Marjolaine Tshernish is a member of the Innu community of Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam, on the North shore of the St. Lawrence River. As Director General for the Tshakapesh Institute, she is responsible for ensuring the mission of the organization, which serves all communities of the Nation Innue, safeguarding and promoting Innu culture and the Innu Language and ensuring the preservation of natural heritage, linguistic development and encouraging artistic expression.
Gillian Staveley is a Kaska Dena citizen whose heritage lies in the Muncho Lake region of Dena Kēyeh in Northern British Columbia. She is passionate about promoting and educating others about the importance of multi-generational Indigenous knowledge. In her work as a director for DKI, a Kaska-run charitable organization, she helps tell the story of Kaska Stewardship within her traditional territory and works to ensure that relationships with her people and the land are done so through UNDRIP’s obligations and commitment.
Melody Lepine has been working for her Nation since 2003 and is mandated to lead all consultation matters pertaining to natural resource development within the Mikisew Cree’s Treaty 8 territory. She is very passionate about her stewardship role and notes her significant accomplishments have been the development of their land use plan that supported the creation of the recent Kitaskino Nuwenëné wildland park, a significant conservation area within the Athabasca Oil Sands region. She also oversees the Mikisew community-based environmental monitoring program that continues to monitor the ecological health of the Peace-Athabasca Delta within Wood Buffalo National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.