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Announcing 2018 Manitoba Nature Summit Keynote Speakers!

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We are super excited to announce the keynote speakers for the 2018 Manitoba Nature Summit on September 14-16th, 2018 at Camp Manitou!

Dr. Gillian Judson is one of the Directors of the Imaginative Education Research Group and a Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. Her published work and teaching show how we can routinely engage students’ imaginations (pre-K through graduate school) to ensure effective learning across the curriculum. She is particularly interested in sustainability and how an imaginative and ecologically sensitive approach to education can lead to a sophisticated ecological consciousness. Her recent books include Engaging Imagination in Ecological Education: Practical Strategies For Teaching (UBC Press, 2015) and Imagination and the Engaged Learner: Cognitive Tools for the Classroom(Teachers’ College Press, 2015).

Here she is in a TED X talk! 

Our second keynote is actually a team, which is new and exciting for us!

Chloe Dragon Smith is a young Metis woman from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Of Chipewyan and European heritage, she grew up close to her Indigenous cultural values and learned traditional skills for living on the land. This northern upbringing helped shape her values today. 
 
Dragon Smith holds a degree in Earth Science from the University of Victoria. While educated in Science, she is keenly interested and has found her niche in working with people on the social/cultural benefits of the natural world, particularly where those values meet science and conservation.
 
Dragon Smith works with the Canadian Parks Council. Among other work, she co-chaired an intergenerational citizen working group that created a document called The Nature Playbook: Take action to connect a new generation of Canadians with Nature, which she continues to share across Canada. This project spans the continuum of Nature, reaching all generations in cities, regions, states/provinces and countries. Chloe was also recently appointed to the National Advisory Panel for the Pathway to Canada Target 1.
Download the Nature Playbook

Chloe is presenting with her Mom Brenda Dragon and her Setsune Jane Dragon.

Brenda Dragon was born and raised in Fort Smith, NWT, and has lived most of her life in the north.  She moved back in her home community with her mother two years ago.  She is also entering her second season of her new business, Aurora Heat. They make fur hand, foot, and body warmers of sheared beaver – auroraheat.ca.  “Like most northerners, my family proudly wears fur and we want to encourage the sustainability of and the widespread acceptance of fur for warmth.”  Brenda also works as a consultant for Indigenous Tourism for the Government of the Northwest Territories.  She promotes the power of tourism to preserve culture and build pride in the Indigenous community.

Mrs. Jane Dragon, is a Chipewyan Dene woman, originally from northern Saskatchewan.  Setsuné, grandmother in Chipewyan) is a talented seamstress; sewing with furs and hides for most of her life.  She is a lifelong volunteer and last year was inducted into the NWT education Hall of Fame for her profound commitment to education and sharing Indigneous culture.

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