Elaine Kicknosway

Topic: Indigenous Spirituality

Background:

Elaine is an Appointed Designated Minister, a resident of Ottawa, and proud to be Swampy Cree through her biological mother and Chippewa from her biological father’s side. Elaine is a mother of one, a stepmother, a singer, and believes in love, life and ceremony. She has been conducting personalized wedding ceremonies since 2015. 

Elaine’s career has included work with the Odawa Native Friendship Centre as a pre-and post-natal worker and nutrition coordinator. There, she facilitated an aboriginal pre-natal community kitchen and promoted Oska Wasis: a new infant development program for Aboriginal families. She has also been a child advocate at Oski Kizis Lodge – Women’s Shelter and acted as Head Teacher at Tungasuvvingat Inuit Headstart.

Elaine is a proud practitioner of tradition. She is an Indigenous doula, a dancer, singer and drummer. She performs seasonal and moon ceremonies and participates in other cultural and traditional arts such as beading, drum making, rattle making and crafts. She is the only indigenous wedding officiant in the eastern Ontario region and a seasoned KAIROS Blanket Exercise facilitator and trainer.

Heartwork:

Elaine graduated from the Early Childhood Education program at Algonquin College in 1989 and since then has built a 25-year career of dedicated community service. She has shown consistent involvement and leadership with not-for-profit indigenous organizations, including the National Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare Network, the Minwaashin Lodge Indigenous Women’s Support Centre, and the Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa.

Indigenous Women:

Elaine has taken her incredible experience and learning as a member of the Indigenous community and applied it to change the lives of others. As a survivor of the 60s Scoop, which saw her removed from her family at the age of two-and-a-half, Elaine is an active member of discussions on the impacts of residential schools and child welfare. After overcoming her own addictions in youth, she is also a strong advocate of addiction and intergenerational awareness and parenting programs