Mr. Keith Henry is a Métis person that was born in Thompson, Manitoba and raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Mr. Henry achieved a B.Ed. from the University of Saskatchewan in 1995.

Mr. Henry began his career in 1995 with teaching positions and has become well known for his strategic administrative and negotiation skills. Since 1998 Mr. Henry has led numerous provincial, federal and industry negotiations on a variety of issues. He has been directly responsible for the financial administration of a number of Aboriginal non-profits and has a proven track record of success.

Mr. Henry started his own consulting company in October 2008 and is the President and CEO of KCD Consulting Incorporated that specializes in human resource development, economic development, project delivery, strategic planning, negotiations, and leadership development. Today Mr. Henry has worked or continues to work with several clients including the Aboriginal Tourism Association of Canada, Aboriginal Tourism Association of British Columbia, Treaty 8 Tribal Association, Prophet River First Nations, Halfway River First Nations, Alexis Creek Indian Band, Kelly Lake Métis Settlement Society, Tl’azt’en Nation, Lake Babine Nation, Trondek Hwichen, plus several others.

Mr. Henry has become an international Aboriginal cultural tourism leader receiving Aboriginal/Indigenous recognition as the former CEO for Aboriginal Tourism Association of British Columbia (AtBC). In April 2014 the inaugural World Indigenous Tourism Alliance award recognized the work of AtBC and Mr. Henry’s leadership. Mr. Henry has been spearheading the growth of authentic Aboriginal tourism in Canada as he worked to redevelop the national Aboriginal Tourism Association of Canada as an elected chair when this organization incorporated in April 2015. In October 2015 Mr. Henry took the full-time role as the Aboriginal Tourism Association of Canada’s CEO. In Canada, Mr. Henry continues to be recognized across the country as one of the leaders in Aboriginal tourism and has led many new initiatives such as the development of national standards on market readiness and authenticity, cruise industry opportunities and the national Aboriginal tourism research project on the economic value of Aboriginal cultural tourism. Mr. Henry was instrumental in the development of the national Aboriginal tourism strategy The Path Forward 2016-2021 which will focus on increasing Aboriginal market readiness, increasing jobs, and increasing revenues. Over the course of the last number of years, Mr. Henry has been invited to numerous international locations to support Aboriginal tourism strategies.

Mr. Henry volunteers time in the Aboriginal community and maintains several board positions including the former President of the Industry Council for Aboriginal Business, current chair of the Aboriginal Tourism Association of Canada, current Chair for the Native Education College, former member of the Minister’s Council on Tourism, member of the Vancouver Board of Trade’s Aboriginal Opportunities Committee, member of the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance, International Marketing Committee Destination Canada member, and current President of the BC Métis Federation.

Tanisi and hello; let me take a brief moment to introduce myself, my name is Elizabeth (Lisa) Armstrong, and I am of mixed ancestry- Nehiyawak and Russian from my late father’s lineage and Russian/Romanian from my late mother’s lineage. This has provided me with a well-rounded cultural grounding and has guided me through my over 23 years of practice in the non-profit sector. I was originally born in Vancouver BC and our family made their way up to the central interior to build a farm and homestead. I am also a grandmother to six grandchildren: five granddaughters and one grandson ages from 2-15 soon to be seven grandchildren that reside in Manitoba.

I have always been grateful for the life experience and hard work that I grew up with. It has kept me grounded in all four aspects of my life and professional career and practice.
Over the course of my career, I spent the early years in business and administrative areas that worked well in my social work practice for over 23 years. My commitment to the non-profit sector has included everything from writing successful grants and proposals to creating and implementing projects and programs within the agency itself. I am familiar with all aspects of non-profit organizations from creating mission statements to bylaws and policies. Throughout the years in the non-profit sector, I was afforded the opportunity to work with various professionals, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups in various capacities.

In my spare time; I enjoy finding unique items that may be collectible, vintage or antique and researching these items and selling them online and at a yearly gun and antique show that I have been a vendor at for over 20 years. I also enjoy trying new food, cooking, travelling and photography ( I was a professional photographer with my own studio and had earned my Professional Photographers Ticket for BC through apprenticeship).

Joe Desjarlais is from a large Métis family in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. He is proud of his mixed Ukrainian and Métis ancestry, with kinship in the Red River of Manitoba and across Western Canada. He currently lives in North Vancouver with his wife Danielle and family.

He graduated from Trinity Western University with a B.Ed degree and has completed an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Humanities with a history focus.

Joe’s journey of his own recovery of identity would not exist in its current form without the opportunities the BC Métis Federation have provided to ground his ideas and experiences in community life and relationship-building with people and communities across the province, creating life-long friendships in the process.

He was the project lead and co-author of the BC Métis Federation Terrestrial Study Final Report and is the coordinator for the current BC Métis Federation Terrestrial Cumulative Effects Initiative. These research projects are at the cutting edge of repatriation efforts in Canada.

Sherry is the BCMF Office Manager who provides administrative support to the BCMF Board of Directors as well as to the President and other staff. She has worked in Métis politics for more than 20 years and also spends time on her first love – interior design. Sherry is Métis from the Belhumeur & Hayden families in the Qu’Appelle Valley in Saskatchewan. She makes her home in BC now and loves fitness and being outside in the garden.

Chris was born to Mennonite parents in St. Catherines, Ontario and was raised on a farm in Abbotsford, British Columbia. From a young age Chris was inspired by his family and cultural history of principles, persecution, and migration; and the traits of hard work and perseverance that developed from their lived experience.

Chris graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Ontario) with a B.A. in History with Honours in 2010; and was President of the WLU History Students’ Association between 2007 and 2009. He focused his studies on early-modern (pre-industrial) European society. Specifically, how people actively challenged (or responded to challenges against) prevailing expressions of spirituality, the fragmentation and reconstruction of identity that ensued, and the social, institutional, and geo-political upheaval that resulted from these evolving reconceptualizations.

Chris returned to British Columbia in 2011 to pursue an M.A. in History at Simon Fraser University but became disillusioned with academia mid-program. He then began a small tour company with a close friend and professor from Wilfrid Laurier. The company ran for two summers and delivered early-modern historical content to English-speaking tourists in Paris, France.

In 2013 Chris relocated to Melbourne, Australia and was given a six-month contract at Maurice Blackburn Lawyers who were representing the victims of 2009’s ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires. There he assisted with document discovery and was charged to produce Google Earth maps that plotted (and proved) plaintiffs’ visual accounts of wildfire movement on Black Saturday. This was an extremely rewarding opportunity for Chris as it leveraged his historical training and taught him technical skills (ie. Excel) that would be foundational for his subsequent work.

Chris was hired by Mediacom, a large advertising firm, to do digital advertising in 2014. While working at Mediacom has been described as a ‘white collar sweat-shop due to tight deadlines and excessive amounts of unpaid overtime, the experience was invaluable. He worked there for exactly one-year before being hired by his favourite client: IG, a large London-based retail financial markets trading firm.

Chris progressed at IG for five years, became heavily involved in regional strategy and analytics, and was in charge of display advertising across Asia-Pacific before leaving in 2020 to start his own business, learn web development, and begin the process of relocating his young family to British Columbia.

Chris now splits his time between his two children, the BC Métis Federation and his consulting company Yellowhead Digital, which specializes in marketing, advertising, and web development.

As a research assistant with the BC Métis Federation, Chris is transposing their collection of archival and oral knowledge into an interactive geographic information system (GIS). With a personal love for maps, history and learning, the work tasked by the BC Métis Federation brings these passions together. Producing work to be referenced for years to come provides a sense of purpose and pride.

Marla Klyne is Métis on her father’s side and Norwegian/Scottish/Irish/English on her mother’s side. Her family names are Klyne, Garrioch, Chartrand, Sadler and Sherven. Her three times great-grandparents were Michel Klyne and Suzanne LaFrance.

Marla has deep roots in Manitoba and enjoys any opportunity she gets to return to the farm that she lived and worked on alongside her husband, for the last thirty years. After having spent her career working in the community in the areas of counselling and education, Marla continues to run her own consulting practice and is currently pursuing an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction at Simon Fraser University.

Marla is delighted to support BC Métis Federation’s language revitalization programs in honour of her Michif speaking grandfather, Alexander Joseph Klyne.

Bruce Shelvey is a settler from Treaty 2 territory in southwestern Manitoba and now works, lives, and thrives in Kwantlen and Katzie unceded traditional territory in Langley, BC.

After earning his MA in History from the University of Victoria (1992) and his Ph.D. in History from Arizona State University (1999), Shelvey taught at the University of British Columbia and then at Trinity Western University, where he is now an Associate Professor of History and Environment.

Shelvey is the Director of the Masters in Interdisciplinary Humanities program, is a founding member of the Institute of Indigenous Issues and Perspectives, and serves on numerous academic committees aimed at reconciling settler society with Indigenous peoples.

He has taught, researched, and written about Indigenous-Canadian relations for the past 30+ years and has developed specializations in Indigenous Research Methodology and community-based research practices.

Shelvey’s advocacy work with the BC Métis Federation began in 2013, an academic advisory role that has grown alongside the expanding function of the Federation’s Research Division.