2017-2019 Survivors Circle

Terri Brown

Terri Brown is Chief of Tahltan First Nation, British Columbia, a policy-advisor for the Teslin Tlingit Council, and a residential school survivor. As president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, Brown helped break the silence on violence against Indigenous women and girls and established the first national registry on missing and murdered Indigenous women. She has served on the Assembly of First Nations Indian Residential School Advisory Committee, as a Board Member for the Ottawa Aboriginal Capacity and Developmental Research Environments, on the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, and as a Board Member of the Vancouver Status of Women.

Helene Johnson

Helene Johnson is a residential school survivor, Métis educator. She has worked as a teacher, a Stay in School Coordinator, served as the Métis Nation Minister of Residential Schools, and assisted Residential School Survivors tell their story as a Form Filler for Saskatchewan under the Indian Residential School Alternative Dispute Resolution Program. She was the Regional Director for The Eastern Region II of the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan. She has also sat on numerous Regional, Provincial and National boards and committees.

Ted Quewezance

Ted Quewezance is Senate Chair of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations of Saskatchewan, a past Chief of Keeseekoose First Nation, Saskatchewan, and a residential school survivor and advocate for Reconciliation. In recognition of his four decades of work on residential schools, he was appointed by the Assembly of First Nations to ensure headway is made on the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action on Health. He is also the Assembly of First Nations representative in the Indigenous Health Alliance, a collaboration of more than 150 First Nations working towards Indigenous health transformation, and a current board member of several non-profits.

Barney Williams

Barney Williams is Nuu-chah-nulth and a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations in Meares Island, B.C. He is an Elder and residential school survivor, a social worker and clinical counsellor, and an elected councillor of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation. From 2008 to 2015, he served on the All Parties Committee for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and as an Elder Advisor provided cultural and spiritual advice to the Commissioners. He has also served as an Elder adviser for the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, Parks Canada, Assembly of First Nations National Elders Council, Tso-tum-le-lum Society Treatment Centre and the Intertribal Health Authority. Currently he is working as an elder at Vancouver Island University and affiliated with UBC and University of Victoria in an advisory capacity. In November 2017, he received an Honorary Doctorate in Laws from the University of Victoria for his lifelong work in the helping field.

Doris Young

Doris Young is a member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation a residential school survivor, and an educator and researcher specializing in government policy, program development and evaluation. She has taught at the University of Manitoba, the University of Winnipeg, and the University of Saskatchewan. Doris has lent her extensive experience to various Boards and Committees such as the University Of Manitoba Board Of Governors, the Health Science Centre Aboriginal Services Committee, Norman Regional Health Authority Board of Governors, Opaskwayak Cree Nation advisory committees and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. She received the Order of Manitoba in 2014.