Jonel Beauvais

Jonel Beauvais is a Wolf Clan, Mohawk. Who is the proud mother of three children and chosen auntie, sister and friend to many. She works diligently to empower and induce healing within all Native/Indigenous communities in order to prosper in the Haudenosaunee teachings of good medicine and good minds. She recently has moved from working for Kahwatsiraien:ton which is founded in supporting the families of Ohero:kon. She has dedicated seven years as a council member and Lead Auntie for all adolescent girls entering their first year of fasting in Ohero:kon “Under the Husk”, which is the Rights of Passage for youth in Akwesasne. Through ceremony these youth commit to four years of fasting in which they attend weekly gatherings throughout the winter months where traditional/modern teachings are presented to the young fasters and their families.

All with the intentions of receiving a vision, insight or guidance on the purpose of their journey into adulthood. Ms. Beauvais is also the Co-Creator of the Welcome Home Circle in Akwesasne, which is inspired by her own carceral experience and the undeniable need for representation and support for those directly and indirectly impacted by the criminal system, especially in Native communities. She is actively working on their “Tiny Home Project”, which will give those transitioning back into community peer support and safe housing to ensure those coming home get the opportunity to demonstrate transformational justice. She also has been a consultant for the Tribal Youth Resource Center, along with local schools and Higher Education Institutions. She was chosen to be one of the first three fellows to the represent the Haudenosaunee Fellowship at Cornell University and is actively advocating for Native Youth in these spaces of academia. On July 29th, She travelled to Quebec City with a delegation of Haudenosaunee Leadership, where she addressed Pope Francis in the atrocities the Church has played in the genocide against the Indigenous peoples across the Western Hemisphere, through the Cradle Board Mandate.

In 2022 she received an award from the Women’s Institute for Leadership and Learning for her dedication to raising the voice of women and helping them attain pride and power through personal accountability. Spring of 2015, she began her five years of cultivating support and experience around intimate and systemic violence with the Seven Dancers Coalition, as Community Outreach, located in Upstate New York on the U.S./CAN political boarder of her home territory in Akwesasne. The Coalition seeks to educate Tribal communities and service providers through trainings and presentations on Sexual Assault, Domestic violence, Campus Safety, Teen Dating, Sex Trafficking and Stalking. She was a recipient of 2020 Visionary Voice Award, nominated by the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault, granted by the National Sexual Assault Resource Center. She is also a member of the Section 84 parole board of Akwesasne and the Neh Kanikonriio Council which is a restorative Justice initiative that integrates indigenous ways of mediation to reduce incarceration and provide a more interpersonal means of healing for both parties.

In 2019 she was picked one of ten women nationally to represent a fellowship for formerly incarcerated or directly impacted woman of color, through the Community Change organization. With peer-to-peer mentorship, community organizing skill building and cultivating change in the hearts of women directly impacted by the social violence, prison systems and immigration. In 2020 was accepted to be on a national cohort of women through Columbia University’s, Women Transcending fellowship. Also organized to support formerly incarcerated women build power, gain resources and strengthen leadership development. And in addition, was extended an invitation to sit on the national #FREEHER board with the Circle for Justice Innovations, which give out grant opportunities for women of color who are in their communities working to address mass incarceration. Ms. Beauvais is invited to various speaking engagements, recently being invited to represent the U.S. as a Tribal delegate at the Third Annual Trilateral working group in Mexico City. Where Indigenous representatives from U.S., Canada and Mexico addressed adversities faced by Indigenous women (Oct. 2018).

Her passion is to share her life experiences as a native woman who has witnessed and lived the adversities of addiction, caretaking, incarceration, sexual assault, suicide and other forms of violence. Her intent is to offer support and insight for those struggling spiritually and emotionally, with hopes to revive the strong medicine she feels we all possess. Her vision is that we may attain peace within in order to restore our nurturing Indigenous communities, with the hope that our grandchildren yet to come will continue to flourish in our ways of life.

Sub-specialties: Transformational Justice, Haudenosaunee Women, Water is Life