About
Elder Lorna Standingready
Lorna is a direct descendent of on the treaty negotiators, Ka-na-hah-cha-pay-o (Skillful Archer) of Treaty 4 and great niece of Chief Peepeekisis, son of Ka-na-hah-cha-pay-o.
Lorna has been blessed with six children and a grandson she and her late husband, David H. Acoose, raised. Lorna lost her husband in 2004. Lorna has 24 grandchildren and 23 great grandchildren (with more on the way).
Lorna is a 10 year Indian Residential School Survivor and attended 3 Residential Schools that were managed and operated by the Anglican Church of Canada, United Church of Canada and the Presbyterian Church of Canada.
- St. Mary’s Indian Residential School, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
- Portage La Prairie Indian Residential School, Portage La Prairie, Manitoba
- Birtle Indian Residential School, Birtle, Manitoba
Lorna was also a foster child in Froude, Saskatchewan.
Lorna speaks of her reverent connection to Mother Earth, how she “starts every morning by going outside and facing east to pray for all my relations”, what the Lakota call Mitkuye Oyas’in-prayers and works for justice and mercy woven together harmoniously into a profound interconnectedness
Involvement
Lorna has worked in many capacities from being a farm labourer to a Research Assistance for her Member of Parliament in Ottawa.
Lorna has been a volunteer with over 40 organizations in her community. John Howard Society, Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry and the Regina Action and Education on Child Hunger (REACH) to name a few as well as being a Board member on difference committees and organizations at the provincial and federal level. Today, Lorna is called upon to say a welcome to Treaty 4 territory and a blessing at many events.
Residential school survivor Lorna Standingready is comforted by a fellow survivor in the audience during the closing ceremony of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 3, 2015.(Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Awards
Lorna has won many awards from the age of twelve years in 1958 for public speaking to just recently receiving a trophy for twenty years of volunteer work from the Regina Education and Action on Child Hunger (REACH). Lorna has also won the Saskatchewan Jubilee Award and Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee award as well as scholarships. Lorna graduated with a Business Administration Degree from the University of Regina in 2000 and continues learning everyday.
Today
Lorna is a National Elder for the United Church of Canada, Past Leading Elder of the All Native Circle Conference of the United Church of Canada, Elder in Residence at the University of Regina, Elder for Treaty 4 Education Alliance, Knowledge Keeper for Caring Hearts and First Nation Advisor to the Mayor of Regina. Lorna was part of the United Church of Canada Delegation to travel to Australia to immerse herself with the culture, reconciliation process and similarities of the stolen generation in Australia and the Indian Residential Schools in Canada.