Kimberly R. Murray BA, LLB, LLM, IPC, LL.D. (honoris causa)

Kimberly Murray is a member of the Kanehsatake Mohawk Nation. On June 8, 2022, Ms. Murray was appointed as Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools. Prior to this new role, she was the Executive Lead for the Survivors’ Secretariat at the Six Nations of the Grand River, working to recover the missing children and unmarked burials at the Mohawk Institute.

Ms. Murray was also the Province of Ontario’s first ever Assistant Deputy Attorney General for Indigenous Justice, from April 1, 2015, to August 2, 2021, where she was responsible for creating a unit to work with Indigenous communities on revitalizing their Indigenous laws and legal orders. In 2018-2019, Ms. Murray chaired the Expert Panel on Policing in Indigenous Communities, which produced the report Toward Peace Harmony, and Well-Being: Policing in Indigenous Communities.

From 2010 to 2015, Ms. Murray was the Executive Director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada where she worked to ensure that Survivors of Canada’s Indian Residential School System were heard and remembered, and to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

From 1995 to 2010, Ms. Murray was staff lawyer and then Executive Director of Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto. She has appeared before all levels of courts on Indigenous legal issues. She has acted as counsel at several coroner inquests and public inquiries – including the Ipperwash Inquiry in Ontario and the Frank Paul Inquiry in British Columbia.

Ms. Murray is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2017 National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Law and Justice. In 2015, the Indigenous Bar Association granted Ms. Murray the Indigenous Peoples’ Counsel (IPC) designation.

Sharon Meyer

Sharon Meyer is a Treaty Status member of the Treaty Six Beardy’s and Okemasis Cree First Nation, recently retired in June of 2023 after serving thirty-two years of education. She served in the role as a classroom teacher, principal in elementary and high school, and administration in the provincial and federal education system. The last twelve years she served as a First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Education Consultant for the North East School Division. She is presently a representative for the Office of the Treaty Commissioner (OTC) Speakers Bureau.

Sharon is a mother of two adult daughters, and Kokum to four grandchildren. Her marriage in 2012 moved her to the Carrot River district where she currently resides. She is a Medicine Wheel Knowledge keeper and shares her teachings focussing on the child as a gift from the Creator. She is a storyteller and shares many teachings through personal childhood, adult, and cultural experiences. She is also a Blanket Exercise facilitator. Sharon is current a committee member of the Nipawin Reconciliation, OTC Wisdom Circle, and Saskatchewan Archaeological Society.