Alberta Mentoring Partnership · Ê Mâmahoh Ôpikîyahk Recording

AMP Summit 2024

Ê Mâmahoh Ôpikîyahk: We Are Growing Together

October 18, 2024

8:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Edmonton Inn and Conference Centre

Alberta Mentoring Partnership is pleased to offer this day of gathering and learning for youth, Elders, and those serving youth to grow together in mentorship. With an emphasis on cultivating trust, we support Indigenous children and youth in creating kinship through community connection.

Our summit is tailored to inform the delivery of successful Indigenous Mentoring in schools, organizations, and agencies working with Indigenous youth both on and off reserve. Attendees can expect to:

Participate in intergenerational meeting and sharing.
Practice ceremony and participate in trust & kinship sharing circles representing the four Rs: Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, and Responsibility, and recognize how these principles frame our approach to and understanding of mentoring.
Engage with other participants to share best practices with supporting Indigenous youth.
Be inspired by keynotes from Elder Flora Northwest and Yarrow Currie.
Be resourced by presentations from AMP’s Indigenous-serving agencies/organizations.
Learn about the principles of Indigenous Mentoring, as developed by Mahegun Tails.
Gain perspective from youth-in-mentorship through our youth panel.

Participants can expect to feel resourced, educated, empowered and connected after gathering with Indigenous leaders, practitioners, and youth from around Alberta, to learn through intergenerational sharing, how to best serve Indigenous youth through mentoring.

$109.00 plus taxes for a standard room with 1 Queen
$114.00 plus taxes for a standard room with 2 Queens

Book with these rates by calling Edmonton Inn directly and asking to book under the Alberta Mentors Indigenous Summit Open Block. To book a bigger/business-class room, call the hotel as there is limited inventory released online.

Phone Number: +1 888-747-4114

Book online: Alberta Mentors Indigenous Summit

Keynote Speakers

Flora Northwest is a member of the Samson Cree Nation, a mother and a grandmother. Flora grew up being greatly influenced by her culture and family. Flora is a survivor of residential school where she was traumatized from the treatment she received there. Up until 1976, Flora struggled with her mental health.

Flora was in an abusive relationship. She took a huge step towards healing when she admitted herself into a detox center in 1974. While there, Flora reflected on the traumas in her life that gave her the strength to heal and help others. After completing detox and treatment she left her relationship, this improved her mental health and was the biggest breakthrough to freedom from her traumas.

Flora worked at the Detox Center, Medical Services Branch, Nayoskan Counseling Services, and Native Counseling Services using her skills, life experiences and cultural ways to support others through their healing journey.

Since 1986, Flora has been working with children at Maskwacîs Education Schools Commission as a Cree language instructor and counselor. In 1993 Flora achieved her Social Work diploma.. In 2022 Flora’s role changed to a cultural liaison and Elder.

With everything Flora endured as a child in school, she wants to make sure every child has a chance to have the best future. Flora is an active member in her community. She has been involved as a health representative, community service volunteer, and spreads awareness of the lasting damage endured by survivors and the intergenerational trauma that continues to impact Indigenous communities today.

Flora has also been guiding, supporting, and mentoring with EverActive’s Indigenous Youth Mentorship Program (IYMP) since 2020. Flora's healing journey has helped not just herself and her family but many people struggling with identity, belonging and addictions by following the words of her Kokum (grandmother):

"Be kind to yourself and give yourself a life that everyone deserves - a life filled with happiness."

Yarrow Currie is a Cree two-spirit femme, who has previously worked in art mediums including storytelling, movement and art with syllabics. She is from Montana First Nation, Maskwacis, Alberta. She grew up in Treaty 8, and later moved to Treaty 6 to study Indigenous Social Work at Yellowhead Tribal College. She teaches Cree yoga, and she is a part of the team at the Elizabeth Fry Society Community of Hope women’s shelter in north Edmonton. She is passionate about empowerment, advocacy, and community service.

Schedule

Presentation by Suzanne McLeod, PhD (Mahegun Tails)

Suzanne is Anishinaabe-ikwe from Sagkeeng First Nation, MB. She has worked extensively within the Indigenous and non-Indigenous community in various capacities with a focus on community and social innovation, complex systems, policy development, researcher, writer, and educator. Suzanne has experience in working in both an urban and rural context with Indigenous Elders and knowledge keepers, and with non-Indigenous systems and governments at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels. Suzanne has twice presented to the Senate of Canada on social issues affecting Indigenous people. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba. Suzanne is also a Divemaster Scuba Diver, a passion that has allowed her to explore the world from a unique perspective. However, she is most proud of her three daughters and grandbaby to whom she is imparting the Anishinaabe concept of “mino-bimaadiziwin”, living a good life.

Relevance - feeling closely connected, appropriate to what is being done or considered, appropriate to the current time, period, circumstances, and person’s worldview.

Respect - proper care and concern for the feelings, wishes, rights, and traditions of others.

Reciprocity - a situation or relationship in which two or more people do something similar for each other, to allow each other to have the same rights.

Responsibility - the opportunity of being accountable/reliable to act independently and make decisions that support the well-being of others.

“We acknowledge that we are on and support Mentoring for Youth in the traditional territories across Alberta of the many First Nations from Treaty 6,7,& 8, the Métis of the 8 Alberta Settlements, and Inuit people whose footsteps have marked these lands for centuries.”