Read more below about the speakers

KUPUNA “AUNTY” FRANCINE DUDOIT TAGUPA comes from a lineage of Native Hawaiian healers who taught her skills that are valued both in the Native Hawaiian and general community. She is Director, Traditional Hawaiian Healing, at Waikiki Health, Honolulu, Hawaii, and leads Pu'uhonua (safe place for healing) - an interdisciplinary program to support community transition and reduce recidivism of incarcerated Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders by combining Indigenous cultural supports with westernized health & social services. She has over 40 years’ experience as a Registered Nurse and Native Hawaiian Practitioner, and leads lomilomi training programs in Hawaii and Calgary, Canada. Francine develops health programs to promote and preserve Hawaiian healing traditions through education, research and apprenticeship, including integrating Hawaiian Healing with Western Medicine. Francine is a member of Na Hululei Kupuna Council, serving Native Hawaiian Practitioners. She has received many awards, including recognition from Moloka’i General Hospital, U. S. Department of Health, and American Business Women’s Association.

Tansi, my name is Muriel Lee. I am a member of the Ermineskin First Nation of Maskwacis, AB. I am of Cree/Saulteau/Dane_Zaa lineage. I come from a large family and am the oldest of 12 children. I am the mother of 5 children, and Traditional mother of several girls. I have 10 grandchildren and am a great-grandmother of 3. I am now 76 years old. I enjoy visiting with my granddaughter Nipin, she is two and I teach her Cree. I want her to have a Cree identity. I bead a lot which gives me time to think and pray. It is like meditation. My other interests are reading and walking. I walk every day in summer except when it is raining. I read biographies and books written by Indigenous people. These writers give me hope and strength to do my part in making the world a better place in which our children may grow up. I have always been involved in language and cultural development. I want to see future generations live by our cultural norms. Language is culture and culture is language. I promote language as it will give our children a way of viewing the world. Language will instruct them on what is right and what is wrong. It will guide them. I like to teach what I have been taught from the Elders who have all gone on to the spirit world. We, the Elders of today are tasked to pass on the knowledge taught to us by them. I am part of the Maskwacis Mentoring Program and what I enjoy the most about it is interacting with the moms-to-be and teaching them about traditional parenting. I do this by sharing lil stories and teaching Cree concepts such as the purpose of the moss bag. I teach the moms Cree words and their meaning. I have fun in my work with moms-to-be.

Rick (Patrick) Lightning is a Mosom/Elder from Maskwacis, raised in the traditions of Plains Cree, Nehiyaw. He is a third-generation residential school survivor.

Through his consulting company, Lightning Camp and Associates, Rick has facilitated cross cultural training, youth workshops, grief recovery, and program assessments. He is certified as a mental health therapist/counsellor and is trained in suicide and gang intervention. Rick also has mediation, negotiation and restorative justice certification.

As a policy technician, he had assisted with the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples for approximately 25 years. He also has been a cultural advisor to Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner, Wilton J. Littlechild.

Rick has been a Cultural Support Worker to the Indian Residential Schools (IRS), Mental Health, Aboriginal Youth Communities Empowerment Strategy (AYCES), and the National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program (NNADAP) programs at Maskwacis.

Currently, Rick is the resident Elder, or Mosom, as he prefers to be called, for the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta.