The Speakers

Born into a nomadic family in 1944, Tshaukuesh was a leader of the Innu campaign against NATO low level flying and weapons testing on Innu land in the 1980s and 90s. Her diaries from that period to 2016 were translated into English and published in 2019 as a book, Nitinikiau Innusi: I Keep the Land Alive (University of Manitoba Press), for which she was shortlisted for NL Reads, the Winterset Award and a Manitoba Book Award. For many years, she led an annual weeks-long spring walk in nutshimit and a summer canoe trip on the Mista-shipu to teach people about Innu culture and respect for the land. Tshaukuesh’s work has been recognized by a National Aboriginal Achievement (Indspire) award, honorary doctorates from Memorial University and Queen’s University, a YWCA Woman of Distinction award, and numerous media interviews and profiles, articles and consultations. She likes to feel the moss and the forest floor beneath her feet. She believes the spirits of her ancestors are still there in the forest and that she has a responsibility to them as well as to future generations. She will never give up her work protecting the land, the water, the animals, the trees, the children and everything in the circle of life.

Inuk Elder Ellen Ford (nee Hunter) was born and raised in Nain, Nunatsiavut (northern Labrador). Her biological mother and adoptive mother were both survivors of the Spanish influenza which struck OKak and surrounding areas in late 1918, a flu which wiped out approximately two thirds of the community including all the men of OKak. Ellen has fond memories of growing up in Nunatsiavut traveling by dog team and boat with her father, Joe and other family members. She has a strong knowledge of Inuttitut and she speaks it with other as often as possible. Ellen attended residential school at Yale in North West River from a very young age until grade 8, traveling home to Nain only during the summers. She attended high school in St. Anthony up until grade 11. Ellen has worked for the Grenfell Mission in North West River and Nain and for Canada Post. She currently lives in St. John’s. She is the former Vice President and board member of First Light. Ellen has 5 children, 15 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren. 

Chief Brendan Mitchell was born in Corner Brook, NL where he continues to reside with his wife, Sheila LaSaga.

As Qalipu Chief, he is committed to the ongoing development of Qalipu on behalf of our people and our communities. Particularly, key areas of focus include member access to culture, teachings and language initiatives, expanding membership services, strategic growth, program benefit sustainability, increased organizational self-sufficiency through direct business ownership and greater involvement with our communities. He will endeavor to improve governmental relations at municipal, provincial and federal levels. He will promote positive change in fostering a prosperous tomorrow for all.

Catherine Fagan is a Partner at Arbutus Law Group, a law firm working exclusively with Indigenous governments and organizations. A large focus of her work is with communities to revitalize their traditional Indigenous laws and to incorporate them into modern legal structures. Catherine has expertise in negotiating self-governance agreements, as well as various types of environmental agreements, including the creation of parks and protected areas. In 2021, she was appointed as a part-time member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal for a five-year term. Catherine is a member of the Inuit community of NunatuKavut in Labrador. She lives in St. John’s where she is the President of First Light, St. John’s Native Friendship Centre.

Dorothy Vaandering is an associate professor in MUN’s  faculty of education and the director of Relationships First Consortium. She has been researching restorative justice in education for 15 years and is passionate about nurturing relational communities where all people are honoured as worthy and interconnected.

Rosemary Ricciardelli, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Memorial University. She is also the Vice Chair of the Academic, Researcher, and Clinical Network Advisory Committee (ARC NAC) for the Canadian Institute for Public Safety Research and Treatment (CIPSRT), and has numerous other affiliations. Rose has published extensively in academic journals, edited collections, and monographs. She is an advocate for non-criminalizing processes for all citizens who transgress the law and has worked on the creation and implementation of restorative practices for youth in certain areas of Newfoundland and Labrador and with diverse police service providers and Indigenous communities. Online experiences of risk and responding to such risk using restorative practices among youth remains a central area of her research. In her current work, she looks at prisons, desistance from crime, and the mental health and lived experiences of prisoners, correctional officers, police officers, and other public safety providers.

Dr. Joelle Rodway is an Assistant Professor in Educational Leadership Studies in the Faculty of Education at Memorial University. A former secondary school teacher, she emphasizes the importance of connecting research and practice in the field of education and queries how the relational patterns of educational stakeholders both facilitate and constrain whole system educational change.  She is the founder and director of Networks for Educational Transformation, a research group whose focus is on the interconnectedness of policy, practice, people, and place in the context of public education. Currently, she is working with colleagues across the country to develop a network of education researchers that examines how professional learning reproduces privilege that impedes equitable education opportunities for all students.  Dr. Rodway is the holder of multiple grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and her research been has published in journals such as International Journal of Educational Policy and Leadership and Educational Policy Analysis Archives. 

Sherra Robinson (B.A., BEd., MEd.), is a Programs Itinerant for Safe and Inclusive Schools at NLESD and is currently a third year EdD student at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) in the field of Educational Leadership with a focus in School Leadership in International Contexts. An English/Drama/Technology Teacher, Sherra is an Educational Advocate/Researcher with a particular interest in the areas of Restorative Justice, Social Equity, Social Emotional Learning, Mental Health, Comparative Education, Rural Education, Indigenous Education and Inclusion. She is a proud Ally.

Sheila O’Neill is a mother, grandmother, and a member of Qalipu Mi’Kmaq First Nation.

She is a founding member and past President of the Newfoundland Aboriginal Women’s Network (NAWN) and has appeared as a witness before a National Standing Committee on Violence against Aboriginal Women. Within the Indigenous community, Sheila is honored to have earned the role of Traditional Knowledge Keeper.

Throughout her career as an educator, Sheila has worked as a Communications Instructor with College of the North Atlantic in both Newfoundland and Labrador and at CNA’s campus in Doha, Qatar. Sheila was employed as Coordinator of Aboriginal Student Success at Memorial from 2017-2019 and is currently employed as Coordinator of Indigenous Research and Training with an Indigenous-led consulting firm here in St. John’s. 

Sheila was co-principal investigator of a research paper on Grassroots Empowerment of Aboriginal women and recently co-authored the book My Indian with Chief Mi’sel Joe.

Andrew John, BA (Hons), JD, is a Mi’kmaq lawyer from Miawpukek First Nation in Newfoundland. Having grown up on the small reserve he is seeking to better reflect Mi’kmaq values in the current justice system and to be a role model for youth in the community. As the Director of Justice and Legal Affairs for his community, Andrew is responsible for providing in-house legal counsel for the band, legal advice and assistance to band members, and administration of the Restorative Justice program. He graduated from Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in 2016 and later went on to complete his articles through the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society Ku’tawtinu: Shared Articling Initiative. He then worked with the Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq to document the historical breaches of fidicuary duties of the Crown prior to 1985 and worked with First Nations to advance these claims through Canada’s Specific Claims division. 

James Igloliorte of Hopedale, Nunatsiavut is a retired Provincial Court Judge who was appointed in 1980 as a lay magistrate, then attended Dalhousie Law School in 1982, emerging badly scarred in 1985 with a Law degree. With his wife Linda Carter of Corner Brook NL, they began as school teachers in 1973 at St. James School in Lark Harbour, Bay of Islands. They have 4 children, 3 of whom have produced 5 wonderful grandchildren with their spouses. true to her style, their only daughter Heather and her husband Matt

have 2 Daschunds whom the grandparents have been told are "sentient beings", and should be equally valued as the 2 legged variety of organism. James is presently a Commissioner examining the strengths and weaknesses of the province's Ground Search and Rescue program, with a focus on how the Burton Winters tragedy of 2012 (and other cases) might

lead to positive changes. Along with Anastasia Qupee of Sheshatshiu and retired professor Mike Devine of the School of Social Work at Memorial University of Newfoundland, James has been named to lead an inquiry into the experiences of Innu parents and their children in the provinces Child Care system, with a view to presenting the parties ideas for a self-government type jurisdiction pursuant to Bill C-92.