Red Teapot Collective
(Ontario, Canada)
Lori Flinders-McMillan
Chief Executive Officer, Binesiwag Center for Wellness, Storyteller, Ceremony facilitator, Midewin,Approach to Work
Lori Flinders-McMillan, co-owner and Chief Executive Officer of the Binesiwag Center for Wellness, is an Anishinaabekwe from Couchiching First Nation in Southern Treaty 3 in Canada. She is from the Lynx Clan with matriarchal Bear Clan lineage. Lori carries an Anishinaabe Traditional bundle and holds knowledge in ceremonies, medicines, and land based healing methodologies. She has relationships with numerous Elders, Knowledge Keepers, Helpers, and Healers.
As a co-leader of the Red Teapot Collective, Lori addresses the opioid crisis in First Nations in Canada—a crisis that disproportionately devastates Indigenous communities. She grounds her work in Indigenous practices, art, story-telling, relationship-building, and healing, bringing a practice of listening passed down through generations and the knowledge that individual and community healing cannot be separated.
Her storytelling work confronts a crisis born from colonization, residential schools, child removal policies, and ongoing systemic racism. In this context, storytelling is not a tool for change—it is the restoration of what colonial systems tried to destroy: voice, relationship, ceremony, and the bonds between generations.
Beyond the work
My family is why I do what I do. I think about the next seven generations and how my existence can shake up systems that continue to make the world an unsafe space. I strive to break down barriers through my work while adding to the body of knowledge that promotes love, harmony, peace, and sustainable futures. I do this for my children, grandchildren, and all of my relations.
The work at BCW is multilayered and heart led by a group of Indigenous women who have lived experience in human trafficking, family violence, addictions, and child welfare. Lori is currently completing her Doctorate in Indigenous Knowledges at Blue Quills University in Alberta. She has a Master’s Degree in Social Work and is a certified First Nations Health Manager. Lori is also working towards understanding Indigenous menopause and bring voice to the Mindemo’weyag (women who hold it together) through her clinical practice.
Selected connections
Carrianne Agawa
Owner and Senior Consultant of Maadjitawin Consulting, Facilitator, Storyteller, Artist and Windigo KaaN - B.A.Hons Psychology, M.Ed., AT (Art Therapy) & EaT (Expressive Arts Therapy)Approach to Work
Carrianne Agawa comes from the Whitefish River First Nation in the Robinson-Huron Treaty area. She is an Ojibwe woman and a WindigoKaaN (Contrary) from the Turtle clan. With a Masters in Education and an Honors degree in Psychology, she skillfully infuses Indigenous and Western knowledge in her work as a WindigoKaaN, storyteller, artist, facilitator, motivational speaker and consultant.
Together, Carianne and Lori lead the Red Teapot Collective, which addresses the opioid crisis, focusing on women and indigenous communities. They ground their work in Indigenous practices, art, relationship-building, and healing to address the crisis.
Carrianne brings the WindigoKaaN tradition of using humor, contradiction, and the unexpected to reveal what needs to be seen. She holds the understanding that the opioid crisis is not an isolated event but a thread in a longer story of imposed systems and resistance. And she brings the insistence that stories contain both medicine and fire—that even amid unimaginable hardship, communities express laughter, desire, joy, and dreams for transformation.
Beyond the work
I have two adult children, three beautiful grandchild (noshis), have fostered many children and currently have the attention of two rescued labs and two cats. My life is full of wonderful adventures; kokom (grandmother) is a new adventure that I am rocking in at the moment. I enjoy being on the land, running, creating art and writing stories.