Honorary Members

AERF 2018 Honorary Member 

Dr. Myra Laramee

Planning Committee Member, Elders Committee, Pipe Carrier, Keynote in 2015

Myra Laramee is a member of the Fisher River Cree Nation. She is a great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, sister, and daughter. These roles are of great importance to her and have been significant in shaping the person that she is today. She was born and raised in the city of Winnipeg and feels deeply about the value she has found in the diversity and multiplicity in our urban center.

Myra carries a traditional bundle for the Indigenous people of this territory and has made a vow of commitment to be a person of peace in the work that lies in her path. She personally believes that lack of knowledge amongst people is cancerous and spends most of her time seeking and imparting knowledge for capacity building and the development of truthful and peaceful relations.

Family and community are significant in our identities and the Elders, teachers and mentors in Myra’s life demonstrated their encouragement for her to reach her potential and maximize the importance she holds on the earth.

As a traditional woman she is responsible for the transmission of knowledge and ceremony for women and children through the use of a Tipi Lodge. Care of children has been and will continue to be one of the most important things she can do. It is her belief that in order to be the best helper she can be, she needs to make sure balance is a reality in her life. She believes that education can foster some of that balance and it is a tool which can help First Nations, Metis and Inuit people move in the direction of becoming sovereign people, especially in the areas of language and identity.

Myra has been an educator for over 35 years and practiced as a teacher, counselor, and administrator during that time. Upon retirement from this work in 2007 she became a Curriculum Writer at the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre. Upon retirement from this position, Myra became the Aboriginal Awareness Consultant for the Indigenous Inclusion Directorate, Manitoba Education in 2012.

She holds a Bachelor of Teaching, Bachelor of Education and Masters in Education. She successfully completed her PhD and graduated from the University of Manitoba in 2013 as Dr. Myra Laramee. Her research is in Indigenous Knowledge and practices as they related to teacher education. The theme of her thesis is in the area of the acquisition, utilization, research and writing of Indigenous Knowledge and is titled “Teaching and Learning as an Act of Love: An examination of the impact of seven traditional Indigenous teaching practices in teacher education and on teacher’s classroom practices”. She describes how students who participated in an annual Summer Institute in Aboriginal Education made meaning of their experiences as learners in Indigenous knowledges and practices. This Institute ran during the years of 1994–2007.