OUR KEYNOTES SPEAKERS

Abigail Echo-Hawk

Executive Vice President of Seattle Indian Health Board and the Director of the organization’s Tribal Epidemiology Center, Urban Indian Health Institute.

Kitkehahki band of the Pawnee Nation and a member of the Upper Athabascan people of Mentasta Village, Alaska

1pm Tuesday 12th November 2024

Abigail Echo-Hawk, MA, is citizen of the Kitkehahki band of the Pawnee Nation and a member of the Upper Athabascan people of Mentasta Village, Alaska. She was born in the heart of Alaska where she was raised by her community in the cultural values of giving, respect for all, and love.

Abigail is the Executive Vice President of Seattle Indian Health Board and the Director of the organization’s Tribal Epidemiology Center, Urban Indian Health Institute. Her work focuses on decolonizing data and ensuring Indigenous people govern the data.

She has led the way in bringing the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in the United States to the forefront, leading directly to federal, state and local laws working to protect Native people. Abigail’s voice was at the front and center during the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring that the Indigenous community was represented in data collection.

Her greatest accomplishment is her place within her extended family. She is an auntie, a daughter, a granddaughter, a friend and a community member. Abigail strives to serve them with love and to be a small part of ensuring a great future for the next generations.

Pasang Dolma Sherpa

Executive Director Center for Indigenous Peoples' Research and Development & Visiting Faculty, Kathmandu University

Sherpa

9am Wednesday 13th November 2024

Indigenous rights and environmental activist Dr Pasang Dolma Sherpa grew up between two villages in Nepal: one high in the mountains, the other in the plains. Her mother led the latter for almost 20 years. As the climate changed, her high-altitude home started suffering from water scarcity and crop failures, driving more and more Indigenous Sherpa people to migrate to the lowlands. But things were not easy there, either. The plains are facing floods and droughts, and culturally important crops are disappearing to seeds engineered for drier, warmer weather. More than a decade ago, Pasang realized that Indigenous communities around the world faced similar struggles as their natural environments and their cultures declined simultaneously. She decided to take up the cause – and has never looked back.

Pasang Dolma Sherpa is the Executive Director of the Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Research & Development (CIPRED) (https://www.cipred.org.np). She has been working with Indigenous Peoples, women, and local communities for more than a decade to promote the recognition of Indigenous knowledge, cultural values, and customary institutions that contribute to the sustainable management of forests, ecosystems, biodiversity, and climate resilience. Pasang earned her PhD from Kathmandu University in 2018, focusing on Climate Change Education and its Interfaces with Indigenous Knowledge.

She has served as Co-Chair of the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) and the Facilitative Working Group (FWG) of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples’ Platform (LCIP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Pasang has also been a board member of UN-REDD (https://www.un-redd.org/) and the Participant Committee of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank (https://www.forestcarbonpartnership.org). Currently, she is the Chair of the IUCN CEESP Specialist Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Customary and Environmental Laws and Human Rights (SPICEH) (https://shorturl.at/Hif8W) and a visiting faculty member at Kathmandu University. Pasang actively participates in various forums, networks, and institutions at both national and international levels.

Keynote Panel

4pm Wednesday 13th November 2024

Maybelle McLeod

CEO of Kimihauora Health & Research Clinic

Tamapore Marae

Maybelle McLeod is the CEO of Kimihauora Health & Research Clinic, based at Tamapahore Marae in Tauranga Moana. She is a trained nurse and using her knowledge in this space was one of four lead whānau researchers who worked collaboratively with cancer genetic researchers at the University of Otago to discover the cause of so many deaths in the McLeod whānau – a variation in the CDH1 gene. Maybelle has oversight of everything that is happening in the CDH1 space within the McLeod whānau and has extended that interest to CDH1 whānau around the country.

Eryn Gardiner

Whānau Clinical Coordinator at Kimihauora Health & Research Clinic

Tamapore Marae

Erin Gardiner is the Clinical Manager at Kimihauora Health & Research Clinic, based at Tamapahore Marae in Tauranga Moana. She took over this role from her mother, Pauline Harawira, who was one of the four main whānau researchers in the original research project. Erin primarily helps to coordinate the clinical management of the CDH1 gene within the McLeod whānau, working closely with clinicians at Tauranga Hospital. She has also helped many other whānau throughout Aotearoa New Zealand to navigate through the CDH1 process.

Associate Professor Karyn Paringatai

Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka | University of Otago

Ngāti Porou

Karyn Paringatai is a member of a CDH1 whānau and an Associate Professor in Te Tumu – School of Māori, Pacific & Indigenous Studies at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka – University of Otago. She has been working closely with Kimihauora Health & Research Clinic for the last five years to ensure that there is equitable access for CDH1 whānau across the country within the healthcare system, that clinicians are more aware of CDH1 whānau needs that are grounded in te reo Māori and tikanga Māori, and that whānau are empowered throughout their CDH1 journey.

Kirikowhai Mikaere

Founder, Managing Director Te Wehi, Data specialist

Te Arawa – Tūhourangi, Ngāti Whakaue

9:00am Thursday 14th November 2024

Ms Mikaere is a leading Māori data and information specialist focused on harnessing information to empower indigenous community development. She is a consultant with over 20 years’ experience advising Ministers, government agencies, tribal, community and private sector organisations with practical statistical analysis and innovative place based data solutions.

Ms Mikaere is currently the lead technical advisor to the Aotearoa New Zealand National Iwi (Tribal) Chairs Forum – Data Leadership Group, leads the independent trust Te Kāhui Raraunga and holds governance positions across the private sector and government, including with her tribe (Chair – Tūhourangi Tribal Authority, Trustee – Te Pumautanga o Te Arawa), Māori Health provider Manaaki Ora Trust (Deputy Chair), a Director of Waimangu Volcanic Valley and is a Ministerial appointed member of the New Zealand Science Board.

https://www.developmentbydesign.co.nz/

Che Wilson

Poukura (Director) of Naia Limited, Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Board member

Ngāti Rangi-Whanganui, Tūwharetoa, Mōkai Pātea, Ngāti Apa, Ngā Rauru

4:00pm Thursday 14th November 2024

Che Wilson is a Poukura (director) of Naia Limited, a Māori consultancy based in Christchurch and Waikato. At Naia, Che is leading research into the Māori New Year for his tribal region and the application of tūpuna wisdom relating to weather and land use practices. He is also a leadership and strategy mentor, facilitator and resource developer.

Che was raised in a large whānau at the foot of Mount Ruapehu. He was given access to his tribal Houses of Knowledge. With a career that spans governance, leadership and cultural advocacy, Che has held prestigious roles as Chair, General Manager and Negotiator for his tribe, Ngāti Rangi, as well as Deputy Secretary for the Ministry for the Environment. He also served as president of Te Pāti Māori.

Che has been a director in tribal governance, the primary sector, on government advisory roles, Māori and government cultural and business delegations abroad and international philanthropy. He chairs Te Reo o Whanganui, a board dedicated to the revitalisation of the Whanganui dialect and is a board member of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga.

https://www.maramatanga.ac.nz/person/che-wilson

Manu Caddie

Entrepreneur, Influencer, Researcher

Ngāti Pūkenga, Ngāti Hauā

1:10pm Friday 15th November 2024

Manu Caddie (Ngāti Pūkenga, Ngāti Hauā) is a passionate entrepreneur, activist, and academic dedicated to Indigenous rights and sustainable development. Raised in Tauranga Moana, Manu has spent the last 25 years contributing significantly to community development and sustainable industry in Te Tairāwhiti. Manu’s journey in community development includes establishing a school for teenage parents, supporting various rangatahi projects, and co-founding Hikurangi Enterprises Ltd, a company focused on sustainable industry and job creation in the Waiapu Valley. He played a pivotal role in founding Hikurangi Bioactives Limited Partnership and Rua Bioscience, the latter being the first Māori community-founded company listed on the NZX, emphasizing medicinal cannabis and indigenous plant-based products. Currently, Manu is involved in various horticultural and biotech projects with Māori partners across Aotearoa, focusing on pharmaceuticals, clinical studies, and biodiversity. He recently chaired a science review panel for Plant & Food Research and participated in a UN meeting on biodiversity and ecosystem restoration.

https://manu.org.nz/