Welcome to the COTR Museia: The seasonal celebration of learning in partnership with the Cranbrook Public Library.
What is a Museia? A festival of honour of the Greek muses who inspire sciences, mathematics, literature, and arts.
What is the COTR Museia? A public lecture series created by the faculty in Arts and Sciences at College of the Rockies.
This event is free to attend but we do ask that you pre-register to help us manage our venue capacity.
Lived Experiences of Intractable Conflict: Is Peace Possible? A Ktunaxa Perspective
June 19, 2025 | 6:30-8:30 pm | College of the Rockies Lecture Theatre
We’ll only have a short time on June 19th but…
Michele will share the learning she has done about Peace, Truth and Reconciliation, and Intractable Conflicts, from her visits to Israel in 2022 and in the annual gathering of the Centre of the Resolution of Intractable Conflict at Oxford University she has been attending since 2018.
Did you know that Israel is only 5000 sq kms smaller than ʔamakʔis Ktunaxa and has many similarities and stark differences to consider in how Truth and Reconciliation guides our collective actions for peace?
Since 2018 Michele has taken the opportunity to seek out knowledge related to Truth and Reconciliation in Canada while continuing to build upon her work at the Human Early Learning Partnership that started in 2008 under the guidance and mentorship of Dr Clyde Hertzman. Michele will share how opportunities for humanizing ourselves, connecting ourselves to the bigger stories of how we came to be, can support “children and families thriving“ reattaching human beings to landscapes and waterways through place based Indigenous Peoples cultural practices, and values.
Come prepared to learn about some big ideas. We have more in common than we think – what we do with that thinking is where diversity shines light and peace in our lives may be realized. Michele’s presentation will be followed by a question and answer period.
About the Presenter
Michele A. Sam is Ktunaxa ʔaqⱡsmaknik – a Ktunaxa human being. Her father’s heritage is Mi’kmaq and British (Rotherham,Yorkshire) with no claims to community. She honours her fathers’ people by following her mothers’ lineage as is custom. Michele has familial ties across all current Ktunaxa/Ksanka bands and is an official state identified “band member” of ʔaq̓am along her mothers’ line. Michele’s mom, grandmother, and great grandmother were all residential school survivors with a complex lived experiences that include MMIWG and becoming internal felonies for ‘stealing their children away’. Michele is a first generation home owner, and a small business owner, returning to the Ktunaxa homelands, by way of the 60s scoop, having been adopted and raised in Southern Ontario, by a Dutch Catholic immigrant family to Canada.
Michele’s lifework is guided by principles of: Nation Rebuilding, Good Governance, Restoration of Peoplehood, Cultural Continuity, (Re) Attachment to Lands and Waterscapes, Intellectual Sovereignty and Cognitive Justice, according to place based Indigenous Peoples’ ways of being, doing and knowing.
Michele is first generation in both her adoptive family and Ktunaxa family to have earned university degrees. She holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in Social Work, English Literature and Indigenous Learning. Michele completed course work, comprehensive exams and proposal defense for her PhD before leaving studies to return to her homelands in support of her children.
Michele has published on the role of research in Indigenous Peoples’ Self-development; Intractable Conflict and Strategic Regional Competition. She is sought after as a “research and knowledge bridge” and offers “Pre-Engagement Ethics” workshops to industry, government and non-profit organizations interested in working through Truth and Reconciliation according to place based lived experiences of Indigenous Peoples. Through her faculty position at the College of the Rockies, where she currently leads the Indigenous [Peoples’ Knowledges and] Studies program, Michele has been focused upon the role Indigenous Peoples knowledges play in sustainable peace sought through Reconciliation efforts grounded in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission work within Canada
Upcoming Public Lecture Series
Coming in September 2025
Coming in December 2025
