Kahontakwas Diane Longboat
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Kahontakwas Diane Longboat, MEd is a member of the Turtle Clan and Mohawk Nation at Six Nations Grand River Territory. She is a ceremonial leader, traditional teacher and healer. She has served as Elder for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada’s largest hospital and research centre for these challenges, since January of 2013 and is currently the Senior Project Manager, Guiding Directions Implementation.
Diane is founder of Soul of the Mother, a Healing Lodge on the shores of the Grand River at Six Nations Grand River Territory, as well as, the founder of First Nations House (Office of Aboriginal Student Services and Programs) at the University of Toronto
Diane is a professional educator with a Master's degree in education and has taught at universities nationally and internationally on the topic of traditional Indigenous knowledge systems and spirituality as the fuel for innovation. She possesses an in-depth understanding of Indigenous history, loss and trauma, as well as the resiliency factors that are embedded in culture and knowledge systems.
She has published extensively and written numerous reports on Indigenous education and law for the Assembly of First Nations and the Chiefs of Ontario. Diane was also the Indigenous Education Advisor to the Premier of Ontario and the Ontario Minister of Education.
Recently, Diane was Co-Chair of the Indigenous Peoples Program of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, convening over a hundred Indigenous spiritual leaders to share their wisdom traditions with 9,000 delegates in 2018, at a time when humanity is challenged with the crises of earth changes.
Humanity stands at the precipice. Our thoughts, behaviours and actions will dictate how life will continue or not, on Mother Earth.
We must evolve spiritually, receive spiritual guidance daily, and act on the guidance given in order to grow as individuals and heal Mother Earth as we do so. Only when we truly live the universal spiritual laws and the natural laws of Mother Earth will we complete our spiritual mandate. Life on earth is a training ground to become the spiritual warrior of peace.