Rhonda Head is a participant in Coady’s Indigenous Women in Community Leadership program, looking forward to graduating later this winter.

As a five-time international award winning classical singer from Opaskwayak Cree Nation, Rhonda fuses classical music and the Cree language. In November 2018, she released the classic Ava Maria in Cree.

Now, as a Coady participant, Rhonda is in the mentorship and community engagement phase of the program where she and her colleagues are implementing community initiatives with the support of Coady teaching staff, peers, and handpicked mentors.

The first of a two-part series aimed to spread messages of love in the face of a suicide epidemic among Indigenous youth in Canada, Rhonda has released Kisahkihitin (I Love You).

Kipayten kisahkihitin
Kipayten kisahkihitin
Pimatisiwin tapwe
Pimatisiwin tapwe
Kakeke kakeke
Can you hear me?
I said can you hear me?
Life
I
t’s true
Forever

“This program motivates us,” Rhonda says. “[It] helps us heal and gives us lifelong teachings through a traditional and spiritual teaching sense. As a result, our spirit is being strengthened.”

Watch the video below:

St. Francis Xavier University and Coady Institute stand on the lands of Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded home of the Mi’kmaw. We express our deep gratitude and appreciation to the generations of Mi’kmaw who, since time immemorial, have loved and stewarded these lands and the beings who call them home. Colonization is not just history; it exists in the present tense. While we strive to decolonize ourselves and our University, we know there is still much for us to learn.

We are committed to doing the hard work of self-reflection and to repairing relationships with the Mi’kmaw on whose lands we reside, including embracing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Calls to Action and embodying their spirit in our plans to move forward with our University.

Ms~t wiaqpulti’kl ankukamkewe’l
We are all treaty people.

Coady Institute
St. Francis Xavier University
4780 Tompkins Lane
PO Box 5000
Antigonish, NS B2G 2W5
Canada

Phone: (902) 867-3960
Phone: 1-866-820-7835 (within Canada)
Fax: (902) 867-3907

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