Chris Andersen

Chris Andersen is Michif (Métis) from the Parkland region of Saskatchewan and is currently a professor dean of the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. Most recently, he is the lead author (with Maggie Walter, Tahu Kukutai and Chelsea Gable) of Indigenous Statistics: from data deficits to data sovereignty (Routledge Press, 2025). He has also co-edited nearly a dozen collections, among them: (with Dr. Jennifer Adese) A People and a Nation: New Directions in Contemporary Métis Studies (University of British Columbia Press); with Brendan Hokowhitu, Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Linda Smith and Steve Larkin, the Routledge Handbook of Indigenous Studies (Routledge Press); and with Nathalie Kermoal Daniels v. the Queen: In and Beyond the Courts (University of Manitoba Press). Andersen was a founding member of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Executive Council, was a member of Statistics Canada’s Advisory Committee on Social Conditions and was editor of the journal aboriginal policy studies for 12-year period between 2010 and 2022. In 2014 he named as a Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s inaugural cohort of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists and in 2023, he was appointed a Fellow of the Program on Boundaries, Membership & Belonging, part of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR).

Elder Claudette Commanda

Elder Claudette Commanda is an Algonquin Anishinabe from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation located in the province of Quebec.  An alumni of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Common Law and Faculty of Arts, Claudette has dedicated the last 35 years promoting First Nations people, history, culture and rights in various capacities as a University of Ottawa student, professor, member and chair of the Aboriginal education council; and via public speaking events. 

She is a professor for the University of Ottawa’s Institute of Women’s Studies; Faculty of Education; Faculty of Law; and the Aboriginal Studies Program, teaching courses on First Nations Women; Native Education; First Nations People and History; Indigenous Traditions; and Decolonization. In addition, she is the Chief Executive Officer of the First Nations Confederacy of Cultural Education Centres, a national organization which protects and promotes First Nations culture, languages and traditional knowledge. She is inducted into the Common Law Honour Society; served two terms on the Board of Governors for the First Nations University of Canada; and three terms on the Kitigan Zibi band council.   In 2017, Claudette is the first First Nation appointed Elder in Residence for the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa; and the first person of a First Nation heritage to be appointed to the Board of Governors for the University of Ottawa. She is the Special Advisor on Reconciliation, for the Dean, Faculty of Law.  Claudette is a proud mother of four and a grandmother to ten beautiful grandchildren.  In March 2020, Claudette received the 2020 INDSPIRE Award for Culture, Heritage and Spirituality.  In November 2022, she was appointed Chancellor for the University of Ottawa. She is the first Indigenous person to be appointed Chancellor of the University. On September 20, 2024, she received the King Charles III Coronation Medal for her advocacy of First Nation people, rights and languages nationally and internationally.

Cecile Hillyer – New Zealand High Commissioner to Canada

Cecile has held a range of positions in Wellington and overseas, and secondments to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, over her career.

Prior to her appointment as New Zealand’s next High Commissioner to Ottawa, Cecile led the International Security and Disarmament Division in MFAT. Her team covered defence and national security policy coordination, transnational organised crime, emerging threats policy such as cyber security and space, disarmament and non-proliferation issues, as well as counter-terrorism and countering violent extremism. Cecile was appointed to the concurrent role of Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism in May 2020.

Before that role, Cecile was seconded to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet from 2016 to 2019 first as Director, Intelligence and Assessments, including responsibility for the National Assessments Bureau, then as Acting Deputy Chief Executive, National Security Group. These responsibilities covered national intelligence assessments and intelligence coordination, then national security policy including cyber security, emergency management, and security and intelligence policy.

Earlier in her career, Cecile was Director of Global Development for the New Zealand Aid Programme, leading teams engaging in bilateral development in South East Asia and other regions outside the Pacific. She has also been Head of Audit Review Division in MFAT and had diverse rotations in other parts of the Ministry. Her previous postings have included Moscow, London, Noumea and Mexico, the last two as Consul-General and Ambassador.

Dr. Ronald E. Ignace, Commissioner

Stsmél̓qen, Ronald E. Ignace, is a member of the Secwépemc Nation in Interior British Columbia and Canada’s first-ever Indigenous Languages Commissioner. He was the elected chief of the Skeetchestn Indian Band for more than 30 years since the early 1980s. He also served as Chairman of the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council and president of its cultural society, where he initiated a broad program of research and reclamation on Secwépemc language and culture, including an innovative university partnership with Simon Fraser University (SFU).

He holds a B.A. and M.A. in Sociology from the University of British Columbia, and completed his PhD in Anthropology at SFU in 2008, with a dissertation on Secwépemc oral history. He has (co-)written numerous articles and book chapters on Secwépemc history, ethnobotany, language and culture, including the epic Secwépemc People, Land and Laws: Yerí7 re stsq̓ey̓s-kucw, a journey through 10,000 years of Secwépemc history.

From 2003-2005, he chaired the Ministerial Task Force on Aboriginal Languages and Cultures, and from 2016 2021, co-chaired the Assembly of First Nations’ Chiefs Committee on Languages, where he played an instrumental role in the development and passing of the Indigenous Languages Act, 2019.

Raised by his great-grandparents Sulyen and Edward Eneas, and despite being taken to Kamloops Indian Residential School for several years in his childhood, Ron is a fluent speaker of Secwepemctsín and has more than sixty years of practical experience in Secwépemc traditional skills on the land. With his wife Dr. Marianne Ignace, Ron was awarded the Governor General‘s Award for Innovation in 2019, for their decades of collaborative research involving Indigenous people and communities. He is also the first recipient of the 2024 Indspire Award specific to Language, which recognizes his decades-long leadership in the revitalization of Indigenous languages.

Liam Koka’ua

Liam Koka’ua is from the Ngāti Ārera tribe of Rarotonga (Cook Islands) and traverses between Western and Indigenous Te Moana Nui o Kiva (Pacific) worldviews, which he does through his knowledge of languages, genealogies, voyaging traditions and his research into Indigenous resource management practices across Austronesia. He has experience in both the Cook Islands and Aotearoa-New Zealand, working in environmental NGOs, Local Government, Museums and Trust Boards dealing with the integration of Western and Indigenous knowledge systems. Liam currently works as a Curator in Māori and Pacific Indigenous knowledge for an upcoming Natural Environment gallery at Auckland Museum. He is a full-time PhD student in Pacific Studies at The University of Auckland, looking at ecological and cultural revitalisation through the lens of the taro plant (colocasia esculenta).

A.W. Lee

A.W. Lee is Director of Inclusive International Trade at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. In his role, he promotes diversity in international trade – diversifying both Canada’s global markets as well as the profile of its exporters. A.W. Lee joined the Foundation in 2017 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Global Social Policy at the University of Toronto, where he focused on studying export needs in Ontario and trade opportunities in Asia. 

Before joining the Foundation, A.W. Lee lectured on gender, race, and economic inclusion in the Women’s Studies and Sociology departments at the University of Toronto and Queen’s University. He holds a PhD in Cultural Studies and an MSc in Anatomy and Cell Biology from Queen’s University. 

A.W. Lee has also been actively involved in advocating for migrant women’s rights and worker safety in the Chinese Canadian community. He has served as the Chairperson for the Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNCTO) and currently serves as a Board Director for the National Coalition of Canadians Against Anti-Asian Racism (NCCAAR), where he contributes to addressing anti-Asian violence and discrimination through fundraising and educational initiatives.

Maeengan Linklater (狼麥英)

Maeengan Linklater (狼麥英) is an accomplished Anishinaabe leader with over 25 years of diverse experience in non-profit, government, and private sectors, dedicated to uplifting Indigenous communities at multiple levels. His career is marked by an impressive track record of ‘Getting Things Done’ amidst challenges and exemplifies strategic insight with leadership.

As Director of Operations for the Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council (DOTC), he fosters international relations through trade initiatives with Taiwan and translated the iconic major motion picture Star Wars: Episode 4 – A New Hope into the Anishinaabe language.

As well, his accomplishments include, successfully navigating the organization through the global pandemic, achieving the lowest infection rate among tribal groups in Manitoba with DOTC communities, and retrofitting off-reserve housing to enhance energy efficiency and training DOTC citizens to become skilled labor.

Maeengan has traveled extensively, visiting 160 art galleries, museums, and significant sites around the world . . including a couple of trips to Taiwan. He remains motivated to make a meaningful impact on the lives of First Nations peoples, actively promoting equity and opportunity for all.

Kate Logan – Australian High Commissioner to Canada

Ms. Logan commenced as Australia’s High Commissioner to Canada in December 2024. She is a senior career officer with
the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and was most recently First Assistant Secretary, Pacific Strategy
Division.

She previously led the Consular and Crisis Management Division, was Chief of Protocol and Assistant Secretary of the Executive Branch. She was Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs with responsibility for South and South-east Asia and counter-terrorism issues.

Her roles overseas include Ambassador to Greece, Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in Paris, Deputy Head of Mission at the Australian High Commission in Colombo, and Second Secretary at the Australian Embassy in Athens.

She holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) majoring in international law and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from the University of Melbourne. In 1994 she completed a Graduate Diploma in Foreign Affairs and Trade from the Australian National University. She speaks French and Greek.

Sophie McIntyre

Sophie McIntyre is a Senior Lecturer at Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and an internationally recognised curator. Her research interests include art, curatorial and museological practice, and identity politics in the Asia-Pacific region, and especially Taiwan. She is the author of Imagining Taiwan: the Role of Art in Taiwan’s Quest for Identity  (Brill, 2018), and Yao Jui-chung (姚瑞中) (Scheidegger & Spiess, 2023). She completed her PhD at the Australian National University, and her work has been featured in major international publications, exhibitions and conferences. Prior to becoming a full-time academic, she was a museum director and curator in national, state and university art museums, and was a co-founder and consultant for University Art Museums Australia (UAMA). She has curated more than 30 exhibitions, which have toured Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand and Singapore. Her academic and curatorial projects have earned her several awards and grants.  

Sophie is currently the Project Lead on an award-winning First Nations arts exchange program (2021-present). This initiative fosters dialogue and collaboration among First Nations artists, curators, film makers and scholars from Australia, Taiwan, and Aotearoa/New Zealand. This has been achieved through a comprehensive program encompassing a symposium, publications, field trips, artist residencies, presentations and workshops, a feature-length documentary film, and touring exhibition.

Benjamin Mitsuk

Benjamin Mitsuk is a Manager in the Policy Advancement department at Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. His files include Inuktut and Economic Development & Procurement, both of which are shared priority areas of the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee. Prior to joining ITK, he received a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from York University and a Juris Doctor from Osgoode Hall Law School. Benjamin is Inuk and a beneficiary of the Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement. Language reclamation and revitalization is a personal passion, not just a professional interest.

Erin Murphy

Erin Murphy is a Conservator in the Anthropology Collections and the Center for Repatriation at the Field Museum. She specializes in collaborative conservation initiatives with indigenous communities. Erin joined the Field Museum staff in August 2018 and became the Lead Project Conservator for the renovation of the Native North American Hall, which opened in May 2022. Before this role, she was the Marshall Steel Senior Conservation Intern for Archaeological Collections at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Erin has also worked at the Horniman Museum and Gardens in London, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Arizona State Museum, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, and Chhairo Gompa in Nepal. She earned her MSc in Conservation for Archaeology and Museums and her M.A. in Principles of Conservation from University College London. Her thesis project, which received distinction, was titled “Decolonization and Conservation of Australian Aboriginal Art and Artifacts.” She earned her B.A. in art history and studio art from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. She specializes in natural history collections, Indigenous heritage conservation, exhibition loans, and collaborative conservation.

Ciwas Pawan

Ciwas Pawan is a Seejiq whose tribal village is Bualuang in the Ren-Ai township of Nantou county. She is an assistant researcher for National Academy for Educational Research. She worked as an assistant professor for the Department of Child Care and Education in Hungkuang University for 16 years. She also worked as the director for Indigenous Students Resource Center and the leader for Center for Teacher Education at the same school. She earned her Ph.D. in the College of Education from Arizona State University in 2005. She was the chairperson of Indigenous Peoples Commission (IPC) of Taichung City Government. As a Taiwanese Seejiq Indigenous scholar, she focused her works on the fields of indigenous education including early childhood education, language education, and culture education. Her research works also focus on children’s multicultural education, the history of Bualung tribal village, etc. She always publishes her research works in various ways. She usually attends and publishes her research works in the national and international conferences.

Victoria Pruden

President Victoria Pruden is a proud Michif Iskwew (Métis woman) with deep ancestral ties to the Métis Nation. She descends from prominent leaders, including Cuthbert Grant and Pierre Falcon, and her family played a pivotal role in the Batoche Resistance. Born in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton), Victoria is the seventh generation of a Métis lineage that includes an HBC Chief Factor who named Edmonton.

A dedicated advocate, Victoria has spent her career uplifting Métis citizens. She has held leadership roles with the Métis Nation of British Columbia (MNBC) in Women, Elders, Employment, Child and Family Services, and Veterans ministries. She served over a decade as President, Vice-President, and Director of her local Métis community. In 2024, she joined the Métis National Council as Senior Director of Strategic Policy before being appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer and then elected President of the MNC in December 2024.

Committed to ethical leadership, Victoria champions lateral kindness, trauma-informed governance, and reconciliation. She works to ensure Métis citizens are represented with integrity as the Nation advances self-government and treaty rights.

Residing on the unceded lands of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples, Victoria leads with courage, transparency, and dedication, carrying forward the vision of past leaders in the spirit of wâhkôhtowin.

Scott Simon

Scott Simon (Ph.D., Anthropology, McGill University, 1998) is Full Professor in the School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies at the University of Ottawa, as well as Senior Fellow for Taiwan, Human Rights and the Indo-Pacific at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. He is a researcher at the Centre for International Policy Studies and the Human Rights Research and Education Centre. A specialist in Taiwan, he has lived and done research for well over a decade in Taiwan, most recently 12 months in 2023-2024. Most of his research has been on Indigenous rights and ontologies, based on field research in Truku and Sediq communities. He is interested in hunting cultures, issues of self-determination, as well as human-animal relations. He has also done research in Japan and Guam. He is author of four books about Taiwan, among other academic publications, and often contributes to policy discussions regarding Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific. His most recent book is Truly Human: Indigeneity and Indigenous Resurgence on Formosa (University of Toronto Press, 2023).

Aggey Simons

Aggey Simons was born in the North-East of Siberia located in the northeast point of the Far East of Siberia opposite Alaska. He was born into a family of Native Siberians and attended a boarding school (mostly attended by Native pupils) affiliated with the local university with the purpose to prepare children for study in the university’s programs in physics and mathematics. Becoming an economist, he decided to pursue an advanced degree and defended his doctoral thesis in economics in 2005 at the University of Toulouse, France (now the Toulouse School of Economics) in the areas of game theory, contract theory, and mechanism design. The reputation of the Toulouse School of Economics was blazed by two outstanding French economists, Jean-Jacques Laffont and Jean Tirole. His supervisor was David Martimort, a young French economist. Thanks to these three renowned scholars he could work on the properties of mechanisms without transfers and common agency models, which have wide applications in political economics, managerial science, and information economics. Following the completion of his Ph.D., he took a permanent position at the National University of Singapore. In 2010, he moved to Ottawa to come back to temperatures and the nature that resemble those from my Siberian childhood. In 2014, he developed two innovative courses in Indigenous Economics: one for first-year economics students and the second for fourth-year economics students.

Christine D. Tippett

Christine D. Tippett, BASc (University of British Columbia), BEd (University of Victoria), MA (University of Victoria), PhD (University of Victoria), is a full professor of science education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa. She was an engineer before she obtained her teaching degree, which influences her ways of thinking about science education. Her research interests include visual representations, science education for all students, and professional development for science educators (pre-service, in-service, and informal). Current projects focus on preservice science teachers’ images of engineers, early childhood STEM education, and assessment of representational competence. Dr. Tippett is past president of the Science Education Research Group, a special interest group of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education, and has been actively involved in the Association for Science Teacher Education. Dr. Tippett has co-authored a number of articles on early childhood STEM, including one with a colleague from Taiwan, where she has a network of colleagues in early childhood science education and science education more broadly.

Futuru Tsai

Futuru Tsai is currently a professor of Anthropology at National Taitung University and has served as the director of the National Museum of Prehistory since August 1, 2024. He has held various positions, including serving as a board member of the Public Television Service Foundation and an advisory member of Hakka TV. He is also currently a preparatory committee member for the Marine Protected Areas Evaluation System at the Ocean Conservation Administration. Dr. Tsai’s research interests include visual anthropology, historical anthropology, ritual and performance, the Amis people, Taiwan’s Indigenous war experiences during the Pacific War, Indigenous social movements, and the maritime culture of the Amis people. He has published several works and has also produced multiple award-winning ethnographic documentaries. Furthermore, he is a member of the “Future Earth Taipei Ocean Working Group,” dedicated to promoting collaboration between Indigenous marine traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and marine science.

Representative Harry Ho-jen Tseng

Dr. Harry Tseng currently serves as the Representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada, a position he has held since August 2022. He is a distinguished diplomat and scholar with an extensive background in government affairs and international relations. He holds a Ph.D. in Government and Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia which he completed in 1993. Prior to this, he earned his Master of Public Affairs from Princeton School of Public and International Affairs in 1991, and a Master of Arts in East Asian Studies from National Chengchi University, Taiwan, in 1985 as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Languages and Literatures from National Taiwan University in 1981.

Throughout his career, Dr. Tseng has held various high-level diplomatic positions within the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Before his current appointment to Canada, Dr. Tseng served as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) from 2020 to 2022. Prior to that, he served as the Representative of the Taipei Representative Office in the European Union and Belgium, Ambassador to the Republic of Palau, Representative of the Taipei Representative Office in Ireland, and Director General of MOFA’s Department of North American Affairs.

Dr. Tseng has also served in other capacities within the Taiwanese government. He has held positions of Deputy Secretary General of the Office of the President and Deputy Secretary General of the National Security Council from 2016 to 2017.

Kanji Yamanouchi – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Canada

KANJI YAMANOUCHI has been the Ambassador of Japan to Canada since May, 2022. Priorto this assignment, he was the Consul-General (Ambassador) of Japan in New York (2018 – 2022).

Ambassador Yamanouchi has been serving Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for over 40 years, during which he has held the positions of: Director of the First Southeast Asia Division in 2003; Director of the Press Division in 2004; Director of the First North America Division in 2007; Executive Assistant to the Prime Minister in 2009; Deputy Director-General of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau in 2011, and Assistant Minister / Director-General for the Economic Affairs Bureau in 2016.

His diplomatic postings include assignments to the Embassy of Japan in the U.S. as First Secretary in 1997 and the Embassy of Japan in Korea as Counsellor in 2001. In 2013, he was posted to the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C. for the second time as the Minister for Economic Affairs.

Ambassador Yamanouchi graduated from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and went on to receive his M.A. in Political Science from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. He is married and has one daughter.

Koji Yamasaki

Koji Yamasaki, Professor, Director at the Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies, Hokkaido University. He specializes in cultural anthropology and museum studies. His research collaborated with the Ainu people focuses on a modern meaning and use of museum material. He also conducts research on display of indigenous peoples, promotion of Ainu crafts, and overseas Ainu collections.

Yuri Yuko

Yuri Yuko (Ko Jhe-yu) is currently the CEO of JidiCulture Publishing Co., Ltd., focusing on the cultural heritage of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Ethnology at National Chengchi University. Yuri Yuko specializes in the history and culture of the Taroko people, the translation of indigenous art, and Taiwan’s indigenous health policies. In 2024, she was appointed as the Indigenous Business Representative for the IPETCA Partnership in Taiwan.