Our Team, Our Relations
Gakina Ndinwemaaganag - All My Relations
At the heart of Heartberry Education are relationships.
We are Indigenous women, educators, artists, learners, and knowledge holders, who bring our different gifts, experiences, languages, and ways of knowing together. Our work is shaped by our relationships with one another, our families and communities, the Land, language, and the many teachers who have guided us along the way.
We believe that meaningful education does not happen alone. It happens through connection, reciprocity, listening, sharing, creating, and learning together.
Gakina Ndinwemaaganag — All My Relations.
Our work honours the understanding that we are all connected, and that every relationship carries teachings.
Meet Our Team
Founder & CEO | Curriculum Developer |
Marika Bruce (Schalla)
Marika Bruce (Schalla) is the founder of Heartberry Education, an award-winning Indigenous educator, curriculum developer, speaker, author, and Indigenous scientist. Her work brings together Indigenous knowledge, land-based learning, science, language, storytelling, and education to create meaningful and relational learning experiences.
Rooted in her relationships with community, land, language, and learners, Marika is passionate about helping educators move beyond learning about Indigenous peoples and toward learning through relationship, reciprocity, and lived experience. She continues to learn and grow in Anishinaabemowin and Michif-French while carrying language learning as an ongoing relationship and responsibility.
Through Heartberry Education, Marika develops curriculum and educational resources, facilitates workshops and professional learning, and works alongside schools, organizations, and communities to support culturally grounded Indigenous education.
Visual Artist, Culture, Language
Ruby Bruce
Ruby Bruce is a visual artist, cultural advisor, workshop facilitator, and Michif-French language keeper whose creativity and cultural knowledge are woven throughout Heartberry Education.
Through her art and creative practice, Ruby brings stories, teachings, identity, and culture to life. She helps shape the visual language of Heartberry Education and contributes her artistic gifts to the development of educational resources, workshops, and learning experiences.
As a cultural advisor and facilitator, Ruby brings care, creativity, and lived knowledge to our work. Her relationship with Michif-French language and culture is an important part of the work she carries, and she continues to support language learning and revitalization through teaching, sharing, and creating.
Ruby reminds us that learning can happen through many ways, through story, art, language, making, listening, and seeing
