Margaret Kisikaw Piyesis

Margaret Kisikaw Piyesis is a First Nations Cree woman of the Moose Clan and Bear Clan with family ties to George Gordon First Nation in Treaty Four territory of what is now known as Saskatchewan. Raised by residential school survivors who moved the family to the United States in an attempt to break a family cycle of abuse, Kisikaw Piyesis spent much of her upbringing away from her ancestral lands, grandparents, and extended family.   

Today, Margaret stands strong in her Indigeneity, gives gratitude to the Creator for the teachers, healers, lessons and blessings on her journey, and is humbled by the magic of the Great Mystery. She knows who she is: she is a pipe carrier; she is a daughter, sister, mother, auntie, kokum, cousin; and she is a baby-catching medicine woman.  

In the colonized world, she is a leader as the Finance and Research Director of All Nations Hope Network and celebrates 20+ years of responding to HIV, HCV and colonial impacts in Saskatchewan’s Indigenous communities through culture, ceremony, humour, and Indigenous ways.