Facilitated Nation-Building Discussions - Participants are free to attend any of the following five sessions and do not need to return to the same session on Day 2.

1. Change Management, Facilitated by Richard Missens and Marcia Merasty, JSGS Graduate Student
2. Entrepreneurship, Facilitated by Dr. Bob Kayseas and Rebecca Major, JSGS Graduate Student
3. Citizen Engagement, Facilitated by Dr. Kathy McNutt and Marlene McNab, JSGS Graduate Student
4. Governance Instruments, Facilitated by Ken Acton, Neal Kewistep and Tenille Thomson, JSGS Graduate Student
5. Vision Setting, Facilitated by Karen Main and Moses Gordon, JSGS Graduate Student

Panel 1: Capacity Building for Good Governance - There is a fundamental difference between government and governance, as well as between governance and good governance. Governance is more than the organizational structure of government. Good governance requires having the capacity to solve your Nations issues and meet its challenges in a way that is legitimate and culturally matched for it. The Indian Act and other laws and policies attempted to make Indigenous Nations leaders into administrators for colonial powers, and to take away the capacity to govern themselves and replace it with their own colonial government. However, Indigenous Nations have survived these attempts and are looking to build and (re)strengthen their Nations. This will require building the capacity; both in Western terms of administration, laws, institutions, and on Indigenous terms of language, culture and traditions.

Moderator: Dr. Kathy McNutt
Panel: Ron Crowe (JSGS), Edmund Bellegarde (FHQTC), Dr. Bob Kayseas (FNUniv)

Chief Cadmus Delorme, Cowessess First Nation, presentation "Innovation Challenges and What is Possible!"

Facilitated Nation-Building Discussions - Participants are free to attend any of the following five sessions and do not need to return to the same session on Day 2

1. Change Management, Facilitated by Richard Missens and Marcia Merasty, JSGS Graduate Student
2. Entrepreneurship, Facilitated by Dr. Bob Kayseas and Rebecca Major, JSGS Graduate Student
3. Citizen Engagement, Facilitated by Dr. Kathy McNutt and Marlene McNab, JSGS Graduate Student
4. Governance Instruments, Facilitated by Ken Acton, Neal Kewistep and Tenille Thomson, JSGS Graduate Student
5. Vision Setting, Facilitated by Karen Main and Moses Gordon, JSGS Graduate Student

Panel 2: Economic Development and Practical Sovereignty - True sovereignty requires decision-making control over resources and economic development.  Governance processes that oversee and guide economic development must also include the principle of “cultural match” and be supported by stable institutions. What does this mean in a practical sense and how do Indigenous leaders balance knowledge and experience with economic innovation?

Moderator: Richard Missens, FNUniv
Panelists: Thomas Benjoe, President & CEO, FHQ Developments; Chief Lynn Acoose, Sakimay First Nation: Councillor Paul Ledoux, Muskeg Lake Cree Nation 

Lunch

Panel 3: Health and Education Governance - A community’s well-being and success is tied to the health and education of its citizens. This panel will provide a safe space for a discussion on how these key services are governed in Indigenous communities. What governance model allows for culturally appropriate programming, such as language or traditional medicine, and what authority do the institutions have to ensure these programs and services are successful? What should researchers of indigenous health and education be mindful of to ensure their work demonstrates a partnership approach with communities and is in line with the governance frameworks? Finally, how does the governance model affect the relationship between Council and health and education senior officials?

Moderator: Ceal Tournier, Executive Director, Health and Family Services Inc., Saskatoon Tribal Council
Panelists: Fred Dillon, Director of Education, Onion Lake Cree Nation; Chief Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier, Okanese First Nation; Gail Boehme, Executive Director, File Hills Qu'Appelle Tribal Council Health Services & the All Nations Healing Hospital

Panel 4: No More Silence: Women’s Voice in Governance - There is a disturbing legacy of patriarchy and legal sex discrimination inherent in the Indian Act, wherein Indigenous women and their natural roles of community leadership and governance has been denied and marginalized.  This imposed colonialistic patriarchal government is in conflict with Indigenous cultural values that respect and revere women as powerful, ignoring centuries of experience and contributions by women.  This panel seeks to firmly reject the imposed colonial aftermath that women aren’t allowed to participate in governance by featuring the voices of female leadership, both formal (elected) and informal, that exist in our Nations and communities.  This female leadership and organized pushback against this legacy can be found at the community level and Tribal Council levels in the form of Women’s Councils. These women will discuss how female contributions to nation-building and governance build on First Nation values which require their voices to be successful and also restores the cultural match of women’s roles to the process.

Moderator: Dr. JoLee Sasakamoose, Director, Indigenous Peoples Health Research Centre
Panelists: Freda Owatch, Nakoda Language & Culture Coordinator for Carry The Kettle Nakoda Nation; Dorothy Myo, Manager, Family Information Liaison Unit, Community Safety and Well-Being Branch, Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice; Councilor Pat Sparvier, Cowessess First Nation