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JUNE 2-4, 2025

RBC Convention Centre

Winnipeg, MB

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The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) and the First Nations Confederacy of Cultural Education Centres (FNCCEC) are hosting the Indigenous History and Heritage Gathering (IHHG). This gathering is one of the many important events held during Indigenous History Month. It brings together diverse groups who are working to amplify the distinct stories of Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island.

Ten Years Since the TRC's 94 Calls to Action

June 2025 marks a decade since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presented the 94 Calls to Action, setting a foundation for reconciliation between Canadians and Indigenous Peoples. IHHG will serve as an essential space to reflect on the progress made since June 2015, and provide an invaluable opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue, explore our shared histories, and commit to building a better future rooted in respect, understanding, and reconciliation.
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Call for Speakers

Speaker standing on stage with podium

IHHG 2025 will explore the following themes through three central program tracks:

» Reflecting on the TRC’s Legacy
» Indigenous Culture and Language​
» Sharing Stories

We invite presenters to submit proposals that explore innovative strategies, research, stories, experiences, and best practices related to the above themes and tracks.

Learn More

Call for Speakers

IHHG 2025 will explore the following themes through three central program tracks.

Reflecting on the TRC’s Legacy

This track acknowledges the progress and challenges experienced in the decade since the 94 Calls to Action and provides space for critical reflection and dialogue.

Indigenous Culture and Language

This track will showcase Indigenous cultural expressions and the revitalization of Indigenous languages, celebrating creativity, resilience, and cultural resurgence.

Sharing Stories

This track emphasizes the power of storytelling, creating platforms for sharing and celebrating personal and community-driven narratives.

We invite presenters to submit proposals that explore innovative strategies, research, stories, experiences, and best practices related to the above themes and tracks.

Learn More

Keynote Speakers

To access a speaker's bio, simply click or tap their photo or name.

Dr. Wilton Littlechild

Dr. Wilton Littlechild

Maskwacîs, Alberta – Treaty No. 6
Grand Chief, Lawyer

For more than 40 years, Dr. Littlechild has worked to build bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples through athletics, and law.

Kimberly Murray

Kimberly Murray

BA, LL.B, IPC

Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools

Tanya Talaga

Tanya Talaga​

Author, Journalist, President of Makwa Creative​
For more than 20 years, Tanya was a journalist at the Toronto Star and was part of teams that won two National Newspaper Awards for Project of the Year. She is now a columnist at The Globe and Mail.
Connie Walker

Connie Walker

Journalist, Host of Stolen: Surviving St. Michael's

Connie Walker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and host of the acclaimed podcasts “Stolen” and “Missing & Murdered”. 

Speakers

To access a speaker's bio, simply click or tap their photo or name.

Hilda Nicholas

Hilda Nicholas

Partnership Representative, Mohawk Language Custodians Association

Diane Obed

Diane Obed

Researcher, Mount Saint Vincent University

Pam Palmater

Pam Palmater

Mi’kmaw lawyer and Chair in Indigenous Governance at Toronto Metropolitan University

Ivy Peers

Ivy Peers

Traditional Knowledge Keeper, Matriarch, and Clean Water Activist/Water Walker

Andrea Naomi Walsh

Andrea Naomi Walsh

Associate Professor of Anthropology

Jeff Ward

Jeff Ward

Founder & CEO Animikii

We are honoured by the participation of these confirmed speakers.
Please check back with us regularly as more are being added.

View our photo gallery from the 2024 Indigenous History & Heritage Gathering.

Dr. Wilton Littlechild

Dr. Wilton Littlechild

Maskwacîs, Alberta – Treaty No. 6
Grand Chief, Lawyer

For more than 40 years, Dr. Littlechild has worked to build bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples through athletics, and law. An accomplished lawyer, he is the first Indigenous person appointed to Queen’s (now King’s) Counsel by the Alberta Law Society. He brought Indigenous issues to public attention while serving as the first Treaty Indian Member of Parliament. Dr. Littlechild has been active with a number of organizations both within Canada and internationally, including the Indigenous Parliament of the Americas, the United Nations, the National Indian Athletic Association, and the Canadian Council of International Law.  Dr. Littlechild served as a Commissioner on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, whose final report was released on December 15, 2015; Regional Chief to the Assembly of First Nations and Grand Chief of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations.  He served as the Commissioner of the Saskatchewan Justice System to report on over-representation of Indigenous Peoples and racism in the legal system.

In recognition for his service and dedication fighting for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples globally, the Treaty No. 6 Elders and Chiefs through a sacred traditional ceremony honoured Dr. Littlechild with the title of “International Chief”, a lifetime position supported by the Chiefs of Treaty No. 7 and Treaty No. 8 at a duly convened meeting. For his participation in Indigenous and athletic endeavours, Dr. Littlechild has been honoured with a number of awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award as an Aboriginal Role Model, the Order of Canada, the Queen’s Jubilee Award; he has been inducted into nine Sports Halls of Fame, including the Canada Sports Hall of Fame. A graduate of the University of Alberta with a Master’s Degree in Physical Education, a Bachelor of Law Degree, and five Honourary Doctorates at Law. A renowned expert on the Inherent and Treaty Rights, International laws and declarations pertaining to Indigenous Peoples, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Organization of America States Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Instrumental in securing not only the International Year of Indigenous Languages but also the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.

Kimberly Murray

Kimberly Murray

BA, LLB, LLM, IPC, LL.D. (honoris causa)

Meet the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools

Kimberly Murray is a member of the Kanehsatake Mohawk Nation. On June 8, 2022, Ms. Murray was appointed as Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools.

Prior to this new role, she was the Executive Lead for the Survivors’ Secretariat at the Six Nations of the Grand River, working to recover the missing children and unmarked burials at the Mohawk Institute. Ms. Murray was also the Province of Ontario’s first ever Assistant Deputy Attorney General for Indigenous Justice, from April 1, 2015, to August 2, 2021, where she was responsible for creating a unit to work with Indigenous communities on revitalizing their Indigenous laws and legal orders. In 2018-2019, Ms. Murray chaired the Expert Panel on Policing in Indigenous Communities, which produced the report Toward Peace Harmony, and Well-Being: Policing in Indigenous Communities.

From 2010 to 2015, Ms. Murray was the Executive Director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada where she worked to ensure that Survivors of Canada’s Indian Residential School System were heard and remembered, and to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and nonIndigenous people.

From 1995 to 2010, Ms. Murray was staff lawyer and then Executive Director of Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto. She has appeared before all levels of courts on Indigenous legal issues. She has acted as counsel at several coroner inquests and public inquiries – including the Ipperwash Inquiry in Ontario and the Frank Paul Inquiry in British Columbia.

Ms. Murray is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2017 National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Law and Justice. In 2015, the Indigenous Bar Association granted Ms. Murray the Indigenous Peoples’ Counsel (IPC) designation.

Tanya Talaga

Tanya Talaga

Author, Journalist, President of Makwa Creative

Tanya Talaga is an Anishinaabe journalist and speaker. Talaga’s mother’s family is from Fort William First Nation and Treaty #9 territory. Her father was Polish-Canadian.

For more than 20 years, she was a journalist at the Toronto Star and was part of teams that won two National Newspaper Awards for Project of the Year. She is now a columnist at The Globe and Mail.

Her first book, Seven Fallen Feathers, is a national bestseller, winning the RBC Taylor Prize, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, and the First Nation Communities Read Award: Young Adult/Adult. The book was also a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Nonfiction Prize and the BC National Award for Nonfiction.

Her second book, All Our Relations: Finding The Path Forward, is also a national bestseller, finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Nonfiction Prize and a finalist for the British Academy’s Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding.

Last year, HarperCollins Canada acquired world rights, all languages, to three works of non-fiction by Talaga, with the first book, set to publish in 2023. The book will focus on the legacy of residential schools in Canada.

Talaga is the founder of Makwa Creative., a production company in Tkaronto focused on amplifying Indigenous voices through documentary films, TV, and podcasts such as AuntieUp! Makwa’s first film, Mashkawi-Manidoo Bimaadiziwin (Spirit to Soar) explores what has changed in Thunder Bay since the deaths of the Seven Fallen Feathers. At the same time, Tanya founded the Spirit to Soar Fund, which supports local Indigenous youth living in and around Thunder Bay with resources, cultural programming, and community connection and support. Talaga holds five honorary doctorates.

Connie Walker

Connie Walker

Journalist, Host of Stolen: Surviving St. Michael's

Connie Walker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and host of the acclaimed podcasts “Stolen” and “Missing & Murdered”. Her work has exposed the crisis of violence in Indigenous communities and the devastating impacts of intergenerational trauma stemming from Indian Residential Schools. Walker’s podcast “Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s” is one of the most comprehensive investigations into a single residential school in Canada. In 2023, “Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s” was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, a Peabody Award, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award. Prior to joining Gimlet Media, Walker spent nearly two decades as a reporter and host for the CBC. She co-created and led the public broadcaster’s Indigenous Unit in 2013 and was part of a team of reporters who built a database of unsolved cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in 2016. Walker is a member of the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan.

Hilda Nicholas

Hilda Nicholas

Partnership Representative, Mohawk Language Custodians Association

A passion for Hilda Nicholas is the Kanien’kéha (Mohawk) language and her aim is to pass it on to her people, who have lost their language. Her mother tongue is Kanien’kéha, and she is fluent in the Kanehsatá:ke Kanien’kehá:ka dialect. She has over 40 years work experience in the Kanien’kéha language. She is a Bear Clan and lives in the Kanehsatá:ke Kanien’kehá:ka community.

Hilda Nicholas is the Director for the Cultural Center combing Language and Culture under one program. Her tenacity and spirit has allowed her to preserve these programs to operate in a climate of poor funding and lack of understanding. She is also the President of Kontinónhstats/Mohawk Language Custodian Association, not for profit, incorporated, for the preservation, promotion and teaching of the Kanien’keha language.

Under her guidance and tireless efforts organized the production of Language Day plays in Kanien’kéha for seven years in her community which included the participation of the Six Kanien’kehá:ka communities. Showcasing various talents in the Kanien’kéha language, which was very much enjoyed by all six Kanien’kehá:ka communities. Also, under her guidance she has put in place an immersion Kanien’kéha Adult Language program and is producing language speakers.

She has been a television host/narrator/consultant/translator for many documentaries aired on Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), as well as an interpreter at the House of Commons for the Minister Marc Miller.

Diane Obed

Diane Obed

Researcher, Mount Saint Vincent University

Diane Obed is an Inuk woman, mixed with white settler ancestry, and is originally from Hopedale, Nunatsiavut, Labrador. She currently lives in Waqmiaq – “where freshwater flows” in Mi’kma’ki, Nova Scotia.

Diane is currently studying in the Inter-University Educational Foundations PhD program at Mount Saint Vincent University. Her doctoral research project explores the intersection between Indigenous land education and contemplative studies to draw on ancient wisdom for modern day psycho-social issues such as cultivating courage to be able to face and engage in dialogue about the current climate crisis.

Pam Palmater

Pam Palmater

Mi’kmaw lawyer and Chair in Indigenous Governance at Toronto Metropolitan University

Considered one of Canada’s Top 25 Movers and Shakers, Dr. Pam Palmater is an internationally renowned speaker, prolific author, award-winning Indigenous podcaster, Mi’kmaw lawyer, and activist driving reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, human rights, and social justice. With four degrees, including a doctorate in law focusing on Indigenous rights, Pam leads as Professor and Chair in Indigenous Governance at Toronto Metropolitan University. A Mi’kmaw Nation citizen and member of Eel River Bar First Nation, and practicing lawyer for over two decades, she is considered an expert in Indigenous law, and testifies before United Nations treaty bodies, Parliamentary and Senate committees, and public inquiries like the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) and the Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission. Pam’s 200+ publications for major outlets like Chatelaine, Maclean’s Magazine, The Lawyer’s Daily and a host of online news outlets like CTV, CBC, APTN, help inspire social change. Today, Pam continues to be a beacon of hope and catalyst for change, inspiring others to ignite their minds through education and drive positive social change for current and future generations. She envisions a future of empowered communities, leaving a lasting impact on Indigenous reconciliation and social progress.

Ivy Peers

Ivy Peers

U’mista, Project Manager

Ivy Peers (Gwixsis’sa̱las) is of ‘Na̱mǥis, Kwakiutl, Mamalilikulla (Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw) and Haíɫzaqv descent. Born in ‘Ya̱lis (Alert Bay), in the unceded territory of the ‘Na̱mǥis First Nation. Peers graduated from the University of the Fraser Valley with a BA in Criminal Justice in 2018. Her studies focused on harm reduction, restorative justice, the history of Indian Residential Schools (IRS), plus law and social policies. In 2021 she was elected as a ‘Na̱mǥis Council Member, during that time she was the Project Manager for Ne’nagwa̱’nakwa̱la (Going Home), the ‘Na̱mǥis Nation’s investigation for unmarked burials within the former grounds of St. Michael’s IRS. She started her role as Project Manager for the U’mista in 2022; working alongside the Executive Director to increase financial capacity to meet the growing needs of the U’mista’s mandates to: preserve, restore, and revitalize language, arts, and culture for the future generations of Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw peoples.

Andrea Naomi Walsh

Andrea Naomi Walsh, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Anthropology

Andrea Walsh is an Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology and the Smyth Chair of Arts and Engagement at the University of Victoria. Trained as a visual artist and printmaker, her research is arts-methods based and focused on visual storytelling through exhibitions and through graphic narratives produced by drawing, printing, and digital imagery. Her work focuses on repatriation of children’s art to Survivors from Indian Residential and Day Schools and working with families and communities to co-create and curate exhibitions and education opportunities with the artworks. Alongside Alberni Indian Residential School Survivors, Walsh has worked in collaboration with Dr. Jamie Trepanier at the Canadian Museum of History to teach stories of repatriation as reconciliation through exhibitions and education platforms. She has collaborated with families from the Osoyoos Indian Band for over 24 years on the story of the Inkameep Day School.

Jeff Ward

Jeff Ward

Founder & CEO Animikii

Jeff founded Animikii in 2003 and has orchestrated and managed its growth ever since. Everything Jeff does in business is geared toward uplifting his family, communities and Indigenous Peoples. He is Ojibwe and Métis, originally from Manitoba, and now lives and works in Victoria, BC on Lekwungen territory. Jeff is a software developer, product designer, author, and speaker. He also serves as Vice Chair for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) board.

“It’s an exciting time for the Indigenous movement. We’ve begun a new era of Indigenous-settler relations and the long journey towards Reconciliation has just begun. Each and every one of us, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, has been called upon to honour the past, to do better, and to rise up. Warriors everywhere are rising up in the fight for equitable outcomes for Indigenous people. We at Animikii believe that our call-to-action is to support all of these warriors in their journey by using the tools available to us. Our answer to that call, our weapon and tool of choice, is technology.”

Photo credit: Nadya Kwandibens

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