I am a Cree/Métis writer and educator, with roots in western Canada but born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario. I’ve always been interested in education, and have worked in literacy, cross-cultural education (with Canada World Youth), educational tourism, and community based education with Indigenous peoples. This work afforded me plenty of travel in my youth, for which I am grateful! I became a mother in 1995, which propelled me into a new phase both personally and professionally, and I began to research and write about motherhood and culture-based understandings of Indigenous womanhood. Since that time I have become known as an advocate of Indigenous women and families, and I continue to do community engaged research and teaching in this area. Prior to taking a faculty position at Wilfrid Laurier University, I worked for over fifteen years doing social and health policy consulting for Indigenous communities and organizations. As a historian, I have been focused on documenting the genius and beauty of non- patriarchal, kin-centric Indigenous societies, and then strategizing around reclaiming these ways as part of decolonization and healing.