Emcee: Dayle Poitras-Oster
Dr. Dayle Poitras-Oster is a proud Métis woman from Rural Alberta. She grew up strongly connected to her Métis roots. Dr. Poitras did 3 years of a Bachelor of Science in biology at the University of Alberta Augustana campus and graduated from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in 2021. She currently works in Drayton Valley AB as a mixed animal practitioner. Dr. Poitras has a passion for ambulatory practice and public health, her goal is to give back to and provide service to Indigenous communities.
Emcee: Rebecca Lavallee
Rebecca Lavallee is a 22 year old currently enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts program with a major in Psychology and a minor in Visual Studies and Art History at the University of Calgary. Rebecca is the youth representative for Region 3. Growing up Rebecca has been very involved in her Métis cultures; she loves to listen and share all the things she continues to learn about what it means to be Métis.
Emcee: Tai-Amy Grauman
Tai Amy Grauman (MFA) is Métis Cree from Ardrossan, Alberta. Her family comes from St. Paul as well as other surrounding areas in Region 2. She is a Callihoo as well as a Beauregard with ancestral ties to Haudenosaunee voyageurs. She is an MC, facilitator, actor, playwright, director and producer who has worked primarily in theatre and is now expanding to film. Tai recently founded the ‘Marie Collective’ along with Brittany Ryan which is a land based performance company which will focus on touring Metis shows to communities across Alberta. Tai just received her MFA from the U of A this in ‘Metis women’s love stories’.
This past summer, Savage Productions Society produced a large rural tour of her play ‘You used to call me Marie…’ which went to rural Metis communities all over Alberta and Saskatchewan as well as Back to Batoche Days and Metis Crossing. Her one woman show, ‘Marie’s love letters’ has also recently been showcased at conferences and will be touring all over Alberta September 10-15th 2024. Tai is committed and focused on telling and ‘re telling’ the love stories of all the Callihoo women who have come before her.
Emcee: Paulette Dahlseide
Paulette is a proud Métis woman from Cold Lake, Alberta and has served as the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 2, elected representative for the New Dawn Métis Women’s Society since 2019. She is the daughter of Paul and Annette Rondeau, granddaughter of Millie and Oliver Lacombe of St. Paul de Métis, and great great granddaughter of Laurent and Eleanor Garneau, upon whose 1874 river lot the University of Alberta now stands. She attained both her Diploma in Dental Hygiene in 1994 and her Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene in 2014 from the University of Alberta. Her independent dental hygiene practice, Providence Dental Hygiene, has been serving the people of Cold Lake and Bonnyville and the Indigenous communities of Elizabeth and Fishing Lake Métis Settlements, Frog Lake First Nation and Cold Lake First Nation since 2011. Her storefront and mobile practice is committed to accessibility and reaching the underserved in their communities, schools, health centers and long-term care facilities. In 2019, she was honored to receive a prestigious Esquao award, the largest recognition event of Aboriginal women in the country. In January 2021 she began the Master of Science in Dental Hygiene program from the University of Alberta, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. A Métis Cree research methodology,
keeoukaywin, guides her relational and reciprocal approach to knowledge co-creation and translation that honors women as traditional caregivers and keepers of community wellbeing. This methodology aims to privilege the voices of Métis women within her kinship network to co-create a deeper understanding of Métis oral health experiences in Alberta.