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Transforming Trauma into Triumph!

Indigenous Women's 
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EMPOWERMENT SUMMIT

March 9, 2024

WELCOME!

INDIGENOUS WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT SUMMIT

This year’s theme is Transforming Trauma Into Triumph. Join us for a day of inspiration and empowerment!

You will gain tools needed to continue on your healing journey and learn essential life lessons through the power of storytelling.

Our speakers will leave you feeling confident to achieve major life goals and take control of your overall wellness.

We hope you can join us for this incredible event!

This event is open to all WOMEN IDENTIFIED INDIVIDUALS.

You do not have to be Indigenous to attend.

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March 9, 2024

PRAIRIELAND PARK, SASKATOON, SK

$367.50

WHAT TO EXPECT

Attendee Gift Bags | FREE Pampering Services
Breakfast & Lunch Provided 

Amazing Speakers & Entertainment

AGENDA

8:00am- Registration & Breakfast

9:00am- Welcome

9:15am- Kendra Weenie- Transforming Trauma into Triumph

9:45am- Ice Breaker

10:00am- BREAK

10:40am- Cara Riendeau- Somatic Experiencing

11:30am- Holly Yuzicapi- Reconciliation through Cultural Arts

12:00pm- LUNCH

12:10pm- Singer- Tammy Lamouche

12:30pm- Singer- Raye Zaragoza

1:30pm- Keynote- Jacqueline Almeida- Limited Mindset

2:30pm-Cris Avila-Nature to Reflect Back Our Nature

3:00pm- Audience Game

3:20pm- BREAK- Light snacks provided

4:00pm- Kendal Netmaker-  āhkamēyimoh- Keep Moving Forward

4:30pm- Closing Remarks and Closing Song

Group Registrations are available. Tables seat 8 people. Register a table of 8 for $2520

EVENT SPEAKERS

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KENDRA WEENIE

Kendra Weenie is an award winning author, keynote speaker, and workshop facilitator from Sweetgrass First Nation. She is a CBC Future 40 Award recipient and has been featured locally and provincially on International Women's Day. 

 

Kendra came from humble beginnings, but through sport and culture she was able to further her confidence, work ethic and sense of identity.

 

Kendra continues to share her story through keynotes and workshops in hopes of encouraging others to heal and promotes self-care and healing through her workshops geared towards trauma survivors.

 

In 2020 she co-founded IndigiFund, a non-profit aimed at empowering Indigenous youth in the areas of sport, education, and culture.

 

In 2023 Kendra created the Indigenous Women's Empowerment Summit, an inspiring event filled with storytelling, humour, resources for healing, and connection for women identified individuals. Although she has her own challenges as a single mother, she believes that true success comes from our ability to help others in need.

 

Her goal is to help you move forward in a healthy way.

CARA RIENDEAU

Cara Riendeau is a clinical counsellor who has a bachelor of social work from the University of Regina and is registered with the Saskatchewan Association of Social Workers.

 

She has worked with the Saskatchewan Health Authority for 12 years, working in diverse roles as a case manager, addictions counsellor, clinical counsellor and senior lead working with marginalised populations in the Saskatoon core.

 

Cara has additional training as a Somatic Experiencing Trauma Resolution Practitioner (SEP), as well as being a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT). She works with adult women to support them with generalised anxiety, depression, panic, and PTSD and specialises in supporting people following a traumatic event; difficult pregnancy, birth, or postpartum period; or after an autoimmune disease diagnosis.

 

Cara owns her own business, Clair de Lune Clinical Counselling in Saskatoon and is an approved NIHB (Non-Insured Health
Benefits) Mental Health Counselling Provider.

 

Indigenous Canadians who are registered under the Indian Act are eligible for up to 20 sessions per year with Cara, billed directly to NIHB.

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HOLLY RAE YUZICAPI

Holly is a proud Dakota/Lakota from the Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation in Treaty 4 Territory, Saskatchewan.

 

She grew up in the beautiful Qu'Appelle valley. Coming from a large family, Holly has been able to observe and learn from many generations of the Goodwill and Yuzicapi families.

 

The strength of her sense of identity was nurtured and shaped by her family and community.

 

Without realizing it at the time, Holly started doing cultural arts sharing from a young age which really is rooted in participating in powwow dancing and attending other cultural events on a regular basis.

 

She has evolved into an independent natural materials artist that loves to facilitate cultural arts engagement opportunities to all audiences. Holly is proud of how she was raised and is very thankful for all that her family has taught her.

 

Respectfully representing the spirit and potential of those teachings is why Holly does the work that she does. It is how she chooses to honour her family. 

JACQUELINE ALMEIDA

 Jacqueline Almeida is a global and dynamic leadership and mindset educator and coach. 


She is the owner of Alpha + Omega Strategies and works with business owners and company executives to help them lead better and achieve quantum results. 


Although born and raised in New York City, Jacqueline has spent the last 30 years living in the beautiful prairies of Saskatchewan. Through her own story of struggle, resilience and triumph - Jacqueline has an unwavering belief in leadership anchored on purpose, vision, and courage. 


To her, leadership is all about developing new leaders, trailblazing, setting the course, making it easier for others to follow along, and creating the environment for people to move towards a place where they will be better. 
Jacqueline holds a Masters in Leadership and Management and draws much from her 27-year experience as a Consultant, Educator, and Coach. 

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KENDAL NETMAKER

Kendal Netmaker is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and gifted keynote speaker who is on a mission to empower and motivate people worldwide by sharing his story that regardless of where you come from and what challenges you face, you have the power to enact change.
 

From Sweetgrass First Nation, Kendal and his siblings were raised by their single mother. Life wasn’t easy for them, growing up on the reserve surrounded by poverty and few chances for opportunities, but one moment would change their life forever.


Kendal has a natural gift; he’s a master storyteller who weaves his real-life experiences into motivating lessons that everyone can use in their own lives.

 

His heartfelt stories are impactful, and he speaks professionally to thousands of people each year on resilience, leadership, and the power of telling your story.
He is a leading entrepreneur whose passion to succeed is contagious.

 

Kendal is the founder of Neechie Gear - a lifestyle apparel brand that gives back a percentage of their profits to go toward funding underprivileged youth to empower them to take part in sports.

 

He is the author of Driven To Succeed and won over 25 business awards, including being named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 and runner-up at the YBI Global Entrepreneur of the Year.


Kendal lives with his wife and two children in Saskatoon, SK, where he continues to run his company. He delivers virtual and in-person keynotes, as well as Indigenous Consulting to brands and organizations.

TAMMY LAMOUCHE

Tammy Rae grew up in Whitefish Lake First Nation, a Cree community in Northern Alberta. Writing and singing her own music has always been a passion for Tammy Rae. Her sound is described as a soothing blend of contemporary soul and RnB.

Tammy Rae rose to international renown for her unique ability to add needed finesse to songs. In 2012, she guested on Wildflower, a soul-stirring hit by Juno winner, Nathan Cunningham. Dazzling on the track with her honest lyrics, Tammy Rae coloured the song with her melting vocals, with the song bagging the number one spot on Indigenous Music Countdown.

 

With her soulful, jazz-tinged cadence and retro sound, it wasn’t a surprise when she was picked for Edmonton’s My United Way Voice Contest. Her brilliant display earned her a live performance at the NewCap radio stage and an on-air interview with Hot 107’s radio host Jake Ryan.


As a multidimensional creative, in 2020, Tammy Rae showcased one of her many talents. Bearing a passion for enlightening listeners through her music, she reprised Mariah Carey’s hugely popular holiday song, All I Want for Christmas Is You in the Cree language.  

Ever-relatable and ready to brace yet another level of fame, Tammy Rae is, without question, who R&B heads should be checking for.

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CRIS AVILA

Cris Avila was born and raised in the plateau land once called the Great Chichimeca, today named Guanajuato state in Mexico. Cris is a mestiza. She is the great granddaughter of Mexican Hacienda system servants, and migrant farmworkers.

 

She was raised under the Catholic faith but early on in her life she was attracted by the whispers of the ancestors through myths, ruins, rituals or “creencias” and
traditional healing practices of the people. This interest was discouraged by the strong present Catholic view of these practices as “work of the devil.”

 

Cris abandoned the Catholic faith in early adulthood and sought healing and wisdom through the field of psychology and the sciences. Cris holds a Bachelor’s degree in Rhetoric and a Master’s degree in Transpersonal Psychology with emphasis in Existential- Humanistic Psychology.

 

She also completed training in Somatic Experiencing and Organic Intelligence. She is active assistant in Somatic Experiencing trainings and is an Organic Intelligence mentor and coach.

 

Cris also has a private practice as a licensed Marriage Family Therapist in California.

 

When her last grandmother’s left this Earth, Cris was pushed to follow the whispers that attracted her in childhood, to re-connect with spirituality and was forced to seek her “missing piece.”

 

Today, Cris is a mesa carrier from the 7 Rays of the Sun Lineage from Chinchero and from the Qero in the Andes. She is humbled working in harmonizing the knowledge that she receives from the two worlds within herself and to be of better service to humanity and mother Earth.

RAYE ZARAGOZA

Growing up as a woman, you’re constantly told that your wedding will be the happiest day of your life. It’s the ultimate marker of your youth and allure, the moment you’ve achieved stability and have proven that - thank god - you’re desirable to a man. But as many of us know, if it’s lasting happiness, fulfillment, and understanding that you really want, it’s usually wiser to bet on yourself. 
 

Raye Zaragoza’s Hold That Spirit is an album rooted in this realization. The Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter has always made political folk music that is informed by her identity as a woman of mixed Indigenous, Asian and Latina heritage. She gained recognition in 2016 with “In The River,” which was written to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. When she performed a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR, she spoke and sang about making live music more economically accessible. And, she currently writes the music for Netflix's Spirit Rangers, a show featuring an all Native American writers room and cast.
 

As she approached 30 last year, Zaragoza started thinking specifically about the expectations placed on women as they age: what they should have achieved in their careers, the nuclear families they are expected to pursue and nurture, the way that beauty standards and ageism collude to make it more and more difficult to be seen. 29 was also the year Zaragoza got engaged and, soon after,, ended her relationship. After the engagement ended, she used what would have been her wedding budget to fund part of the production of her new album. As much as it was a practical decision, it was also one rife with symbolism: Zaragoza was investing in herself. 
 

There’s an enduring sense of agency to these songs, which pull from buoyant indie pop like Japanese Breakfast and contemplative folk like Joni Mitchell. On tracks like the soaring pop opener “Joy Revolution,” which was a collaboration with fellow LA-based activist-artist MILCK, Zaragoza acknowledges that a big part of achieving happiness is choosing to be happy rather than waiting for your life to be perfect or feeling like you have to earn comfort and ease. She uses this album to claim joy that has always rightfully been hers and to actively mold herself into her own role model. As she says on galloping country track “Sweetheart,” “I don’t want to be a woman, crying on the floor at night. I don’t want to keep on searching for the day I feel alright.”
 

A feminist undercurrent unifies these songs. Meditative folk ballad “Strong Woman” was written as a commission for a friend’s daughter, but also more broadly celebrates a world led and built by women. “Not A Monster” candidly addresses Zaragoza’s eating disorder. And “Garden” grapples with all the unfair expectations placed on women as they age. Zaragoza also worked with exclusively female collaborators on the project, a rarity in an industry where less than 5% of production/engineering credits go to women. She feels that working with women allowed her the emotional safety to fully process the pain of her breakup and to make honest art about her life. 


“It’s easy for me to be vulnerable with a female collaborator even the first time I meet her,” she says. “A lot of these sessions were 3 hours of us talking and therapizing before we started writing. This album is so much about what it feels like to be a woman leaving the “prime of your 20s” and processing what it means to get older, which is something which men don’t experience in the same way.”
 

She also felt like the songwriting process was communal, less a process of telling her specific story than one of finding ways to connect with her collaborators and share stories that resonated with all of them. For example, she worked with fellow songwriter of Indigenous heritage Hayley McLean on “Still Here,” a track about owning her culture as a woman of Akimel O'otham descent and acknowledging how Indigenous people exist in all facets of society. “The Native community in LA has been a huge part of my life since I moved here at 14,” she says. “Indigenous artists aren’t played on the radio or given space in mainstream publications enough, so I do what I can to be as proud as I can and pave the way for other artists too.” She hopes the sense of community she fostered while writing these songs shines through and, in turn, helps listeners feel less alone.
 

Hold That Spirit is a nuanced, complicated album because it is rooted in Zaragoza’s specific hardships, from her anxiety to her fraught relationship with work to her heartbreak, but it also looks outward and finds solace in people who have a shared understanding of those experiences. By leaning on those who make her feel seen and supported as she ventured into the world alone, she was able to remain defiantly optimistic, and inspire us all to do the same, too.

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Here’s what some of last year’s attendees had to say about the event…
“Congratulations on an amazing event. ❤️ I’ve been to many conferences & professional development seminars as an educator and todays experience really took it to the next level - incredible job!”
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Indigenous Women's Empowerment Summit 2023
Photo Gallery

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Photos by Breanna Kateri Photography

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