Opening Community Event: Conversation and Knowledge Sharing with Indigenous Elders

Conference Opening by members of the USC Native American Student Assembly

Conversation and Knowledge Sharing With Indigenous Elders

• Aunty Zona Wilkinson Gamilaroi Elder from Mount Druitt

• Wendy Phillips Bald Eagle Clan, Potawatomi and Ojibwa, Wasauksing First Nation

• Christina Salazar Gabrieliño Elder

• Video from Daniel N. Paul Mi’kmaw Saqmawiey

Christina Salazar is a Gabrieliño Elder from San Gabriel, California. She has served as a Docent at the San Gabriel Mission, as well as in other capacities there, and has been deeply involved with the San Gabriel Historical Association. She is a member of the Gabrieliño San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians. Her family has lived in the San Gabriel and San Marino area since the ancient times. She is a descendant of Eulalia Pérez de Guillén.

Wendy Phillips (Elder) is of the Bald Eagle Clan; She is Potawatami and Ojibwa and a proud member of Wasauksing First Nation in the heart of the Muskokas. She is a keeper of the 8th Fire Prophecies, Keeper of the Ancient Thunderbird Calendar, Ceremonial Leader, Spiritual Educator, Cultural Innovator and Traditional Indigenous Healer. Wendy is an advocate for Traditional Indigenous Ways of Knowing, which can provide prosperity and a healthy future for the next seven generations.

Dr. Daniel N. Paul is a Mi’kmaq Elder, author, editor, and human rights activist of the Indian Brook Mi’kmaq First Nations Community near Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia. Dr. Paul was born in 1938, in a small log cabin on Indian Brook Reserve, Hants County, Nova Scotia, the 11th of 14 children. He is the author of We Were Not the Savages, which has just been published in a newly updated fourth edition. The book catalogues not only the historical tragedy of the violence perpetrated against the Mi’kmaq (including British scalp proclamations, starvation, malnutrition, and Canada’s Indian residential and day schools), but also chronicles the ongoing attempts to silence the Mi’kmaq and other Indigenous peoples. His work continues to give the Mi’kmaq a voice that must be heard. An ardent researcher, spokesperson, and activist for human rights, Dr. Paul has received many awards, honorary degrees, and prizes. He is a member of the Order of Canada and a member of the Order of Nova Scotia.