Belinda C. Daniels – pē miyo maskwa

Belinda is of the nēhiyawak nation of Turtle Island, her home community is Sturgeon Lake First Nation. She has been an educator for 15 years specializing in Aboriginal education. Belinda resides in Saskatoon with her family, she is married with four children. She currently works for the Saskatoon Public School Division at a local high school and has been a sessional for the University of Saskatchewan languages Dept. for the past nine years. Her interests include research, particularly in language restoration, preservation and development. Belinda holds a B. Ed., P.G.D., Masters’ degree and is currently a Ph.D. candidate working on her doctor of philosophy in interdisciplinary studies for Graduate studies and research with the University of Saskatchewan in the disciplines of anthropology, history and education. While working on her master’s degree Belinda had been a student of the Canadian Indigenous Language and Development Institute through the Western’s Dean Agreement. This is where her love for language preservation blossomed and flourished.

Belinda is the founder and coordinator an annual summer camp; nēhiyawak Language acquisitioning camp and it has been in programming for over a decade! She was also the lead consultant for the St. Frances Cree Bilingual Program in Saskatoon it its’ initial stages. Belinda has written about her experiences with language and identity which have been published in academic journal reviews. She was also the co-writer for the Cree Core/nēhiyawēwinSaskatchewan Curriculum for the Ministry of Education. Most recent of her achievements, Belinda has been nominated by the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation for the Outstanding Aboriginal Educator Award with the Canadian Teacher’s Federation, spring 2015. Belinda also considers herself as a community activist and has sat on numerous boards for issues such as child-welfare, food sovereignty, and currently sits on the board with United Way with its’ mandate to ending homelessness. Belinda is currently an independent Consultant for 2nd Indigenous languages development and decolonizing education.