This episode features Dr. Karen Hill. Karenna’onwe (Gaw-law-naw-oo-way) – Dr. Karen Hill is Mohawk from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. She is the mother of two sons and step-mother to five daughters. She currently has 10 grandchildren and 2 great grandsons. She completed medical school in 2003 and Family Medicine Residency in 2005 - both from McMaster University. Prior to her medical career Karen worked to write curriculum and develop post-secondary programming at Six Nations Polytechnic, an Indigenous led post-secondary institution in her home community.

Karen’s passion is to see Traditional Indigenous Knowledge return to the centre of life for Indigenous people across Canada for the purpose of invoking healing. The fulfillment of this vision is foundational to her ongoing work in medicine, curriculum writing, teaching, co-creating spaces where Indigenous knowledge is brought into parallel with mainstream knowledge in education and health.

www.amshealthcare.ca

This episode features Renee Linklater, a PhD who is a member of Rainy River First Nations in Northwestern Ontario. She has over 25 years of experience working with Indigenous healing agencies and First Nation communities. Renee has worked across the health and education sectors as a frontline worker, program evaluator, curriculum developer, educator/trainer, and researcher. She is an international speaker on trauma and healing and is the author of Decolonizing trauma work: Indigenous stories and strategies and editor of Connected in Creation: A Collection of Lived Experience through Cultural Expression. Renee is the Senior Director of Shkaabe Makwa - Centre for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Wellness at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and is actively involved in several system level initiatives across the province.

Renee’s Book:

Decolonizing Trauma Work: Indigenous Stories and Strategies

http://amshealthcare.ca/

This episode features Isaac Murdoch, also known by his Ojibwe name Manzinapkinegego’anaabe / Bombgiizhik, who hails from the Fish Clan and belongs to the Serpent River First Nation. Raised in the traditional lifestyle of hunting, fishing, and trapping, he dedicated many years to learning from Elders in the northern regions of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Isaac is highly regarded as a storyteller and custodian of traditional knowledge.

Over the years, he has taken a leading role in organizing workshops and cultural camps, with a particular focus on passing down wisdom to the younger generation. His expertise extends to various areas, including traditional Ojibwe paint, imagery and symbolism, harvesting, medicine walks, ceremonial knowledge, cultural camps, Anishinaabeg oral history, birch bark canoe making, birch bark scrolls, and facilitating Youth & Elders workshops. Isaac has devoted his life to preserving Anishinaabe cultural practices, investing significant time in direct learning from Elders.

https://isaacmurdoch.com/

www.amshealthcare.com

This episode features Dr. Wendy Makoons Geniusz, who hails from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has ancestral roots in the Cree community of Manitoba. Currently serving as a professor at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Dr. Geniusz has been actively involved in projects aimed at revitalizing Ojibwe language and culture in Indigenous communities across the Great Lakes Region.

All of Dr. Geniusz's publications and research are dedicated to developing tools for the decolonization of Indigenous language and culture, with a particular emphasis on the revitalization efforts. She is the author of "Our Knowledge is Not Primitive: Decolonizing Botanical Anishinaabe Teachings," the editor of "Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do is Ask" (by Mary Siisip Geniusz), and the author of the Ojibwe plant name glossary featured in the latter publication. Additionally, she serves as the co-editor, alongside Brendan Fairbanks, of "Chi-mewinzha: Ojibwe Stories from Leech Lake" (by Dorothy Dora Whipple).

Books:

Our Knowledge Is Not Primitive: Decolonizing Botanical Anishinaabe Teachings

Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask: Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings by Mary Siisip Geniusz

Chi-mewinzha: Ojibwe Stories from Leech Lake

www.amshealthcare.ca

This episode features Dr. Carol Hopkins from the Lenape Nation at Moraviantown, Ontario.  Dr. Hopkins is the CEO of the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation.  She is host of the podcast, Mino Bimaadiziwin.

Carol was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada in 2018.  In 2019, she was recognized with an honorary Doctor of Laws from Western University. Carol has spent more than 20 years in the field of First Nations addictions and mental health.  She holds both a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Toronto and a degree in Sacred Indigenous Knowledge, equivalent to a PhD in western based education systems.    

Dr. Hopkins discusses her upbringing, and the learning of her identity. She shares stories of her community coming together, and of using sacred Indigenous knowledge in conjunction with western medicine to save lives. 

Dr. Carol Hopkins

Website: https://thunderbirdpf.org/

Podcast: https://tinyurl.com/496nbv37

https://www.ams-inc.on.ca/

Indigenous Medicine Stories

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/2ztjj63h

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/ycx53d5z

Amazon Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/4fdebkbb

This episode features Perry McLeod-Shabogesic of the “Crane Clan” is an Ojibway Anishinabe from N’biising (Nipissing) First Nation (NFN). He has been a artist, cartoonist, writer, traditional helper, medicine harvester and cultural resource person in and around his community for many years.  Perry’s spirit name is “Aandzooked”, which means “Teller of sacred stories” in Ojibway.

In this episode, Perry shares stories of Indigenous Medicine from his childhood, finding and picking a plant medicine in the wild that his Grandmother used, and discuss the balance to embrace all medicines, including Indigenous and Western.

Perry McLeod-Shabogesic:

https://www.aanmitaagzi.net/about/founding-members/perry-mcleod-shabogesic/

https://www.ams-inc.on.ca/

Indigenous Medicine Stories

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/2ztjj63h

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/ycx53d5z

Amazon Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/4fdebkbb

This episode features Dr. Ed Connors, an Indigenous Psychologist of Mohawk ancestry from Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. He has worked with First Nations communities across Canada since 1982, in both urban and rural centres.  His work over this time includes being Clinical Director for an infant mental health centre in the City of Regina, and Director for the Sacred Circle, a suicide prevention program developed to serve First Nations communities in Northwestern Ontario.  Dr. Connors’ most recent work has involved development of Indigenous Life Promotion Projects that includes Feather Carriers Leadership for Life Promotion. Dr. Connors works with Elders and has apprenticed in traditional approaches to healing. 

In this episode, Ed speaks about his Two-Eyed Seeing education and training journey.  Two-Eyed Seeing integrates both Indigenous and Western ways of knowing.  This podcast took place at Ed's residence in southern Ontario. We began our visit with a ceremony and this recording took place on a sunny day, seated around a fire with the sounds of nature and the background.

FIRST PEOPLES WELLNESS CIRCLE

https://fpwc.ca/

https://www.ams-inc.on.ca/

Indigenous Medicine Stories

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/2ztjj63h

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/ycx53d5z

Amazon Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/4fdebkbb

This episode is the second part, featuring Jim Dumont, also known as Onaubinisay, meaning Walks Above the Ground. Jim Dumont is an internationally renowned Elder, speaker and traditional knowledge keeper. He is known as the Gichi-aya'aag, the Elder of the Elders and the Eastern Doorway of The Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge. In 2011, Jim was awarded a Doctor of Sacred Letters, the first of its kind at the University of Sudbury for his work in establishing the Department of Native Studies and designing and delivering the Indigenous knowledge courses. In 2015, he received a Doctorate of Anishinaabeg philosophy from the Seventh Generation Institute, and the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium. 

In this podcast episode, Jim talks about the start of his journey and learning about Indigenous knowledge and his pioneering work in returning to our original ways.

https://www.ams-inc.on.ca/

Indigenous Medicine Stories

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/2ztjj63h

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/ycx53d5z

Amazon Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/4fdebkbb