2022 Conference Speakers

R. Stacey Laforme is the elected Chief of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN). Born and raised on MCFN, Chief Laforme has served his community for over twenty years being first elected to council in 1999.

Chief Laforme has participated in a number of committees and boards throughout his seven terms served as a Councillor, including involvement with the MCFN’s Pan Am Games Secretariat (PAGS) as Chair of the PAGS Committee.

Chief Laforme is committed to increasing involvement and communication between Elected Council and both on and off-reserve membership. He is very active throughout MCFN’s Treaty Lands and Territory, which encompasses 3.9 million acres of Southern Ontario, not only as a Chief, but as a notable storyteller, poet and published author. Chief Laforme has recently been appointed as honorary senior fellow for Massey College, joining the Duke of Edinburg and the Chancellor of Oxford as only the third person awarded the highest honor the college can bestow. In 2018, De dwa da dehs nye (Aboriginal Health Centre) awarded Chief R. Stacey Laforme the Walter Cooke Wisdom Keeper Award in recognition of one’s capacity to exemplify significant and continuous service to our community by demonstrating integrity, generosity of spirit, humility, courage, collaboration, “The Good Mind”, and traditional ways of knowing and being.

Christine is an artist-educator committed to creativity in education and arts-based, anti-oppressive pedagogy. An energetic professor, national and international keynote speaker, presenter, and facilitator, she uses creative, multi-modal approaches to assist learners in expressing their authentic voices while finding their passion and purpose. Always exploring the margins, her work pushes the boundaries of knowledge, teaching, and innovation in curriculum and program development, design, and the program review processes. She is a champion of arts-based education, experiential learning and intensive course delivery. Her motto is, “just as everything is a sign (Roland Barthes), so is everything a learning experience, or nothing is.”

Her passion for the arts began in grade two on the playground. There she was the third member of the Chitter Chat Sisters – a make-believe variety show that rivalled Donny and Marie. After receiving a combined Hon. BA from Brock University in English Literature and Theatre/Dramatic Literature she co-founded Parnassus Theatre (1988-1998) in response to the stats Canada report that university marked the end, rather than the beginning, of women’s artistic careers. The company created original social issues plays on homophobia, substance abuse, date rape, peer pressure, and toured to universities and schools throughout Ontario. She worked in television, publishing, journalism, theatre administration, event programming, marketing and capital fundraising to build an arena and community centre. If you can’t tell by the list, she has an interdisciplinary curiosity.

She received her PhD in English Literature from McMaster University with a specialty in literary theory (Lacanian psychology and semiotics) and Canadian Literature (even though she is not a fan of Atwood). Her dissertation, The myth of Laura Secord from historical reality to popular culture, earned her 4lbs of chocolates from the Laura Secord candy company and was eventually the focus of her first historical fiction: Pulse of Courage. In 2006, she created a four-year community curriculum for Designing Routes to Education and Mentoring (DREAM), an organization that helps high school students in grade 9 prepare for a post-secondary future. This curriculum was shared in 2022 to bring activities on equity, diversity, inclusion and possibility to a high school on a Northern Ontario reserve.

Certified as a facilitator in Foursight Thinking Preferences, Creative Problem Solving, Design Thinking and TESOL, she has also taught at Niagara College, Guelph University, Brock University before joining the ‘brain drain’ and taking a full-time teaching position at Lesley University in Cambridge MA. Here’s the interesting part – she never moved away from her childhood home in Dunnville, ON. Her position in the Integrated Teaching Through the Arts Masters of Education program meant she was flown all over the USA and Israel to teach intensive weekend courses. She left Lesley after ten years of travel, teaching and meeting dedicated educators because she couldn’t remember how to pronounce the letter ‘Z’.

She has taught for the Creative Education Foundation, DREAM Project, and innovation in education classes in Portugal, France, Turkey, India for the International Centre for Innovation in Education. Her book Mind the Gap was published in 2022 by ICIE and she is working on another book on Reward and Ritual in the classroom. During Covid she did zoom workshops, podcasts, training and programming with international colleagues she never met in person.

She founded Kaleidoscope Learning Solutions https://kaleidoscope-ls.com/ with her friend and colleague Glenys McQueen-Fuentes. Her current interests are taking her into the world of Futures Studies and how to create an more equitable, empathetic and ethical classroom through the integration of cognitive preferences, anti-oppressive pedagogy, ritualized learning strategies. She teaches in the McKeil School of Business at Mohawk College in Hamilton Ontario.

Will Morin is of Ojibwa/Scottish and French-Canadian ancestry, originally from Batchawana Bay, Ontario, a member of the Michipicoten First Nation. He was born in Sault Ste. Marie and grew up mostly in Sudbury. In pursuit of the creative spirit, Will has travelled throughout Canada, the United States and England.

He received his formal art training first at Cambrian College, and then from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design; and obtained his degree of Fine Art in 1993. Will followed this up with a degree in Native Studies from Laurentian University in 1994. He also obtained an Inter-disciplinary Humanities Master’s degree from Laurentian in summer of 2001.

Will has taught Visual Arts at Cambrian College and Native Cultural Arts at Sault College. He helped to develop a new private, university-level art school, the White Mountain Academy of the Arts, in Elliot Lake. Will has developed, co-ordinated and taught a culturally-based literacy program at the N’swakamok Native Friendship Centre in Sudbury and continues to teach in Laurentian University’s department of Native Studies. Will privately teaches various visual arts medium in his studio and has facilitated many Native cultural presentations of “healing through the arts” activities with his Creative Self-Rediscovery workshops for communities, cultural groups, provincial aboriginal youth groups, health professionals and nursing students throughout North American and Europe.

Music Streamer. Loop Artist. Her tender voice and her combination of pop, folk, jazz, and blues will leave you pleasantly astounded. Danielle Allard is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and Twitch Partner. She has been performing publicly for over 20 years and graced stages across Canada and Europe. This Ottawa native has toured Germany, Portugal and much of Canada but also performs 3 times a week for an international audience as a music streamer.

She just released her highly anticipated third studio solo album, titled INVADER which is a concept album accompanying a 6-video series. The process of writing and recording happened live on stream, as she is passionate about pulling back the curtain and inviting everyone into the process.

By day, Danielle is a professor at Algonquin College across the Public Relations, Music Industry Arts & Performing Arts programs, eager to help people gain confidence in the areas of public speaking, stage performance and voice work.