Our Board

  Bio Coming Soon!

  Bio Coming Soon!

  Bio Coming Soon!

Charlotte, a 70 year old 2Spirit, Trans, Metis Woman, is a survivor of the notorious 60’s Scoop. Ms. Nolin grew up in an era when homes were still heated with wood stoves and remembers the smell of lye soap being made every fall when the pigs were butchered. Charlotte’s journey took her across most of Canada from the city of Quebec all the way to Victoria BC. Her story holds the secrets of living on the street to prison and back to the streets.

In 1974 Charlotte returned to the “closet” rather than facing any more violence attached to living and working the streets influenced by substance use. Charlotte worked in the construction industry and begun raising her children until 2015. Charlotte changed professions in 1990 when she enrolled at Douglas College in the Community Social Service Worker program. After which Charlotte began her 30-year journey of helping families, youth, and children in the areas of CFS and the housing industry. Her accomplishments include “Spirit of the Earth Award” presented to her by Manitoba Hydro and the 2014 “Keeping the Fires Burning Award” award, presented by Ka Ni Kanichihk Inc. for dedication to her people. Charlotte recently retired after suffering a couple of heart attacks in September of 2020. Charlotte continues to serve her community to the best of her abilities.

Kitchi Miigwetch

  Bio Coming Soon!

Amanda Dawne Burton is a 2Spirit Red River Metis woman. She is an action therapist (community therapy with youth in the CFS system) and has a private therapy practice. Amanda is co-spokesperson of the Indigenous Helpers Society and a member of the 2S Michif Local (MMF). She is active in ceremony and within the community. She is co-author of the upcoming textbook Social Work Assessment: A W/holistic Perspective. Amanda is a proud mom to two awesome teenagers and three beautiful dogs.  

  Chantal Fiola is Michif (Red River Métis) with family from St. Laurent and Ste. Geneviève, MB. She is the author of Rekindling the Sacred Fire: Métis Ancestry and Anishinaabe Spirituality, which won her the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer and the Beatrice Mosionier Aboriginal Writer of the Year Award. Returning to Ceremony: Spirituality in Manitoba Métis Communities, released in October 2021 (University of Manitoba Press), is her follow-up book. Dr. Fiola was named Distinguished Indigenous Scholar’s Chair in 2021(-2024) by the University of Winnipeg (UW). She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban and Inner-City Studies at UW where she specializes in the topics of Métis people, Indigenous gender, sexuality, sovereignty, and methodologies. Chantal is 2Spirit, Midewiwin, a Sundancer, and lives with her wife and their daughter in Winnipeg.

  I have overcome many personal and professional hurdles in life, with a better understanding of myself and others. My life took a turn in my 20’s until the age of 39. In that time, I experienced homelessness, addiction, racism, discrimination, and loss, ultimately finding recovery saving my life. My transition to my true self started in Vancouver, B.C. in 2017. Being a transgender woman and being a parent of a 26-year-old son has been one of the most difficult and rewarding experiences of my life. 

April 2021, I started working at Nine Circles as a peer support worker, going into the community and working with vulnerable at-risk youth and adults with substance use problems. Gaining much needed training and providing safer sex info and safer drug use options to those in need in my very own community, which also gave me the chance to work with the LGBTQ+ community under some of the skilled and educated instructors with Nine Circles. 

Since September 2021 I have returned to school at the University of Winnipeg as a mature student, starting on my journey with the B.U.S program, with the end goal in 2024/Bachelor of Arts. 

My beautiful and talented mom “Ginger” was my biggest role model for my schooling, she showed me that one is never too old to go back to school to finish their education, having graduated at 52 years old. My mission for my future is to make her proud with my endeavors and be the daughter she successfully raised. I have a vision of my future with my loud and bold voice to help those who may struggle with some obstacles I have faced.

Dene Guillas (he/him) is a proud Indigiqueer, transgender man, father, and friend. He feels his “later in life” transition to his true self almost 4 years ago has been both a tragedy and a blessing. The same can be said about his introduction to his Indigenous culture, as he was taught to hide and suppress it, to make it easier to fit into society’s acceptable expectations of what it meant to be a white-passing female. He has just recently started his journey down a path to unlearn and then start to re-learn how he wanted to define himself outside of others’ labels and boxes.

He brings with him lived experience and knowledge in many different environments from sports, education, CFS, family planning, parenting, adoption, childcare, industrial trades, transgender healthcare, etc. He has been lucky enough to be involved in the training and education field for over 17 years and is currently giving back to the community by educating others about the 2SLGBTQ+ community and what safe(r), more inclusive spaces look like for all with Rainbow Resource Centre as the School Equity & Inclusion Coordinator.

Lucy is a 2Spirit Métis woman, born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and her family were Sinclairs, Cummings, Prudens, some of whom took scrip in St. Andrews, and she also has other family and ancestors from Red River, Oxford House, Norway House, and Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, and settler family from Ireland and the Orkney Islands. 

Lucy is a community organizer, dedicating most of that time to the Ma Mawi Project, the 2Spirit Michif Local of the MMF, and Red Rising Magazine. Lucy is a faculty member in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba, and she has a research and teaching focus on Métis youth identity, Indigenous education, queer theory, and youth cultures.