Indigenous Services

Kahontakwas Diane Longboat, B.A, B.Ed, M.Ed is a member of the Turtle Clan, Mohawk Nation at Six Nations Grand River Territory, Canada and a citizen of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. She is a ceremonial leader and knowledge keeper.

Diane’s work is located at the intersection of health, education and traditional knowledge systems.

Since 2013, Diane has served as Elder for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Canada’s largest and leading institution for clinical services and research for mental well-being.  Diane lead the development of the Ceremony Grounds for CAMH to establish the Sweat Lodge, Sacred Fire, and medicine gardens, including the policy development required to support traditional Indigenous healing as a standard of practice. Today, as Senior Manager of Strategic Initiatives, in Shkaabe Makwa Centre at CAMH, her work involves organizational strategy for enhancing culturally grounded services to First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples and advancing the CAMH Truth and Reconciliation Action Plan.

Diane is founder of Soul of the Mother, a Healing and Teaching Lodge on the shores of the Grand River at Six Nations Grand River Territory, having extensive working relationships with First Nations in Canada, the United States and Indigenous Nations globally.

Diane is also founder of First Nations House (Office of Indigenous Student Services and Programs) at the University of Toronto.

As a professional educator with a Master’s degree in education, Diane has lectured  at universities both nationally and internationally, on the topic of traditional Indigenous knowledge systems and spirituality as the fuel for systems transformation. She has published extensively on Indigenous education law and jurisdiction for Ontario Native Counselling Association, the Chiefs of Ontario and the Assembly of First Nations.

In 2017 and 2018, Diane was the Indigenous Education Advisor to the Premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne and to two Ministers of Education (Minister Naidoo Harris and Minister Hunter).  Diane served on the Dean’s Strategic Advisory Group at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education from 2017-2021.

Recently, Diane was Co-Chair for the development of the Indigenous Peoples Program at the Parliament of the World’s Religions global gathering in Toronto for 10,000 delegates in November 2018.  She is a faculty member of Four Worlds University and a Commissioner for the Digital Global Commission on Justice and Healing.  Diane serves on many Elders Councils nationally and internationally. Currently, plans are underway for an international ceremony called the Covenant of Nations in 2023 between the Anishinaabeg Nation and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in both Canada and the United States to renew their wampum belts of peace, friendship and respect.

Today, Diane coaches many hospital CEOs nationally and provincially on cultural safety, anti-Indigenous racism in the healthcare system and reconciliation.

Diane is a builder who believes in systems transformation to serve First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples with honor and respect, embodying cultures and languages as building blocks for a new economy, a new healthcare system, a new education system and a new human services system in a true democratic structure. 

“Building with traditional knowledge systems as the foundation for change is essential not only for the future of our people, but serves the spiritual evolution of humanity and the healing of Mother Earth. Nothing less is demanded of us in this time period, but to change the world.”

CAMH Elder, Senior Manager of Strategic Initiatives, Shkaabe Makwa Centre for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Wellness, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario