Joseph Pitawanakwat

Joseph is Ojibway from Wiikwemkoong, married with one daughter. The Founder & Director of Creators Garden, an Indigenous outdoor, and now online, education based business, focused on plant identification, beyond-sustainable harvesting, and teaching every one of their linguistic, historical, cultural, edible, ecological and medicinal significance through experiences. His lectures and intensive programming is easily adaptable to make appropriate and successfully delivered to a variety of organizations. Including over 150 First Nations communities and Hundreds of institutions throughout Anishinaabe territory and beyond. He has learned from hundreds of traditional knowledge holders and uniquely blends this knowledge with and reinforces it with and array of western sciences.

Andrés Jiménez Monge

Andrés Jiménez Monge NOT Indigenous, he is a Costa Rican Canadian biologist who strives towards creating deeper connections between people and the planet. From leading the campaign to ban shark finning in Costa Rica, to building international funding opportunities for Costa Ricans looking to study in the environmental field in Canada, to managing conservation programs across Canada, Andrés’ journey into nature goes back over twenty years. Now a father of two, some of you may be familiar with his work through the Toronto Bird Celebration, his best-selling online course The beginners Guide to Birdwatching: Finding birds and happiness, and The Warblers podcast, for which he was a creator and co-host. Andrés has an infectious enthusiasm for nature, which he utilizes to help foster its stewardship.

Junaid Shahzad Khan

Junaid Shahzad Khan is a NON-Indigenous, Muslim-Canadian from the Indus Valley, from the region that is now Pakistan. Junaid has worked as an ecologist for over 12 years, on issues of invasive species, plastic pollution, habitat revitalization, insect conservation, and bird education. Over the past four years, Junaid has committed himself to the understanding of ecologies within Indigenous cultures. Through the ongoing learning of Anishinaabemowin, and working alongside community members looking to rejuvenate Anishinaabek cultural practices, he hopes to help support efforts towards Indigenous land sovereignty across Turtle Island.