André Bear, B.Ed., J.D. (He/Him) is a Nêhîyaw (Plains-Cree) educator and advocate of Inherent & Treaty rights. He’s a Juris Doctor graduate from the University of Saskatchewan who began his journey by obtaining a Bachelor of Education and was later awarded a full-ride scholarship to pursue his LLM, or Master of Laws, before withdrawing to work directly with Nations.

At 21 years old, André was appointed as an advisor to the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Canada for the implementation of TRC Call to Action 66. In 2021, André founded iNation, a consultancy that advances the rights of Nations by revitalizing Indigenous legal order.

For well over a decade now, he has been trained by various medicine people to understand the traditional laws of the Nêhîyawak and how to live by them.

He is most proud of being the provider and protector of his family.

Chantal Fiola is Michif (Red River Métis) with family from St. Laurent, Ste Geneviève, and Ste. Anne, MB and is a registered citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF).

Dr Fiola is Associate Vice-President, Indigenous Engagement at the University of Winnipeg, where she maintains an appointment as Associate Professor in the Department of Urban and Inner-City Studies, and was the Distinguished Indigenous Scholar’s Chair from 2021 to 2024.

She is an award-winning author, including for her second book, Returning to Ceremony: Spirituality in Manitoba Métis Communities. Currently, she is Project Director on a study titled, “Expressions of Métis Spirituality and Religion Across the Homeland,” funded, in part, by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Dr Fiola is a founding member and part of the Circle of Editors for Pawaatamihk [Pah-WAH-tah-mik]: Journal of Métis Thinkers, served as a board member for Two-Spirit Manitoba from 2018-2025, and is a founding member of the Two-Spirit Michif Local (MMF).

In 2023, she was selected by Les Femmes Michif Otipimisiwak as a recipient for the Métis Matriarch Award, and in 2025 they honoured her with a King Charles III Coronation Medal.

Waubgeshig Rice is an author and journalist from Wasauksing First Nation on Georgian Bay. His breakthrough novel Moon of the Crusted Snow was published in 2018 to widespread critical acclaim. Its sequel, Moon of the Turning Leaves, was published in 2023 and became an instant bestseller. He is also the author of the short story collection Midnight Sweatlodge (2011) and the novel Legacy (2014). His books have been translated into French and German, and his short stories and essays have been published in numerous anthologies.

As a journalist, his reporting journey began in 1996 as an exchange student in northern Germany, writing articles about being an Anishinaabe youth in a foreign country for newspapers back in Canada. He graduated from the journalism program at Toronto Metropolitan University in 2002. He spent most of his journalism career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a video journalist, web writer, producer, and radio host. In 2014, he received the Anishinabek Nation’s Debwewin Citation for excellence in First Nation Storytelling. His final role with CBC was host of Up North, the afternoon radio program for northern Ontario. He left daily journalism in 2020 to focus on his literary career.

Dr. Kisha Supernant (Métis/British) is the Director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology and a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta. Her research interests include the use of digital technologies in archaeology, Indigenous archaeology, community-driven research, and heart-centered archaeological practice. Over the past several years, she has been helping Indigenous communities in western Canada use technology to locate and protect unmarked graves.

Dr. Supernant leads the Exploring Métis Identity Through Archaeology (EMITA), a collaborative research project which takes a relational approach to exploring the material past of Métis communities, including her own family, in western Canada.

Dr. Supernant was a founding member of the National Advisory Committee on Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and chairs the Canadian Archaeological Association Working Group on Unmarked Graves, which was recognized with a Governor General’s Innovation Award in 2024. She is also President of the Indigenous Heritage Circle.

A recipient of the Order of the Northwest Territories, Richard Van Camp is a proud Tlicho Dene from Fort Smith, NWT, now living in Edmonton: Treaty 6 Territory with his family.

Richard is an internationally renowned storyteller and award-winning author of 31 books for all ages. His novel, The Lesser Blessed, is now a feature film on Prime Video, and his graphic novel with Neiva Mateus, Three Feathers, is now a feature film on APTN.

He is a mentor with the Audible Indigenous Writers’ Circle, and he is The University of Victoria’s Indigenous Storyteller in Residence where he teaches online about reclaiming family medicines.

You can visit Richard on Facebook, Threads, Instagram, YouTube, SoundCloud and at www.richardvancamp.com.

Chelsea Vowel is Métis from manitow-sâkahikan (Lac Ste. Anne) Alberta, residing in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton). Parent to six children, she has a BEd, LLB, and MA.

Chelsea is a nêhiyawêwin (Cree) language instructor, public intellectual, writer, and activist educator whose work intersects language, gender, Métis self-determination, and resurgence.

Author of Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit Issues in Canada, and the short-story collection Buffalo is the New Buffalo, she and her co-host Molly Swain produce the Indigenous feminist sci-fi podcast Métis in Space and co-founded the Métis in Space Land Trust.