Celebrated every June, National Indigenous History Month honours the history, heritage, resilience, and diversity of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples across Canada. It presents organizations with a critical opportunity to move beyond land acknowledgements and performative gestures toward meaningful action.
Hiring an Indigenous keynote speaker can help your team understand the truth of Canada’s colonial history, explore practical pathways to reconciliation, and learn how to transform aspiration into tangible change.
From award-winning journalists and cultural storytellers to Indigenous leaders and former politicians driving systemic reform, our speakers provide the roadmap, inspiration, and accountability your organization needs. This June, invest in understanding that lasts beyond the month. Contact us today to learn more about our roster of Indigenous leaders.
Featured Speakers for National Indigenous History Month 2026
Meet some of our recommended speakers for National Indigenous History month, each bringing practical insights, powerful narratives, and actionable frameworks to their audiences.
Tanya Talaga
Can Canada Move Towards Reconciliation?
An award-winning Anishinaabe journalist and bestselling author, Tanya Talaga has written three books that grapple with the hard truths of Canada’s history and the Indigenous experience in a colonized land, including her most recent, The Knowing, now also a four-part CBC docuseries.
Tanya walks audiences through Canadian history via an Indigenous lens to explain how we arrived here and what we can do to achieve a more equitable future for all.
Chief Perry Bellegarde
Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples: A Leader’s Look at the Past, Present, and Future
Having dedicated his life to championing the rights and well-being of First Nations, Chief Perry Bellegarde provides audiences with a roadmap to reconciliation by answering this vital question: how do we turn shared aspiration into meaningful action?
Perry shares insights into our rapidly changing political and legal landscape while exploring the First Nations values and principles that could guide our shared vision of the future.
Connie Walker
Truth Before Reconciliation
Connie Walker has been at the forefront of covering Indigenous stories for over 20 years. Her investigations into the crisis of violence in Indigenous communities and the legacy of residential schools help audiences better understand the truth and impact of our colonial history.
Connie’s powerful presentation draws on her Pulitzer Prize and Peabody Award-winning podcast to explore why it’s crucial to uncover the truth before we can begin meaningful reconciliation.
Jennifer Ménard-Shand
Moving Reconciliation Forward
Reconciliation isn’t a checkbox — it’s a call to the heart. In this powerful and deeply personal keynote, Jennifer Ménard-Shand shares her lived experience as a First Nations Ojibwe and French-Canadian woman who has journeyed through trauma, resilience, and ultimately, forgiveness.
Practical and uplifting, Jennifer illustrates how individuals, organizations, and communities can use their unique gifts to build bridges, break harmful cycles, and participate meaningfully in reconciliation.
Duncan McCue
Beyond Land Acknowledgements: Working with Indigenous Peoples
Duncan McCue has trained journalists across Canada and the world on how to build respectful relationships with Indigenous communities.
In this engaging and personal presentation, he distills the lessons learned from over two decades of efforts to reform media organizations into helpful, informative approaches toward reconciliation in Canada and sparking social change.
The Hon. Jody Wilson-Raybould
True Reconciliation: How to Be a Force for Change
Drawing from her bestselling book, True Reconciliation, The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould explores the difference between symbolic reconciliation and actions that are truly impactful.
She shows audiences how we can build transformed patterns of just and harmonious relations and why it’s crucial this work is done by all. Learn how to become an “inbetweener” and break down silos constructed by colonialism and act on what our collective future requires.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Re-Imagining a New Way Forward with Intention
Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier offers a new model for 21st century leadership. She speaks with passion and urgency on the issues of today — the environment, the economy, foreign policy, global health, and sustainability — not as separate concerns, but as a deeply interconnected whole.
At a time when people are seeking solutions, direction, and a sense of hope, Sheila provides a big picture of where we are and where we’re headed.
Dr. Alika Lafontaine
Crisis is the Catalyst: What Truly Drives Reconciliation and System Change
Meaningful institutional change rarely happens through good intent — it takes root in crisis. Drawing on historical reconciliation examples including the Canadian Medical Association’s journey to a national apology, Dr. Alika Lafontaine examines how crises force organizations to confront the status quo.
Through practical insights from lived experience and national transformation, Alika reveals the key leadership actions that rebuild trust and convert crisis into durable, transformative reconciliation.
Susan Aglukark
Songs and Stories
Award-winning Inuk singer-songwriter Susan Aglukark shares her incredible journey from growing up in Nunavut to becoming a household name across Canada.
Drawing from her memoir Kihiani: A Memoir of Healing, Susan relates stories of her culture’s continuing impact and speaks of empowerment, self-respect, and respect. Through both narrative and song, Susan performs 3-6 selections from her repertoire that track her transformative journey.
Hire an Indigenous Keynote Speaker to Spark Meaningful Action
National Indigenous History Month is an opportunity to demonstrate your organization’s commitment to reconciliation through education, dialogue, and genuine engagement. Our speakers are available for keynotes, workshops, and panel discussions tailored to your organization’s needs.
Contact us today to book a speaker and take the first step toward lasting change.
