Governance

LodgePole Arts Alliance is a not-for-profit corporation with charitable status. We operate on a cooperative operational board model that uses an Indigenous perspective, and decisions are made by consensus without a hierarchical structure except where required by government regulations.

The Grand Council (board) coordinates the LPAA and ensures that our priorities are met by volunteering their time in programming, land acquisitions, finances, etc. They are supported by volunteers who help with some of the operational tasks. As the LPAA grows, many of the tasks the Council looks after will be handed over to permanent staff, and the Grand Council will serve in more of an advisory capacity. This shift to a cooperative management model will happen as our financial status allows.

Areas of responsibility are separated into priority bundles. 

  • Land: infrastructure and building
  • Storytelling: programming and events
  • Pouch: finances and funding grants
  • Smoke: communications, marketing, and promotion

Grand Council

JP Longboat
Chairperson

JP Longboat is a Kanyen’kehà:ka (Mohawk), Turtle Clan, storyteller and multi-disciplinary artist. He grew up along the River Ouse, Haldimand Deed territory, in Ontario. JP has extensive professional training and practice in traditional and contemporary forms of visual art and live performance and has trained, collaborated, and performed with many professional theatre and dance companies across Canada. His work emanates from the cultural ways of his people, and his creative process is grounded in the legacy of First Nations artistic practice. He is the founder and associate director of Circadia Indigena – Indigenous Arts Collective based in Algonquin territory, and Kichi sibi at Akikodjiwan Falls. The collective creates full length performance works, and land-based multi-disciplinary festivals.

Dr. Terri-Lynn Brennan
Treasurer

As an inter-cultural planner, Dr. Terri-Lynn Brennan combines a 30-year professional career in the social sciences, from anthropology to public policy, with national to global experiences working on four continents and across 12 countries. With a lens rooted in social equity, Terri consults with her clients through her company, Inclusive Voices | Building concerted communities, and through a senior leadership role at Ontario Performing Arts Presenting Network (ontariopresents.ca). Terri holds a national role as a sector trainer for the Cultural Human Resource Council of Canada in maintaining respectful workplaces in the arts, while continuing to support cities and municipalities across Canada as they develop cultural and public art plans and build Indigenous relationships based in reciprocity. Terri proudly identifies as mixed Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) and British descent where her people come from Six Nations of the Grand River, Ireland, and England.

Dr. Paul Chaput
Director-at-Large & Elder

Dr. Paul Chaput is a Métis academic, actor, singer, composer, filmmaker, and poet. In November 2015 he completed his PhD in geography at Queen’s University. His dissertation, “Planting Stories, Feeding Communities: Knowledge, Indigenous Peoples, and Film,” used film as a research tool to bring academic findings back to Indigenous communities. Two CDs of his original compositions were nominated at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards for Best Male Vocalist and Best Folk Album. Paul is one of four founding members of the Métis Nation of Ontario and the conceptual architect of its long-term visionary Prime Purpose. Paul was a founder and the artistic director for the first three years of the Métis Arts Festival in Toronto. Paul has co-produced, hosted, and narrated — in French and English — 26 episodes of “Finding Our Talk: A Journey Through Aboriginal Languages” that aired on Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN).

Rhonda Kronyk
Secretary

Rhonda Kronyk is a member of the Tsay Keh Dene Nation of northern BC. She is also of settler (English, Irish, German, Ukrainian) descent. Rhonda is a founding member of the Indigenous Editors Association. As an editor, she works from within the Canadian publishing industry to ensure the respectful representation of Indigenous peoples in published work. She uses the lens of cultural awareness as a consultant who works in heritage and on equity, diversity, and inclusivity initiatives.

Al Doxtator
Council Member

Te howis kwûnt (Allen Doxtator) originates from Oneida First Nation of the Thames near London, Ontario, and is a member of the Bear Clan. He brings more than 45 years of experience as a social worker and in related fields to his role at Queen’s.