Facilitator: Aaron Fay

Co-Facilitator: Dan Fay

In this interactive workshop, Aaron will share practical, experience-based activities that support beginner Indigenous language learners as they progress toward intermediate fluency and deeper comprehension. Drawing from his own journey and the insights of fellow learners, he will highlight strategies that move learners beyond memorization and into meaningful listening, speaking, and understanding. Aaron will also showcase kiyanaw.net, a website designed to support language transcription and learning, demonstrating how it can be used to strengthen access to spoken language and build learner confidence. The session will conclude with a discussion on the importance of becoming language documentarians, encouraging participants to actively record, preserve, and support language use for future generations.

Facilitators: Tara Morris & Dr. Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta

sakâw nihiyawîwin

ayamihcikiwin

ikwa masinahikiwin

Facilitators: Tanya Fontaine & Connie Twin

The northern Y dialect of Cree is different from the southern or plains Cree. This difference is especially noticeable when reading and writing Cree and can be a barrier to literacy. Presenters will ask the audience to share their observations. Presenters, together with Brush Education, have published a mini grammar guide for teachers and fluent speakers that includes bar codes with audio for second language learners. Participants will be exposed to a new resource specific to northern speakers.

Grab 'N Go Bagged Lunch

Facilitator: Brandon Mitchell

This welcoming, beginner-friendly workshop invites participants to explore visual storytelling through comics. Brandon will guide attendees through the basics of drawing, character creation, and scene layout, offering practical tools to help bring stories to life in a creative and accessible way.

Details TBA

Facilitator: Neil Redcrow

This three-hour workshop introduces the Nêhiyawêwin syllabics writing system and its origins within a Nêhiyaw worldview. Participants will learn the history of the writing system and the sounds connected to each syllabic. The workshop will focus on proper pronunciation and intonation, as well as the syllabic songs used to support learning. Teachings will also include storytelling and spiritual insight connected to the language.

The Youth Interactive Space is a hands-on area designed to engage Indigenous youth through creativity, innovation, and community connection. The space features Indigenous-made goods and interactive technology, as well as spaces that explore new ways of engaging with Indigenous languages.

• Opening Drum by River Cree Drum Group
• Welcome from SILR Advisory Council's Doreen Daychief
• Lighting of the Qulliq by Myna Manniapik
• Opening remarks by Wayne Jackson

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Lorna Wanosts’a7 Williams

Developing and maintaining working partnerships, across age groups, knowledge areas, genders, cultures is key to developing and accomplishing challenges we face in rebuilding and re establishing our languages, knowledge systems and relationships. We need to draw on our traditional ways, colonial experiences, and coping with changing times to find our paths and we need to draw on our creativity and sharing to do what works for us.

Therapeutic swing sessions will be offered by Dr. Darlene Auger & team, of Wîwîp'son Indigenous Therapeutic Swing

Booking details TBA.

Light refreshments served

The Elders Wellness space is designed to honour and care for Elders throughout the Gathering. This space is offered in collaboration with the University of Alberta’s Department of Occupational Therapy, with support from student volunteers involved in Indigenous Focus, a discussion group that centres Indigenous health, knowledges, and self-determination in professional practice.

The Wellness Space offers: hand massage, shoulder/neck massage, beading circle, coloring tables, coffee & tea, and a relaxing atmosphere.

Sign-up details: TBA

Presenter: Roberta Alook

Panelists: Dr. Anna-Leah King, Morgan Sapkos & Dorothy Thunder

Moderated by: Anna Belew

Panelists: Commissioner Ronald E. Ignace of the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages, Evelyn Steinhauer, Ashley Keays

Moderated by:

Facilitator: Lisa Richards

nehiyawewin reclamation is more than language learning—it is a healing journey that addresses the deep wounds left by colonization, residential schools, and cultural disconnection. This presentation explores a trauma-informed approach to nehiyawewin revitalization, centering emotional safety, cultural identity, and community resilience. Using a trauma-informed lens recognizes how historical and intergenerational trauma impacts the ability to learn, speak, and reclaim language. Many language learners carry shame, grief, or fear linked to past experiences where speaking nehiyawewin was punished or devalued. This presentation offers strategies to create supportive, non-judgmental spaces for learners to reconnect with the language at their own pace, grounded in compassion. Drawing on personal and classroom experience, I will share tools that validate emotion, restore dignity, and promote self-determination in language learning. Key themes include: the role of trauma in language healing, how to engage in ways that honor emotional realities, and building language spaces that restore trust and pride. Rather than focusing solely on fluency, this work emphasizes the aspects of reading, writing, speaking and understanding language, the land, and each other. Reclaiming nehiyawewin is a pathway to healing. Attendees will leave with insights and practical approaches to support language learners through a trauma-informed, culturally grounded framework.

Facilitator: Brandon Mitchell

This session explores the integration of animation story techniques with Indigenous storytelling practices. Drawing on over two decades of experience in animation, design, and arts education, the session highlights foundational drawing instruction as a pathway to strengthening visual storytelling skills among youth.

Beginning with early work in Listuguj, Quebec, where step-by-step drawing methods were used to make artistic skills accessible to students in Grades 1–8, this approach emphasizes that drawing is a learned skill that develops through practice. These foundational teaching methods have continued to inform workshops delivered in diverse settings, including in-person and virtual classrooms.

Through examples and practical insights, the session demonstrates how animation principles—such as character development, visual sequencing, and scene construction—can support and enhance Indigenous storytelling. Participants will gain an understanding of accessible teaching strategies that empower learners and reinforce the message that creative growth is built through consistent effort and engagement.

Light refreshments served

Facilitators: Shawna Yamkovy & Kelly Steele

This interactive lecture explores the development and use of digital resources to support Indigenous language learning and intergenerational knowledge sharing and preservation. Participants will learn about strategies for creating engaging digital tools that integrate visual and oral storytelling with language, culture, and traditional teachings, drawing on experiences with digitized dictionaries and heritage-focused platforms. The session highlights how visual and oral storytelling combined with technology can provide accessible, interactive learning experiences for students and community members while respecting Indigenous protocols and intellectual property. Attendees will gain insight into approaches for designing resources that strengthen language acquisition, support cultural continuity, and foster community engagement. Practical examples demonstrate how digital tools can facilitate the preservation and revitalization of Indigenous languages while enabling learners of all ages to connect with traditional knowledge in meaningful ways. Participants will leave with actionable ideas for implementing digital strategies that honor Indigenous values, enhance learning outcomes, and support ongoing intergenerational collaboration.

Panelists: Kevin Lewis & Jessie Sylvestre

Moderated by: Lyndon Aginas

For this panel, we aim to explore:

• How land-based immersion supports Indigenous language revitalization, ceremony, and worldview;
• The role of land-based programs in community wellbeing, cultural resurgence, and intergenerational knowledge transmission;
• Practical experiences and reflections from land-based program leaders and educators;
• Pathways for collaboration across communities and institutions.

Facilitator: Aaron Fay

Co-Facilitator: Dan Fay

In this presentation, Aaron will explore practical, experience-based approaches that support beginner Indigenous language learners in progressing toward intermediate fluency and stronger comprehension. Drawing from his own journey as an intermediate learner, as well as the experiences of others, he will discuss strategies that help move learners from basic vocabulary memorization to more confident listening, speaking, and understanding in real contexts. He will also introduce kiyanaw.net, demonstrating how the platform supports language transcription and learning, and how it can be used to strengthen access to spoken language materials. The presentation will conclude with a call for learners and speakers to see themselves as language documentarians, emphasizing the shared responsibility of preserving and creating access to language for future generations.

Facilitator: Dr. Chuutsqa L. Rorick

Hesquiaht Language Month is an initiative first launched in 2020 by chuutsqa and the fluent speakers of the grassroots Hesquiaht Language Program. Now in its fourth cohort, February 2026 marked its first delivery in after-school sessions at Hesquiaht Place of Learning School (3-8 pm weekdays). Rooted in Hesquiaht fluent-speaker-led practice, this presentation offers context for encouraging language use in daily life, at home, in schools, and across generations. The presentation will highlight the application of a) Hesquiaht values-based themes in teaching, and will share the b) "strategies that stuck" for increasing the use of Hesquiaht language in an elementary school that does not normally have a language class. Finally, the presentation will share c) insights and reflections from this year's participants.

Featuring performances by:

• Darla Daniels (with Mat Patenaude)
• Jana Angulalik
• Wayne Jackson

The Youth Interactive Space is a hands-on area designed to engage Indigenous youth through creativity, innovation, and community connection. The space features Indigenous-made goods and interactive technology, as well as spaces that explore new ways of engaging with Indigenous languages.

Details TBA

Keynote Speaker: Alex FireThunder

Western models of education often begin by breaking language into isolated parts: grammar rules, vocabulary lists, sound systems, trusting that mastery of fragments will eventually produce fluency. At the same time, Western culture frequently centers the individual learner as the primary unit of success. In Indigenous language revitalization, these two patterns can quietly reinforce one another: language is fragmented, and learners are left to carry it alone. Yet our languages were never meant to exist in pieces, and speakers were never meant to exist in isolation. Indigenous languages are meant to be tools for embracing and strengthening kinship systems. When curriculum prioritizes structure over lived communication, or when revitalization results in individual proficiency without building collective spaces of use, we weaken the very foundation we are trying to rebuild. In this keynote, Alex FireThunder reflects on how bringing the parts back into relationships: grammar within meaningful communication, learners within speaking communities, institutions within intergenerational networks, this creates the infrastructure necessary for successful revitalization. Grounded in the spirit of Mâmawô-wîcihitowin, this session invites us to embrace the concept of reciprocity: that strengthening our languages strengthens one another.

Light refreshments served

Presenters: Leo & Priscilla McGilvery

This presentation is facilitated and supported with the use of drum, rattle, and traditional songs. It draws on the aspects of sharing the Cree language with the support of songs that are healing in nature. Songs have powerful connection to the emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical aspects of being and create an energy of ancestral connection.

Therapeutic swing sessions will be offered by Dr. Darlene Auger & team, of Wîwîp'son Indigenous Therapeutic Swing

Booking details TBA.

The Elders Wellness space is designed to honour and care for Elders throughout the Gathering. This space is offered in collaboration with the University of Alberta’s Department of Occupational Therapy, with support from student volunteers involved in Indigenous Focus, a discussion group that centres Indigenous health, knowledges, and self-determination in professional practice.

The Wellness Space offers: hand massage, shoulder/neck massage, beading circle, coloring tables, coffee & tea, and a relaxing atmosphere.

Sign-up details: TBA

Hosted by Jim & Trudy Cardinal

There will be prizes!

Panelists: Cindy Gaudet, Trudy Cardinal, Megan Tipler, Angela Rancourt

This panel amplifies a SILR-funded language revitalization project that centers the cultural role of Auntie, intergenerational storytelling, and story creation. Storytelling with the Aunties (STWTA) equips educators and families with people and place-based children’s literature to strengthen community through kinship. The project interrupts settler-colonialism and amplifies the place of children-centred stories in education and wellbeing. The project amplifies the stories of our Michif and Cree women and girls, the diverse variations of the language, and the teachings as told and experienced by us. STWTA partners with the Métis community of St. Louis, Saskatchewan, Parks Canada Batoche and amiskwaciy Academy. The co-lead Visiting Aunties at amiskwaciy, (Trudy and Cindy), passionate about the creative and artistic practice of children’s books, share their inspiration to explore this approach with the communities they love. Two Métis PhD students (Angela & Megan) share their engagement and the ways the project intersects with their doctoral studies in education.

Facilitators: Sterlling & Bearwalker Daychief

This presentation will include song (Nehîyaw and Anishinaabe) and will explore the connection of ceremonial songs through language. The session will reflect on how language is connected to everything and our mark here as the First People. Participants will gain insight into how this knowledge and these tools can be used to heal and work through grief. The presentation will also explore kinship and our roles as parents in strengthening our children’s upbringing through cultural connection. As a young woman and mother raised in a traditional home with knowledge keepers such as Jim O’Chiese and Doris Daychief, Sterlling shares these teachings to ensure that this knowledge, and the language within it, continues to be preserved.

Panelists: Cheryl Devin, Dan Cardinal, Sandra Davenport, Susan Sinclair (Thunderbird Woman)

Moderated by: Leanne Traverse

This panel brings together four Michif Language Holders actively engaged in Michif language revitalization through their work with children, youth, and families. Representing Northern and Southern Michif dialects, panellists will share lived knowledge of intergenerational transmission and how they teach and learn alongside young people today, connecting Métis identity and kinship responsibilities to the Michif language. Moderated by a representative from Rupertsland Institute, this panel will discuss practical approaches for language revitalization with young learners, including classroom pedagogy, confidence-building for new speakers, and relationship-based teaching. Participants will engage in brief guided listening and speaking moments and have opportunities for dialogue and reflection. Attendees will leave with a stronger understanding of Michif as a living, evolving language and practical considerations for supporting its presence in early learning and K–12 spaces.

Facilitator: Dr. Jessie Sylvestre

Panelists: Kelly Ryan, Evelyn Steinhauer

ATEP Students:

Facilitators: Simon Bird & Randy Morin

Creation Stories will be told in Cree and simultaneously translated into English. The session will share a handful of stories once commonly shared in the winter months, and a time-trusted practice of orally sharing stories while presenting and discussing why this strategy is an effective teaching tool. Randy Morin and Simon Bird are both fluent Cree speakers and language advocates studying and promoting the benefits of Indigenous Language Revitalization.

Light refreshments served

Facilitator: Skye Durocher

This interactive session explores how social media can be used to increase access to the Cree language. Skye will share how she uses digital platforms to support language learning and reflect on strategies that have helped her strengthen her own Cree. The workshop will highlight not only the resources she has created, but also the work of other community members contributing to online language spaces. Participants will be encouraged to think beyond oral fluency and consider the many ways language can be found, shared, and accessed through digital tools.

Facilitator: Neil Redcrow

Neil will introduce the Nêhiyawêwin syllabics writing system and its origins within a Nêhiyaw worldview. He will share the history of the writing system and explain the sounds connected to each syllabic. The presentation will highlight proper pronunciation and intonation, along with the syllabics song used to support learning. Teachings will also include storytelling and spiritual insight connected to the language.