Keynotes | IAPT 2025 Site

Keynote Speakers

Joseph Naytowhow

“Across the globe people from every background and walk of life are realizing that Mother Earth and her beings are in grave danger. Without a healthy Earth Mother we will not have our basic needs met: nutritious food, fresh water, safe shelter. We must fulfill these basic needs before we can be creative, innovative, economically viable, and to be of service to others. I teach people to respect the old ways while embracing congruent contemporary ones. I encourage young and old to nurture the very best inside themselves and to build bridges rather than focus on differences.”

Joseph Naytowhow is a gifted singer/songwriter, accomplished stage and screen actor, orator and storyteller. His work includes voice, music, and storytelling for on-air plays with CBC, MBC, APTN and SCN. He is passionate and committed to the arts including collaborations, film, television, theatre, advisory and teaching as his life’s work. Naytowhow, uses his many talents to explore themes of traditional nehiyaw (Cree) culture and contemporary society.

He is a much sought after presenter and guest speaker who explores a variety of subjects including the vital role Mother Earth has in sustaining life and our responsibility to protect her, traditional Indigenous culture and ways of being/knowledge, the treaties in Canada, Truth and Reconciliation and other topics with a focus on bringing people together. He is renowned for his unique style of Cree/English storytelling combined with contemporary music and traditional First Nations drum, flute and rattle songs.

He is the recipient of the Canadian Aboriginal Music Award’s Keeper of the Tradition Award and the Commemorative Medal for the Saskatchewan Centennial. He received a Gemini Award for Best Individual or Ensemble Performance in an Animated Program or Series for his role in the Wapos Bay TV series. He was awarded Best Emerging Male Actor at the Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival for his role in Run: Broken Yet Brave. He was awarded the Saskatchewan Arts Board’s Arts and Learning Award for his far-reaching work with many organizations, students and artists. He has performed for the Prince of Wales, the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan and many other notables. Having earned a Bachelor of Education degree, studied with several traditional Elders as well as a Buddhist master for 15 years, and worked as an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and mentor, Naytowhow is committed to lifelong learning and sharing cultural knowledge. Most recently, Joseph was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws honoris causa (LLD).

Naytowhow, resides in Saskatoon and serves as Emerging Elder/Cultural Advisor at the College of Law, University of Saskatchewan. He is a member of the Sturgeon Lake First Nation Band, which is located approximately 30 kilometres northwest of Prince Albert.

Maria

Elder Maria Campbell

Elder Maria Campbell, O.C., was born on a trap-line in Northern Saskatchewan. She is a Cree-Métis writer, community organizer, playwright, filmmaker, scholar and teacher. The theme of home runs throughout her work. Her first co-written handbook, Many Laws (1969) drew from her experience as a community organizer, shining light on the experiences of Indigenous peoples as they move into urban spaces. Her most well-known work, Halfbreed (1973), outlines the first 33 years of her life and that of her family, displaced multiple times and becoming what is known as “road allowance people”, literally living on the margins of the lands surveyed by the colonial government.

Campbell is also the author of books for children, including People of the Buffalo: How the Plains Indians Lived (1975), Little Badger and the Fire Spirit (1977) and Riel's People: How the Métis Lived (1978). All three offer teachings about Métis spirituality and heritage.

Elder Maria has also had a prolific career in theatre, film, and radio. Campbell’s first professionally produced play, Flight, was the first all-Indigenous theatre production in Canada. The performance wove together Indigenous culture, modern dance and storytelling. Campbell has also served as a cultural advisor for the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company (now known as the Gordon Tootoosis Nikiniwin Theatre). She did cultural presentations at Batoche National Historic Site for many years.

Campbell wrote the film The Red Dress (1978), a National Film Board production directed by Michael Scott. It tells the story of a woman caught between two worlds: her Indigenous culture and the world outside it. In 1984, Campbell co-founded a film and video production company, Gabriel Productions, that produced 34 community documentaries between 1984–97 and co-produced the television show, My Partners My People (1987), which aired on CTV for three years.

In addition to her work in the arts, Campbell is a volunteer, activist and advocate for Indigenous rights and the rights of women. In 1963, she founded the first Women’s Halfway House and the first Women and Children’s Emergency Crisis Centre in Edmonton. Campbell is also the national grandmother for Walking With Our Sisters, an art installation about murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls touring Canada since 2013.

As an academic, Campbell served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Saskatchewan and a Special Scholar under the Dean of Arts and Science. She was also a Seasonal Instructor at the Saskatchewan Federated Indian College (now First Nations University). She has shared her knowledge as a visiting professor and writer-in-residence at numerous institutions and is currently the Indigenous Knowledge and Wellness Coordinator at the First Nations University of Canada.

(with excerpts from the Canadian Encyclopedia)