National Chief Shawn Atleo
At THE MEETING PLACE – truth and reconciliation gathering hosted by Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre in June 2012, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo shared his insights about the impacts of the truth and reconciliation process on him and his family, as well as in the First Nations communities he’s visited from coast to coast to coast.
BIO: Shawn A-in-Chut Atleo
Shawn A-in-Chut Atleo is the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations in Canada. Atleo is a First Nations activist and formerly served as the AFN’s Regional Chief in British Columbia. He is a Hereditary Chief of the Ahousaht First Nation, part of the Nuu-chah-nulth Nation and holds a Master of Education in Adult Learning and Global Change (MEd) from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. In 2008, he was named Chancellor of Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, British Columbia, becoming the first university chancellor of Aboriginal heritage in the province’s history.
Atleo has been the executive director of a family addictions treatment facility and of an Aboriginal post-secondary training institute, Umeek Human Resource Development. He was a participant in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and led a delegation to assist in rebuilding Indigenous communities in Indonesia following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and its associated tsunami.
He is also a member of the World Future Council. Atleo and his partner of 26 years, Nancy, have two adult children, Tyson and Tara.
Awesome interview! So honest and real; very refreshing! Really awesome issue, I just discovered it, going through the back-issues now. Really, really great work!! Congratulations.