On September 13, Outward Bound Canada’s Training Academy for Outdoor Professionals hosted a virtual event on the topic of Truth and Decolonization.
The virtual event panel featured:
Jessie Fiddler-Kiss (moderator)
Jessie Fiddler-Kiss is a member of the Metis Nation of Alberta. Her family comes from the Metis homeland in Saskatchewan (Batoche), and Treaty 7 territory in southern Alberta.
She is a Top 40 Under 40 2022 awardee for founding The Moss Bag Project, an Indigenous-led nonprofit that funds scholarships and educational resources for Indigenous mothers and Two-Spirit parents.
Jessie is the principal and facilitator of FiddlerKiss Consulting and has worked in the fields of education, Indigenous pedagogy, and land-based leadership for nearly two decades. She is writing a thesis on anti-racism at the University of Saskatchewan.
She is also a retired Olympic Oval athlete, USASK Huskie ice hockey alumna and Mount Royal University athlete and was recognized by her university as a business leader.
Dr. Troy Paternaude
Troy Patenaude, PhD, is a scholar, ACMG hiking guide, curator, and land-based educator who has spent his life exploring the intersection of nature, art, culture, and social change. He is from the Georgian Bay Métis Community around the upper Great Lakes and has lived most of his life in Blackfoot and Ktunaxa territories throughout the Rocky Mountains.
He has guided and helped facilitate cross-cultural sharing and educational programs with Outward Bound Canada, Ghost River Rediscovery, and the Cross River Education & Retreat Centre.
Troy also teaches settler-colonial studies and decolonization courses at the Alberta University of the Arts.
Elder Meredith Martin
Meredith Martin is of Coast Salish ancestry with the Snuneymuxw First Nation. She was given the traditional name Xwalapia. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design and a Master’s in Counseling Psychology from the Adler School of Professional Psychology.
She has worked on the Aboriginal Outreach Team for Child and Youth Mental Health for many years and has co-facilitated the Building Bridges Through Understanding the Village workshop with Kathi Camilleri for the past 16 years.
She also worked as an eating disorder therapist at Island Health for several years. Now retired, she remains involved as a board member of the Comox Valley Transition Society and the Beaufort Family Health Society.
Kathi Camilleri
Kathi Hemphill Camilleri (Spotted Doe) is of Metis/Cree ancestry. She has a master’s degree in Leadership Studies and certificates in CBT and DBT. She leads strategic planning sessions, keynote lectures, and experiential village workshops on Canada’s Policy of Assimilation and Colonization with all levels of government, students, educators and frontline workers in communities across Canada.
In 2012, her work was nominated for the Premier’s Award for Excellence in Leadership, the B.C. Reconciliation Award, and the Nesika Foundation’s Excellence in Diversity Award.
Robert Burns
Robert’s traditional name is Su Wil Laksa Galyax, which means “learner of our history” or ” knowledge of the Skeena River” He comes from the Gitxsan First Nation and the Heiltsuk First Nation.
For the past ten years, his work has focused on community development and meaningful youth programs, and he currently works as the Land-Back Adventure program coordinator at the Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society in Kelowna BC.
He is also a fourth year student at the University of British Columbia in the Bachelor of Arts First Nations and Indigenous Studies program.
