Elaine Kicknosway

Co-Founder, National Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare Network
Early Childhood Education – Class of 1989

Elaine graduated from the Early Childhood Education program from Algonquin College in 1989, and has built up a 25-year career of dedicated community service since then. She has shown consistent involvement and leadership of not-for-profit indigenous organizations, including the National Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare Network, the Minwashin Lodge Aboriginal Women’s Support Centre and the Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa.

Elaine has taken her incredible experience and learning as a member of the indigenous community and applied it to change the lives of others. As a survivor of the Sixties Scoop, which saw her removed from her family at the age of two-and-a-half, Elaine is an active member of discussions on the impacts of residential schools and child welfare. After overcoming her own addictions in youth, she is also a strong advocate of addiction and intergenerational awareness and parenting programs.

Elaine’s career has also included work with the Odawa Native Friendship Centre as a pre-and post-natal worker and nutrition coordinator. There, she facilitated an aboriginal pre-natal community kitchen and promoted Oska Wasis: a new infant development program for aboriginal families. She has also been a child advocate at Oski Kizis Lodge – Women’s Shelter, and acted as Head Teacher at Tungasuvvingat Inuit Headstart.

Elaine is a proud practiser of tradition. She is a traditional dancer, singer and drummer. She performs seasonal and moon ceremonies, and participates in other cultural and traditional arts such as beading, drum making, rattle making and crafts. Additionally, she is the only indigenous wedding officiant in Ottawa.