Keynotes

 In this keynote, Joyce shares her personal story of growing up in the foster care system and navigating identity, belonging, and responsibility within systems that were not designed with Indigenous people in mind.

Rather than framing lived experience as adversity alone, this talk invites audiences to understand how lived experience shapes leadership, values, and the way we show up for others. Joyce reflects on what it means to move through systems while holding identity, dignity, and purpose — and how those experiences inform her work today in leadership, cultural safety, and systems change.

This keynote is grounded in honesty, reflection, and relational accountability. It explores how personal story becomes a source of clarity rather than limitation, and how responsibility — not resilience — creates the conditions for people to thrive.

Key themes include:

• Lived experience and identity
• Belonging, dignity, and safety
• Navigating systems with integrity
• Power, privilege, and positionality
• Responsibility over resilience
• Turning experience into purpose and action
   

 Carrying Hope (Custom Request) is a story-based keynote grounded in lived experience, community connection, and the belief that reconciliation must be practiced, not just spoken about.

Drawing from her experiences growing up in foster care and her work supporting Indigenous communities, Joyce invites audiences to reflect on belonging, responsibility, and what it truly means to create safer, more inclusive spaces for youth and communities. Through the story of The Hope Truck, she explores how hope becomes real when communities, organizations, and individuals move beyond intention and into collective action.

This keynote weaves together Indigenous ways of knowing, Two-Eyed Seeing, and relational accountability to show how projects rooted in care, dignity, and collaboration can create meaningful change.

Key themes include:

• Hope as a collective responsibility, not an individual feeling
• Lived experience, identity, and belonging
• Cultural safety beyond awareness or performance
• Power, responsibility, and reconciliation in action
• Individualism versus collectivism
• What it looks like to “walk the talk” in community and systems change

 Leading with the Heart (Custom Request) reframes emotional intelligence as a core leadership practice — not a soft skill, but a responsibility that shapes culture, safety, and connection in workplaces and communities.

Joyce invites audiences to move beyond performative communication and into relational leadership rooted in awareness, accountability, and care. Using the teaching that “the longest journey we’ll ever take is from our head to our heart,” this keynote explores how leaders can strengthen trust, navigate conflict, and create spaces where people feel seen, respected, and valued.

This talk challenges the idea that leadership is about control or authority, and instead centers emotional intelligence as a practice of relationship — how we listen, how we respond, and how we take responsibility for our impact on others.

Key themes include:

• Emotional intelligence as a leadership responsibility
• Relational communication and trust-building
• Cultural safety and connection in the workplace
• Impact over intention
• Leading through empathy, awareness, and accountability
   

 This keynote explores the critical difference between genuine Indigenous allyship and saviourism — and why that distinction matters in reconciliation, community work, and institutional change.

Grounded in lived experience and Indigenous ways of knowing, Joyce invites audiences to reflect on how well-intentioned actions can unintentionally reinforce harm when power, control, and ego are left unexamined. Drawing from history, contemporary examples, and personal stories, this talk unpacks how saviourism shows up in workplaces, organizations, research, philanthropy, and reconciliation efforts — and what meaningful allyship actually requires.

Rather than centering guilt or blame, this keynote focuses on responsibility: listening, sharing power, redistributing resources, and building relationships rooted in respect and reciprocity.

Key themes include:

• The difference between allyship and saviourism
• Colonial roots of “helping” and control
• Emotional and systemic harm caused by saviourism 
• Guilt, fragility, and performative reconciliation
• Power, positionality, and relational accountability
• What strong Indigenous allyship looks like in practice