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IWGS and Ka Ni Kanichihk's Aboriginal Women Reclaiming Our Power Project are honoured to present...Moon Voices in ACTion! Indigenous Women’s Knowledge Exchange.

March 9, 10 & 11, 2012 – University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue

Advance Registration IS NOW CLOSED as we are full - thanks everyone! There will be a few spots available for the weekend's events at the door on Friday - First come, First served, and these spots may not have childminding available.

If you have questions please call Kim at 786-9921 or Shannon at 918-2501.

(We apologize to anyone who may not have responded and is disappointed, but we had asked that all participants please register to ensure we have enough food and childminders for all!)

Moon Voices in ACTion: Indigenous Women’s Knowledge Exchange is a three day culturally-rooted gathering led and facilitated by Indigenous women and Grandmothers, that is open to ALL people interested in learning from, and sharing with, Indigenous women. The Knowledge Exchange embodies and honours Indigenous perspectives, approaches, and ways of knowing to address issues of violence, injustice and the process of reclaiming power. Touching the mind, heart and spirit of all participants, this will be an educational experience like no other, and empowering and enriching for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners.

Knowledge-sharing events throughout the weekend will explore many themes including:

- Impacts of Colonization on Indigenous Women.

- Returning to our Cultural Roots to Address Issues of Violence.

- The Importance of Indigenous Women’s Stories and Exploring Mediums for Story-telling.

- Grandmother’s Teachings and Wisdom for Living a Good Life.

- Traditional Land Use.

- Decolonization & Envisioning a Way Forward, Together.

The objectives for Moon Voices in ACTion: Indigenous Women’s Knowledge Exchange include:

- Providing an opportunity for Moon Voices Peer Mentors and Circle Members to share, and practice strength-based leadership and skill development.

- Demonstrating an inclusive and respectful integration of Indigenous and western knowledge from the perspectives of Indigenous women.

- Creating a learning space that engages all participants (teachers and learners) and that supports learning through active participation and collaborative engagement

- Creating an inviting, respectful and positive educational/learning experience that is safe and inviting for the whole community.

- Building relationships and exploring an inclusive and collective vision for our future together.DAILY SCHEDULE (we reserve the right to make changes!):

Friday, March 9th, 2012 – Convocation Hall (2nd floor in the ‘Castle’ at UW – 515 Portage Avenue)

6 pm: Registration for the weekend begins in Convocation Hall

7 pm: “nitâpwewininân: Ongoing Effects of Residential Schools on Aboriginal Women - Toward Inter-generational Reconciliation (nitâpwewininân is a Cree word meaning our truth)

Join us for the Premiere Screening of the Moon Voices (with Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission) ‘Digital Stories’ project.

Digital Stories are 3 – 5 minute videos using participants’ own photos, video recordings, voice over and music to create personal narratives that are powerful, compelling and emotionally engaging, while at the same time generating knowledge. Saturday, March 10th, 2012 - Riddell Hall Cafeteria (Main Floor, UW)

9:30 am: Breakfast/Registration continues

10 am: Welcome/Prayers

10:30 am: “REclaiming Power - Resilience and Power in the Wake of Colonization” – Facilitated by Moon Voices Participants and Grandmothers. A rich and engaging presentation, REclaiming Power utilizes storytelling, hands on activities, demonstrative learning, and experiential educational practices creating opportunity for the audience to gain new insight and awareness of challenges and solutions in addressing violence against Indigenous women in Canada.

12- 1 pm: Lunch

1– 230 pm: Choose One of Four Learning Circles Facilitated by Moon Voices Peer Mentors to Attend! (Classrooms, Manitoba Hall) NOTE: Workshops can be chosen on day of event.

-“Life Stages and Native Women: Memory, Teachings and Story Medicine” Reading and Discussion with Cree/Métis scholar, writer and activist Kim Anderson (with the support of Moon Voices women).

The process of "digging up medicines" - of rediscovering the stories of the past - serves as a powerful healing force in the decolonization and recovery of Indigenous communities. In her book “Life Stages and Native Women” Kim Anderson shares the teachings of fourteen women elders to illustrate how different life stages were experienced by Metis, Cree, and Anishinaabe girls and women during the mid-twentieth century. By understanding how healthy communities were created in the past, Anderson explains how this traditional knowledge can be applied toward rebuilding healthy Indigenous communities today.

-"Let's Talk Land Use: Returning to Our Roots"- Audrey Logan, Moon Voices Peer Mentor

Our Ancestral roots are strong and deeply connected to a way of knowing that has been lulled to sleep by a long history of colonization. In our realities today, we are more aware of the ‘roots of violence’ than we are of the ancestral roots and plants that once supported balance and harmony with nature. With poverty rising at an alarming rate, and food security an issue in our communities, we are being called to return to our inherent knowledge of plants, rather than the manufactured or genetically altered ones. Mother Earth is suffering, as are her people, we must awaken and do things differently than we have been. "Let's Talk Land Use: Returning to Our Roots” will share seeds of knowledge that you can carry with you to help begin this process.

- “Seven Habits and Seven Sacred Teachings" - Grandmother Roxanne Shuttleworth and Moon Voices Participants.

Utilizing demonstrative and experiential learning grounded in popular education philosophies, experience how culture and mainstream organizational theory can be brought together to help expand knowledge while honouring the strength within the differences.

- “Exploring the Good Life: We are all Related” – Moon Voices Grandmothers

Learn what the “Good Life” is from an Indigenous perspective, and how it differs from the Western worldview. Join the Grandmothers for teachings and engaging discussion that will foster greater understanding of Indigenous ways of being and knowing, while acknowledging the interconnection of all our relations. The journey towards creating an inclusive world where all living things may live in harmony will not be an easy task, however, we all play a role and have the ability to respond every day in ways that support the good life for all of us.

230 – 3 pm: Snack break

3- 430 pm: Choose One of Four Learning Circles Facilitated by Moon Voices Peer Mentors to Attend! NOTE: Workshops can be chosen on the day of event.

- “Âhkamêyimowak: The Strength of Women" with Cree scholar, writer, and activist Priscilla Settee.

There is a force among women which Priscilla Settee calls Âhkamêyimowak, or persistence, which provides the strength for women to carry on in the face of extreme adversity. Âhkamêyimowak, also the title of Settee’s new book, is a Cree word and embodies the strength that drives women to survive, flourish and work for change in their communities. Join Priscilla as she shares women’s stories from her book – both powerful personal stories as well as those describing institutional relationships that keep Indigenous women in Canada—along with women generally, people of colour, Indigenous peoples and youth around the world—in the margins. In both cases, the clarity of vision that comes from the margins is astounding and compelling.

- “Let’s Talk Land Use: Perspectives, Practice and Relationship” – Linda Murphy, Moon Voices Peer Mentor

There has been a lot of attention and much conflict in relation to the issue of Land. With the intention to raise awareness and shift perspectives, “Let’s Talk Land Use: Perspectives, Practice, and Relationship” is a highly engaging and interactive Learning Circle that will explore practical and experiential practices that support ethical and positive solutions to land-based issues by building mutually respectful collaborative relationships.

- “Power in Story: Reclaiming Power One Block at a Time” – Moon Voices Participants

Women’s craft work has always been a vehicle for story-telling. Quilts have always been much more than simply a blanket, and through each block or pattern, each quilt tells a story about the quilters. The Moon Voices Story Quilt weaves together messages of hope, resilience, wisdom and courage as each block shares a story of reclamation of power despite the challenges that each woman has faced in her journey. Join the circle to experience the power of story, and the lessons each stitch brings in learning to build community by imagining a collective future while honouring the individual contributions. (We encourage participants to bring a piece of sewing, knitting, or quilting to work on while they join in the discussion!)

- “Exploring the Good Life: Bridging Two Worlds” - Moon Voices Grandmothers

Join the Grandmothers for teachings and discussion on the many challenges Indigenous people face in learning to walk in two worlds: honouring connection to culture and tradition while living in a society that embraces a value system that is very different. Explore ways of coping, share life lessons, and learn how to incorporate a spiritual way of being into each day that fosters resiliency and creates a supportive bridge that brings the best of two worlds together in order to live a good life.

Sunday March 11th, 2012 – Riddell Hall Cafeteria (Main Floor, UW)

11am -12 pm: Pancake Breakfast!

12-1:15 pm: “Reclaim your Power, Reclaim your Story!” – Workshop and Discussion with Poet & Broadcaster Rosanna Deerchild and Moon Voices Participants Trish Hughes and Gail Constant.

Join in the discussion with Rosanna Deerchild, and her co-hosts Trish Hughes and Gail Constant from Moon Voices. Through powerful stories grounded in their own experiences in finding their voice, and by sharing their own writing, they may just inspire you to explore expressing yourself in writing! We also invite participants who enjoy writing to bring an excerpt from a short story, poem or other written work that they are comfortable sharing with the group to the event.



1:30 – 4:00 pm: “Envisioning the Way Forward Together: A Community Art Project with Lita Fontaine, Artist”

Giving voice to the knowledge and experience all people carry, while reflecting on the raised consciousness we have gained through Moon Voices in ACTion, together we will embark on a creative journey under Lita Fontaine’s artistic guidance. Through imagery and symbols, together we will visually create a path forward that honours Indigenous women, embraces the strength in difference, and values the complexity of inter-connection. As the legacy of Moon Voices: Aboriginal Women Reclaiming Our Power, this community art project will speak to the importance of healing, Indigenous knowledge and culture, reconciliation and collaboration. Each of us has a responsibility and ability to respond to injustice and racism, and to create change through learning, growing and mindful action – by joining together we truly can change the world! (note: please wear clothes you are comfortable working with paint and other art supplies in).

4-5 pm: Closing Teachings and Drum Circle.

Aboriginal Women Reclaiming our Power (Moon Voices) and IWGS are grateful for the support of:

Government of Canada, Canadian Heritage

Government of Canada, Status of Women

Prairie Women's Health Centre of Excellence

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

University of Winnipeg