Meet Sam Whiteye - Panelist

Samantha Whiteye is a community leader from Eelūnapéewi Lahkéewiit. She is very passionate and dedicated to her work within Southern Ontario and the Indigenous Communities she actively serves. Samantha comes from grassroots immersed experiences which she utilizes her lived experience and understandings to create space, advocate and lead conversations centering on Truth and Reconciliation. Leading with an ethical two eyed seeing approach Samantha demonstrates leadership as a changemaker in the environmental sector.

Samantha is very knowledgeable and connected to her Lunaapeew/Lenape culture as she continuously weaves the medicine and teachings into her work and daily lifestyle. She is also passionate about ancestral seed sovereignty and hopes it helps build bridges back to identity for her people.

Over the past year Samantha has worked closely with Carolinian Canada Coalition and continues her work in a new role as Indigenous Leadership Director to help shift the narratives in conservation.

Meet Larry McDermott - Panelist

Larry McDermott is Algonquin from Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation, and is the Executive Director of Plenty Canada. Larry is currently a member of numerous organizations including the International Indigenous Forum for Biodiversity, the Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership (CRP), Ontario Biodiversity Council, the Ontario Professional Foresters Association, the Healing Place partnership, the Indigenous Circle of the Canadian Biosphere Association, and serves as co-chair of the Lanark County Safety and Well-Being Plan.

A former three-time Mayor and long-time council member of Lanark Highlands, was the first Chair of the Rural Forum of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, was a Commissioner for the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and was on the Ontario Species at Risk Public Advisory Committee and provincial and national recovery teams for the American Eel.

Larry also served as a comprehensive claim representative for Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation, is a certified tree marker and butternut assessor, and holds other environmental certifications. He has also received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Guelph. Larry was a humble student for many years of the late Algonquin Elder, Grandfather William Commanda, who created the Circle of All Nations organization. Larry lives in a 170-year-old log home on 500 acres of biologically diverse Algonquin land along the Mississippi River with his wife Nancy.

Meet Marianne Griffith - Panelist

Marianne Griffith is a committed environmentalist and an advocate for local, sustainable food systems and renewable energy. She's worked with London based organizations to promote sustainability and community driven carbon and waste reduction, including Growing Chefs, The Root Cellar and Building Better. She's worked on social justice and sustainable development projects in Indigenous communities in many countries and she works closely with First Nations communities in Ontario to increase access to clean water, clean energy sources and sustainable, affordable housing.

She is a Certified Energy Auditor, a member of the Association of Energy Engineers, a LEED Green Associate, and has extensive building science training including Energy Star and CHBA Net Zero Builder. She is currently the Interim Executive Director where she is committed to help London organizations and residents set and achieve sustainability targets.

Meet Stefan Weber - Panelist

Stefan Weber is an ecologist and has worked with wild plants for over fifteen years, from research and restoration, to advocacy and education. He completed a PhD in restoration ecology from McMaster University studying local adaptation, pollinator response to restoration, and seed-driven invasion. He has also published botanical illustrations, and recently collaborated with Canadian novelist Ken Oppel on the botanical thriller "Bloom."

Meet Dharshi Lacey - Moderator

Dharshi Lacey has worked for over 20 years in the nonprofit sector and has decades of experience in Anti-Racism, Inclusion and Equity Work. She has facilitated training sessions and equity action plans with public, private and charitable organizations to help them embed an inclusive lens in their leadership and operational work. She leads a number of professional development workshops on nonprofit board governance best practice and offers consulting services to nonprofit boards.

Meet André Vashist - Host

 André Vashist is committed to shifting dynamics of power, equity and inclusion by transforming organizations and partnerships into networks and ecosystems.

As an ecosystem facilitator of multi-stakeholder collaborations that nurture reconciliation, regeneration and resilience, he designs and implements complex solutions between government, academic, business, finance and nonprofit sectors.

About the Event:

Bridging the Gap between Indigenous and Settler Worldviews

Join us for the opportunity to connect and engage.

This event launches the seven-part series Seeding Relationships to Heal the Land that creates the platform for Indigenous-led grassroots changemakers to share the importance of their work with the broader community.

Bridging the Gap between Indigenous knowledge and understandings, and current colonial approaches in relation to how we live and work on the land means engaging in respectful, informed discussion on perspectives and worldviews. Sharing knowledge is fundamental to understanding how to build relationships with all living beings to create sustainable and equitable practices rooted in reciprocity.

Registration is $50 with sliding scale. Save $70 when you purchase all Forum Series Events, or become a Carolinian Canada Member and save even more ($20 per Forum session) - Join Today.

Funds raised through ticket sales help to equitably pay our speakers, and to support Carolinian Canada's Indigenous Leadership program.

Please use the sliding scale to pay what you can if you are BIPOC and don't have the means to attend, or if you would like to pay more to assist others to attend.

Starting at 3pm we will commence the

Carolinian Canada Annual General Meeting 2022

Members in good standing 2 weeks prior to AGM can vote.

You can join  and become a member right now: CarolinianCanada.ca/Contribute

Carolinian Canada is supported financially by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, 3M, WWF-Canada, TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, Greenbelt Foundation, City of London, London Community Foundation, Pillar Non-Profit Network, many partners and donors.

Carolinian Canada acknowledges that we live on the traditional territories of many nations including the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee, the Lunaapeew, the Wendat and the Mississauga; and the rights and treaties of the many, diverse Indigenous people who live here now.

We commit to the teachings the Two Row Wampum and the One Dish One Spoon Wampum; and our duty to reconcile, learn more and create safe spaces for Indigenous and non-indigenous perspectives to meet and discuss the issues that matter to everyone.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FORWARD TO YOUR NETWORK

Brought to you by Carolinian Canada: a network of leaders growing healthy landscapes for a green future in the Carolinian Zone, Ontario’s extraordinary far south
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inquiries: info@carolinian.org