Paha PteSanWin
Indigenous Spiritual Advisor
“Pahan is an exceptional doctoral scholar whose intellectual originality, formidable leadership, and nationally transformative impact distinguish her as one of the most consequential emerging researchers in Canada in the field of repatriation, Indigenous rematriation, and transformative heritage governance”.
Bringing Our Ancestors Home: Respectful Rematriation & Repatriation Ceremony
Along with co-chairs Drs. Lara Rosenoff Gauvin and Lorena Sekwan Fontaine, Pahan PteSanWin, have supported the University of Manitoba (UM) in taking critical steps to return, rebury and restore dignity to Indigenous Ancestral remains and belongings held at the institution for far too long. In June of 2024, UM President and Vice Chancellor Dr. Michael Benaroch issued a formal public apology while a new University-wide Rematriation/Repatriation policy came into effect. These actions set the UM apart, as a “glowing example of genuine commitment to the rectification of past harms” (Bourgeois et al., 2025. p.4) and as an institution leading an approach to rematriation that acknowledges the authority and responsibility of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis for their Ancestors and cultural heritage.
Reflecting on these milestones, Pahan PteSanWin shared: “The day the policy came into effect I realized our work can concretely stop colonial violence. I knew then my mission must be to challenge and encourage other colonial institutions to do the same.”
For a closer look at this work and its impact, you can watch a video here: https://youtu.be/bomU8ulbzCY?si=W3bQldfEp0FqrGPa.
In 2025, the Indigenous Heritage Council awarded Pahan the King Charles III Coronation Medal in recognition of her outstanding contributions to education about and the preservation of Indigenous heritage, particularly her instrumental role in rematriation/repatriation work at the University of Manitoba.
https://umanitoba.ca/indigenous/engagement/respectful-repatriation
Grandmother/Kookum/Kunsi Pahan spent three decades supporting Indian Residential School survivors and their families as a therapeutic counsellor, Indigenous Spiritual Advisor, and Elder in northern Canada, at the Manitoba Youth Centre, and with the Correctional Service of Canada. This sustained frontline experience, grounded in lived knowledge, trauma-informed practice, and community accountability, has deepened her compassion, understanding of the impacts of colonial violence, and belief in the capacity to heal.
Pahan, a Michif and Red River Métis citizen living in St. Andrews, Manitoba, descends from buffalo hunters, ranchers, and the founding Klyne and Paul families of Willow Bunch, Saskatchewan. Her Ceremonial practice and Spiritual leadership ground her life and commitment to community.
She writes, “A life lived with the reassurance that we are in sacred relationship to the land – which includes the human family, animals, winged ones, and medicines – and our wholistic selves, community, and ancestors is a Métis understanding of sacredness. What makes it Métis is the unique experiences of our ancestors, our present-day communities, families, and ourselves as we are in relation.”
