Kahontakwas Diane Longboat, MEd is a member of the Turtle Clan and Mohawk Nation at Six Nations Grand River Territory, Canada. She is a ceremonial leader, traditional teacher, and healer. She has served as Elder for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health since January of 2013 and is also the Senior Project Manager, Guiding Directions Implementation.

Diane is the founder of Soul of the Mother, a Healing Lodge on the shores of the Grand River at Six Nations Grand River Territory, with extensive relationships with First Nations in Canada and the United States.

Diane is also the founder of First Nations House (Office of Aboriginal Student Services and Programs) at the University of Toronto.

Diane is a professional educator with a Master’s degree in education and has taught at universities and conferences, nationally and internationally, on the topic of traditional Indigenous knowledge systems and spirituality as the fuel for innovation. She has published extensively on Indigenous education law and policy for the Chiefs of Ontario and the Assembly of First Nations.

In 2017 and 2018, Diane was the Indigenous Education Advisor to the Premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne and the Ontario Minister of Education (Minister Naidoo Harris and Minister Hunter).

Recently, Diane was Co-Chair for the development of the Indigenous Peoples Program at the Parliament of the World’s Religions global gathering in Toronto for

8,500 delegates in November 2018. Over 100 Indigenous spiritual leaders spoke in the Lodge of Nations built inside the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The legacy of the Indigenous Peoples Program is a series of ceremonial gatherings between Indigenous Nations designed to renew pre-colonial alliances, and relationships beginning in 2019 with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Anishinaabek Nation.

Diane is recognized as an Evolutionary Leader by the Source of Synergy Foundation in New York City and is a faculty member for the Leadership Quest of the Earthwise Centre.