EFAO Indigenous Outreach and Engagement Steering Committee

Becky Big Canoe is an accomplished AnishinaabeKwe mother, sustainable housing proponent, writer, artist, activist and powwow dancer. She lives on Georgina Island. She is actively involved in the Mno Aki Land Trust. Becky works with EFAO’s Indigenous Outreach and Engagement Steering Committee to support knowledge sharing events, mentorship and soil testing for Indigenous growers and communities.

Annette Peltier-Flamand is from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory in northern Ontario. Annette owns and operates WEEHAW Farms and works as the Food Security Coordinator at First Nations Agriculture and Financing Ontario. Annette has a diploma in Horticulture and previously worked for Wiikwemkoong as the Gardening Program Coordinator and then the Agricultural Resources Management Coordinator, where she was responsible for the backyard chicken program, food preservation education, band garden management, meat chicken initiative, a beef cattle initiative, community support services (assisting high school greenhouse) and other training opportunities. Annette was also a board member of the EFAO from 2022 – 2025.

Celeste Smith (she/her) is Oneida from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. She has made it her life’s mission to help Women and Gender Diverse People rebuild their connections to the land and their lifeways. Celeste is a seed steward, traditional agriculturalist and former professor of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) at Niagara College. She is the founder of Cultural Seeds, an Indigenous seed store and rematriation project, and Ga Gitigemi Gamik, an ecological centre on a permanent Indigenous stewarded site, where women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ persons can (RE)learn ancestral agricultural methods lost to colonization. She is involved with work on Land Rights issues globally.

Denise Miller, Cayuga Nation, Wolf Clan from Six Nations reserve, is the founder of Revitalizing our Sustenance Project and started her own produce business named Deyaoho:go’s Farm which translates to “Flowers on a Hill” in the Cayuga language. Denise is full-time Teacher Assistant at Kawenni:io/Gaweni:yo School located on the Six Nations Reserve; a language immersion school that teaches the Cayuga and Mohawk languages. KG School also fosters cultural land-based education while teaching ceremonial knowledge to the students. As the Teacher Assistant, Denise experiments with the Ontario curriculum to implement Haudenosaunee identity, sovereignty, land/environment restoration, and food/seed sustainability. Denise has been growing food & saving Haudenosaunee seeds for 5 years now while implementing various Indigenous-led workshops or events in the community. She is currently working on restoring 27 acres of farmland into a self-sustaining Haudenosaunee food system with pre-contact & modern methods, to help educate and encourage others to do the same! Denise was also a Board member of EFAO from 2022 – 2025.

Kahehtoktha, Janice Brant is a Kanyen’kehá (Mohawk) woman from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory and a member of the Bear Clan. She is a dedicated language and culture teacher, seedkeeper, artist, and ecological farmer, known widely for her contributions to Haudenosaunee agricultural knowledge and cultural preservation. Janice played a foundational role in establishing the Kenhte:ke Seed Sanctuary & Learning Centre (KSSLC) in 2018, which hosts a living collection of over 300 Indigenous and heirloom seed varieties in the heart of her community. KSSLC is Canada’s first known Indigenous Seed Sanctuary.

John Bonaparte is a Mohawk of Awkwesasne and a farmer at Bare Bones Farms who is passionate about providing local, ecologically grown food and farm products and providing the tools for other future Mohawk farmers and food entrepreneurs to pursue their agricultural and eco-focused endeavors. Bare Bones Farms works closely with the Cannery, growing traditional varieties of vegetables and produce for the Akwesasne Freedom School, a Mohawk Immersion school focused on revitalizing the language and culture. John is also one of the founders of the Akwesasne Farmers Market.