Team
First Peoples Group prides itself on providing consultant teams customized to match client needs. Starting with the firm’s core team of consultants, we build the right team for each mandate by drawing on the large network of subject-matter experts that we have developed through our many years of successful collaborations. These experts include educators, sociologists, economists and health care professionals.
First Peoples Group Consultants

Heather Watts (she/her)
President and Partner
Heather Watts is Mohawk & Anishinaabe from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. Education has been a central part of her work over the past ten years, graduating from Syracuse University with a degree… Read More

Melissa Hammell
Senior Associate
Melissa Hammell is a Certified Integral Facilitator® and community connector with over 20 years of experience working with urban Indigenous communities. Melissa seeks to honour her Anishinaabe (Kitigan Zibi) and European roots by bringing voices… Read More

Ray Espaniel Hatfield
Senior Associate
Ray is a member of the Sagamok Anishnabek First Nation who are a signatory to the Robinson-Huron Treaty of 1850. He has 35 years of Federal Public Service having worked with various federal departments, the… Read More

Danielle Roy
Associate
Danielle is French-Canadian with Haudenosaunee ancestry from Iroquois Falls in Northern Ontario. She moved to Ottawa for her post-secondary education in 2014 and has since been on a continuous journey working alongside the Indigenous community… Read More

Charlotte Qamaniq
Charlotte Qamaniq is a North Baffin Inuk performance artist, actor, throat singer, and public speaker. Originally from Iglulik, Nunavut, she has worked with First Peoples Group since 2015 to deliver cultural competency workshops that draw… Read More

Hannah Martin
Associate
Hannah Martin (Mi’kmaq Nation) grew up in the beautiful coastal Taqamiku’jk (Tatamagouche/place where the water is barred by sand) and is a proud member of We’kopekwitk (Millbrook) First Nation. In 2019, Hannah received her Bachelor… Read More

Ally Freedman
Associate
Ally Freedman is a young Métis woman with strong roots in Northern Manitoba/Saskatchewan. She also has Italian and Jewish heritage. She has a BA Honours in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations from… Read More
Elders and Senior Advisors

Maria Campbell
Métis Elder
Maria Campbell is a writer, playwright, and teacher. She started her career in 1973 when she published her first book, Half-breed. That book has become a literary classic and continues to be one of the… Read More

Guy Freedman
Chair and Founding Partner
Chair and Founding Partner of the First Peoples Group, Guy Freedman is an entrepreneurial leader and thought leader on contemporary Indigenous issues. Guy is a proud Half-Breed (Métis) from Flin Flon, Manitoba with roots dating… Read More

Fred Kelly
First Nations Elder
Fred Kelly is a citizen of the Ojibways of Onigaming, a community of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty #3. Kizhebowse Mukwaa (Kind Walking Bear) of the Lynx Clan is an Elder in Midewin, the Sacred… Read More

Bob Watts
Senior Fellow (Reconciliation)
Robert (Bob) Watts is a much sought after trainer and expert in Indigenous policy, negotiations, conflict resolution and reconciliation. He is the former Interim Executive Director of the Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which examined… Read More
First Peoples Group West Consultants

Neegann Aaswaakshin (Senior Associate)
Vice President
Neegann Aaswaakshin is Saulteaux of the Anishinaabe Nation, a member of Fishing Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan – Treaty No. 4, and Bear Clan. Her name O’Niigaannii Aaswaakshin means “leader to lean on” in Anishinaabemowin,… Read More

David Turner
Senior Associate
A Non-Status Saulteaux from Pinaymootang First Nation in Manitoba and African American, David is an independent consultant with a Diploma of Social Work (Honours) from Mount Royal College in Calgary. His experience includes initiatives in… Read More

Patrick Kelly
Senior Associate
Patrick is a member of the Leq:amel First Nation (Sto:lo Nation.) He operates a consulting business and was Advisor and Director of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry. In September 2012 he completed a five-year… Read More