15th Annual Connect Event

United Way’s 15th annual Connect Event is an opportunity to learn, recognize and celebrate the strengths and contributions of the Indigenous community in Calgary and surrounding areas.

This year’s event falls on the 10-year anniversary of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s report. It features prominent Indigenous voices Niigaan Sinclair and Reg Crowshoe as keynote speakers, as well as a panel discussion with representatives from the sectors identified under the 94 Calls to Action.

Join us to explore:

• The 10 years since the report—what’s happened during this time and what work still needs to be done
• Implementation stories on the 94 calls to action
• An introduction of the ‘systems options’ concept

Keynote Speakers

Niigaan Sinclair

Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe from Peguis First Nation. He is an award-winning writer, editor and professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba who was named by Maclean’s magazine in 2022 as one of the most influential people in Canada. Niigaan is a multiple nominee of Canadian columnist of the year (winning in 2018) and his commentary appears weekly on multiple platforms across Canada – from the pages of The Winnipeg Free Press to TV shows on CBC, APTN and on his co-hosted podcast Niigaan and the Lone Ranger. His first book Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre (McClelland & Stewart, 2024) was a national bestseller that won the 2024 Governor General Award for Non-fiction. He is a former secondary school teacher who won the 2019 Peace Educator of the Year from the Peace and Justice Studies Association based at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Dr. Reg Crowshoe

Reg Crowshoe is a Blackfoot Cultural and Spiritual Advisor and is the former Chief of the Piikani Nation. Reg and his late father, Joe Crowshoe, travelled extensively around the world bringing awareness and education about Blackfoot history, traditions and spirituality. In 1997, Reg developed the Blackfoot Framework for Decision-Making and Mediation Processes called Akak’stiman, and presents it widely to Corporations, Government, Aboriginal organizations and the Non-Profit sector. Akak’stiman is a Blackfoot World View on dual paradigms; Western Thinking and Blackfoot Thinking, and how these paradigms can be integrated to best serve Aboriginal people. Reg sits on many Committees and Boards in Calgary and commits his time to other provincial and national organizations.

Beginning in 2011, he played an instrumental role as the Cultural and Spiritual Advisory for the University of Calgary’s (UofC) 2011 Solar House Decathlon project which was designed to respond to First Nations housing issues and named the solar house Spo’pi. Spo’pi is now a permanent fixture on the UofC campus for use in research and education. Reg provides advice to the University of Calgary and to the United Way of Calgary and Area related to their Indigenous strategies and leads a group of Elders through the Elders Knowledge Circle Society so that they can preserve and reconnect with their culture. Dr. Crowshoe received an honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Calgary and The Order of Canada along side his wife, Dr. Rosemary Crowshoe.