committee for the 2012 Arctic Leadership Summit: Securing Our Arctic Future. She is the Arts and Humanities Discipline Coordinator for the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists and is actively involved in the Arctic Youth website www.ookpik.org. She spent a year learning about circumpolar politics as an intern at the Embassies of Canada in Oslo and Helsinki.
Ellis, Stephen
Stephen Ellis has advised and facilitated engagements among First Nations, governments, and industry pertaining to land and resource challenges for ten years. He has focused on building First Nation capacity to deal with industrial activity, particularly through the development and implementation of practical measures for consultation and accommodation.
Fair, Jeff
Wildlife biologist and award-winning author, Jeff Fair, has studied loons since 1978, beginning with Common Loons in New Hampshire and Maine and continuing with four species of loons including the rare Yellow-billed Loon since he settled in Alaska 16 years ago. He is an independent field biologist, working with the USGS and USFWS and as an adjunct biologist with BioDiversity Research Institute (Gorham, Maine) on the yellow-bills. His 2002 report, Status and Significance of Yellow-Billed Loon Populations in Alaska, inspired the petition to ESA-list the species in the US. Jeff’s popular writings include a chapter in Arctic Wings (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) and many higher-latitude stories in Audubon, Alaska, and Equinox magazines, including several on loons. Visit www.briloon.org to find links to some of his publications.
Danny Gaudet
As Chief Negotiator for Délįnę Self-Government since 1997, Danny has developed a strong vision for Dene governance. He has been called upon to act as negotiator in a number of other Délįnę First Nation interventions, including the Délįnę Uranium Team and the Great Bear Lake Management process. He is strongly committed to governance guided by the elders, and to community development that harnesses the energies and skills of the youth.
Gibson, Ginger
Ginger Gibson works with communities affected by the extractive industries in North and Latin America on negotiation, consultation and implementation of agreements with mining companies, as well as on social and cultural impact assessment. She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia in Mining Engineering.
Innes, Larry
Larry Innes is the Executive Director of the Canadian Boreal Initiative, where he leads collaborative conservation efforts involving First Nations, environmental, and industry partners across Canada’s Boreal region. Over the past four years, CBI and its partners have worked to designate some 40 million acres for conservation, largely by supporting First Nation-led conservation and land use planning initiatives. Larry brings over a decade of experience to this work, having served as a senior advisor and as legal counsel to several First Nations in negotiations with governments and major mining, forestry and hydroelectric developers.
Irlbacher-Fox, Stephanie
Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox, PhD was raised in Inuvik, NT. She received a PhD from Cambridge University during 2005, where she was both a Magdalene-Donner and Major Scholar at Magdalene College. Her second book, Finding Dahshaa: Self Government, Social Suffering, and Aboriginal Policy in Canada (UBC Press, 2009) is the result of over a decade of a combination of academic research and experience working on self government negotiations in the NWT. In addition to working on various projects as an advisor for Indigenous organizations in the NWT, Stephanie works with the Institute of Public Health Research in Yellowknife. Her main research interests include social determinants of health in northern communities. She holds appointments as an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health; Research Associate with the Canadian Circumpolar Institute; and Research Associate at the Stefansson Arctic Institute, Iceland. Stephanie lives in Yellowknife with her husband Andrew and their two boys.
Gal, Ruthann
Ruthann has served as Manager of the Aurora Research Institute GIS Centre (Aurora College) in Fort Smith, NWT for twelve years, and has extensive experience in community based research. She is a GIS specialist and an ecologist, and has been involved in a number of applied community GIS training projects in Délįnę, including the Délįnę Uranium Team mapping project and traditional placenames mapping with the Délįnę Knowledge Project. She is now preparing for a ten day placenames mapping workshop in Délįnę with elders, students and community researchers.
Kereliuk-Christensen, Julia
Julia Christensen was born and raised in Somba K’e (Yellowknife), Northwest Territories. She is currently a PhD Candidate in Geography at McGill University in Montreal. Her thesis research focuses on homelessness pathways, housing insecurity and social exclusion in the Northwest Territories.
She is also a co-investigator in the International Polar Year Project: The Impacts of Oil and Gas on Arctic Peoples Using a Multiple Securities Perspective. Julia is a Trudeau Scholar and a recipient of a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship. Julia sits as the student representative on the Social Economy of the North (SERRNoCa) steering committee, and is co-director of the International Polar Year Time Capsule Project as well as the Northern Students/Northern Research initiative. She is an affiliated graduate student with the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research (ICHR).
Kritsch, Ingrid
Ingrid Kritsch has worked in the Canadian Subarctic as a cultural anthropologist and archaeologist for over 30 years. She is the founding Executive Director of the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute (GSCI) and since 1998 has been the Research Director. Ingrid is responsible for all research that GSCI undertakes in the area of heritage and culture. In 2000, Ingrid was awarded a Wise Woman Award by the NWT Status of Women Council for her many years of heritage work and advocacy in the North. Since 2005, she has served as the Northwest Territories representative on the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. Ingrid was named an honorary Gwich’in at the annual Gwich’in Assembly in Fort McPherson in August 2008. Her education includes a B.A. (1978) in Anthropology and Geography from McGill University, an M.A. in Anthropology from McMaster University (1983), and course work and preliminary research towards a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta.
Laite, Julia
Julia Laite completed her doctorate in history from the University of Cambridge in 2007. In 2008, she was awarded a Memorial University of Newfoundland Faculty of Arts Postdoctoral Fellowship to work with Drs. Arn Keeling and John Sandlos on the history of mining in Northern Canada. She is currently working with the Abandoned Mines Research Group on a SSHRC-funded project focusing on public health, women, and ethnicity in the Northwest Territories in the early years of mining development. She will be taking up a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship at McGill University in early 2010.
Little, Lois
Lois Little has lived and worked in the Yukon, Nunavut, and Northwest Territories since 1969 and has permanently resided in Yellowknife since 1975. She is the founding partner of Lutra Associates Ltd., a Yellowknife-based socio-economic research and management consulting firm that was established in 1978. In her work with Lutra, Lois has led or participated in over 400 research, evaluation, and program/project design assignments on behalf of the firm. Her work focuses on the social, cultural, and economic spheres of northern life. Lois has undertaken groundbreaking research in NWT’s voluntary sector and lead the development of action plans that engage a wide variety of players in addressing long standing social issues (e.g. family violence, elder abuse and youth alienation). Prior to founding Lutra Associates, Lois was employed in community development functions with the Government of the NWT. She also has a short employment history with the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada and the federal government’s Canada Employment Commission and the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Lois has an undergraduate degree in Native Studies from Trent University and a graduate degree in Integrated Studies from Athabasca University.
Mackeinzo, Edith
Edith (Délįnęot’įne) has studied Dene language teaching at Aurora College, and is one of the few trained interpreters in the community. She was one of a team of three community researchers (Dene Náowéré Chets’elǝ/Gathering Dene Knowledge) with the Délįnę Uranium Team (DUT). Edith is currently a researcher and language program coordinator with the Délįnę Knowledge Project. She has been involved in the archiving project, the youth and community radio projects, and activities to build awareness and capacity in Dene language and literacy.
Malcolm, David
Dr David Malcolm holds a PhD in Engineering Science from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. He is a Certified Management Consultant, a member of the Canadian Science Writers Association, and a member of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild. David has more than 15 years of experience working, researching, and writing across a number of science disciplines in Canada’s North, especially in energy conservation, renewable energy, energy and climate change policy, community energy planning, climate change adaptation, and sustainable living in the circumpolar north.
Mantla, Cody
Cody was born and raised in Behchokǫ̀ all of his life and he has one beautiful 10 month old daughter named Bella Madeline Naedzo Mantla. Cody’s focus is his daughter and he loves the Tłįchǫ traditional way of life. Cody is now a member of CART – Tłįchǫ Community Services Agency —Special Projects Coordinator.
Martin, Alice
Alice (Mikisew Cree) was born and raised on the land. The elders’ teachings of connectedness to the universe and family came as a part of living on the land. Today, after surviving residential school, she has come full circle in realizing that it is time to take those teachings from the past and put them into action. Balancing traditional ways with the mainstream is a big part of her work with the Aboriginal Round Table, as a teacher of traditional knowledge with the Keepers of Athabasca, and in her personal life.
Masuzumi, Barney
Raised in his early years on the land, Barney Masuzumi remembers breaking camp, travelling with boat or dogteam and setting up camp with his two brothers and parents. Today, Barney treasures the traditional knowledge passed to him from his peers and the elders through stories from long ago. He and his partner Georgina facilitate the passing of the knowledge at bush camps with local Elders and youth, particularly foster children. Barney and Georgina have 12 grandchildren who have and will continue to be the recipients of their rich experiences.
McGregor, Deborah
Deborah (Anishnabe) is from Wiigwaskingaa (Whitefish River First Nation, Birch Island, Ontario). For two decades she has been an educator and trainer at both the university and community levels and has been involved in curriculum development, research and teaching. Her focus is on Indigenous knowledge in relation to the environment. Primary themes include determining how to improve relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal parties; and how to ensure the appropriate consideration of Aboriginal peoples’ knowledge, values and rights in environmental and resource management in Canada. She now teaches at the University of Toronto in the Geography Department and Aboriginal Studies Program.
McNeilly, Glenda
Glenda McNeilly (Métis Local 2020) is a trapper and mother living in Fort McMurray. She has recently become active with the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA) in the oil sands area. She is a member of the Aboriginal Round Table and the Biodiversity and Wildlife Task Group. She has facilitated involvement of elders and youth in a Biodiversity Traditional Knowledge Study.
Modeste, Jane
Jane (Délįnęot’įne) is a translator and interpreter for the Délįnę Governance office, and the research advisor for the Délįnę Knowledge Project. She has been working with her language for thirty-two years, and completed an aboriginal teaching certificate. She is a co-author of the twovolume series Sahtuot’ine Long Ago (1991), and assisted with development of the Dene Kedoe curriculum and a number of other resource materials on Dene language and culture.
Modeste, Orlena
As Data Manager for the Délįnę Uranium Team (DUT) during 2002-2005, Orlena led a number of key projects, including a community geneology, a demographic survey, library management, GIS land use mapping, and database management for the DUT oral history project. Since 2006, Orlena has served as Environmental Liaison with the Délįnę First Nation and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Contaminants and Remediation Directorate. She is responsible for planning and implementing projects related to assessment, monitoring and remediation of contaminated mine sites in the Great Bear Lake area. Activities include traditional knowledge studies, training and employment initiatives, and coordinating meetings and site tours.
Naedzo, Jennifer
Jennifer was born and raised in Behchokǫ̀ all her life, she has 4 beautiful daughters. Jennifer worked for Dogrib Treaty II Scholarship Committee for many years and was a tremendous support to a lot of Tlicho Post Secondary students. Jennifer works with CART – Tłįchǫ Community Services Agency.
Nuefeld, Dave
Since 1986 David has worked with Yukon First Nations and the Inuvialuit to consider how they might use the cultural research capacities and designation programs of Parks Canada to forward their community interests. Raised in the Mennonite culture and trained as a historian his work acknowledges both the importance of a personal knowledge of cultural identity and academic research skills. He has helped develop and manage multi-year cultural research projects with several Indigenous governments, mentored university students, undertaken archival and oral research programs and publishes both popular accounts of findings and academic articles on community-based research ethics and processes. At present he is interested in the study of northern environmental history as a barometer of state-indigenous relations and the intersection of knowledge systems in a pluralistic society.
David lives in Whitehorse with his wife, a senior manager with Yukon Environment, and his son Andrew, an IT technician. His married daughter, Erin, is currently studying the idea of remote places in New Zealand.
Ostrem, Dawn
Dawn has worked in journalism for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in the North for six years, where she made her mark in radio documentary production. She has carried that experience over to help communities learn to document their own stories, focusing on culture and community. Dawn has worked with the Délįnę Knowledge Project and ?ehtséo Ayah School on two youth radio projects, and assisted the Délįnę Governance Team in developing communications tools. Dawn is now involved mainly in the promotion and facilitation of the digital storytelling philosophy to aid in research, policy, education and overall well-being.
Russell, Peter H.
Peter Russell taught political science at the University of Toronto from 1958 until his retirement from full-time teaching in 1996. He was made a University Professor at the University of Toronto in 1992. He now serves as the Principal of Senior College at the University of Toronto.
He is a past-President of the Canadian Law & Society Association, the Canadian Political Science Association and a past Chairman of the Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy. He is the Honorary President of RALUT (Retired Academics and Librarians of the University of Toronto) and the founding President of CURAC (College and University Retiree Associations of Canada).
He was Director of Research for the Royal Commission on Certain Activities of the RCMP, chaired the Research Advisory Committee for Canada’s Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, and was a member of the Ipperwash Inquiry Research Committee. In 1998-99, he served as Canada’s Envoy to the Deh Cho Dene in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
Peter Russell is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Fellow and former Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society of Canada. He holds honorary doctorates from a number of Canadian universities and from the Law Society of Upper Canada.
Savoie, Donat
Donat Savoie was born in Montreal, and obtained in 1969 a Master’s Degree in Anthropology from the Université de Montréal. He joined the Public Service of Canada in 1969, namely with the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, where he held several senior positions related to Inuit, Arctic and Circumpolar Affairs. He retired in 2007.
Soon after he joined DIAND, he edited the scientific work of Émile Petitot, who lived among the Dene of the Northwest Territories from 1862 to 1882, and published several books and articles. He was also Director of Scientific and Circumpolar Affairs, and was appointed in 2001 Chief Federal Negotiator for the Nunavik (Northern Quebec) Self-government negotiations. He completed with success several special projects and professional assignments, including from 1990-1992, as Senior Advisor Policy to Mary Simon, then President of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, and as Federal Representative responsible for the organization of the visit in 1987 of His Holiness John Paul II to Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories.
He is the recipient of several awards: 7 times recipient of DIAND Deputy Ministers’ Outstanding Achievement Award; Award of Excellence from the Public Service of Canada for his contribution to the creation of Nunavut; Tribute of the Government of the Northwest Territories for his contribution to the Canadian North; Weaver-Tremblay Award from the Canadian Anthropology Society; Fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America, University of Calgary; Special recognitions and commemorations from Inuit organizations: Makivik Corporation, Avataq Cultural Institute, and the Inuit of the community of Kangiqsualujjuaq in Nunavik.
Simmons, Deborah
Deborah is a social scientist specialising in social and environmental issues relating to indigenous peoples. She joined the SENES Yellowknife office in 2006, and maintains affiliations in Native Studies and the Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba. She was raised in the Northwest Territories, and received her doctorate in the field of Native Studies at York University. Over the past ten years, Deborah has worked on a number of community-based projects in the Northwest Territories with a focus on indigenous knowledge research and policy development, especially in the Sahtu Region.
Simpson, Jessica
Jessica is a member of the Whati First Nation. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Mount Allison University and she has worked with grassroots people of the North with the Arctic Indigenous Youth Alliance and now as the Community Liaison Officer with the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board. Since 2007, Jessica has been a part of the IPY GAPS project. Since November 2008, she has been collecting information and points of views from people in Mackenzie Valley communities for the Review Boards’ Cultural Impact Assessment Guidelines, scheduled for release next year.
Slowey, Gabrielle
Gabrielle Slowey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at York University. Her community-based research considers ways in which neoliberal globalization, self-government and resource development (specifically oil and gas extraction) intersect. In her most recent project she compares political and economic development pressures and levels of self-government in Old Crow, Yukon and Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories. This project is supported by a SSHRC Northern Development Research Grant (2006-2009) and forms part of a larger IPY (International Polar Year Grant) Project 310: The Impacts of Oil and Gas Activity on Peoples in the Arctic Using a Multiple Securities Perspective (GAPS). Her previous projects have focused on resource extraction issues and treaty claims in northern Alberta, James Bay Quebec and New Zealand. She is the author of Navigating Neoliberalism: Self-Determination and the Mikisew Cree First Nation (UBC Press, 2008).
Taneton, Doris
Doris (Délįnęgot’įnę) graduated from high school in 2007, and her first job after graduation was a research trainee position with the Délįnę Knowledge Project. During that time, she played a central role in creating a digital oral history archive and database for the community. She is newly resuming her role with the Délįnę Knowledge Project after a year’s absence to focus on her new daughter Natalie. Over the coming year, she will be working on a number of youth-elder activities in partnership with the school as part of the Learning About Changes research program.
Yakelaya, Norman
Mr. Yakeleya, a Sahtu Dene, was born in Yellowknife in 1959. He has lived in Inuvik, Hay River, and Fort Smith and currently lives in Tulita. Mr. Yakeleya served with the Tulita Dene Band as a band councilor from 1987 to 1990 before being elected Chief. He was also the Chair of the Sahtu Tribal Council.
Prior to being elected to the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Yakeleya worked for the Tulita Yamoria Community Secretariat, was Health Manager for the Dene Nation, Executive Director for the Grollier Hall Healing Circle, Executive Director for the Northern Addictions Centre, Healing Director/Trainer for the Dene Cultural Institute, Tulita Self Government Chief Negotiator, and the Chief Negotiator of the Sahtu Dene and Metis Comprehensive Land Claim.
Mr. Yakeleya is a graduate of the Samuel Hearne High school in Inuvik, the Native Studies Program at Arctic College (Yellowknife), and the Renewable Resource Technology Program at Arctic College (Fort Smith). Mr. Yakeleya also earned a By-law Enforcement Certificate, an Alcohol and Drug Program Certificate and a Train the Trainers Certificate from the Nechi Institute in Edmonton and has operated his own business in the wellness field.
Mr. Yakeleya’s volunteer efforts include work with the wellness agencies, the national and territorial residential schools healing programs, and youth programs (most recently with the Canol Trail Youth Leadership Hike). He enjoys reading, Dene drumming, expanding his traditional skills, and developing cultural knowledge and skills. Mr. Yakeleya and his wife Cheryl have a son, Chase, three children from a previous marriage, Jonathan, Jamie, and Joy, and two adopted children, Erica and Whitney.