49th ABS Annual Conference

Joan Young has lived in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains most of her life. Talk to her about heartfelt sharing between people from differing cultural 'silos', and in particular, having Indigenous individuals share their stories with you. Joan's professional life was spent teaching young children, but while not in the classroom, she spent long hours exploring the eastern slopes of the mountains and travelling the backroads of the prairies to meet the people who lived there. She first met members of the Blackfoot nations in her early twenties. Their mutual membership in the Bahá’í Faith allowed her to begin spending significant time with them, some becoming close friends and markedly affecting the way she viewed the land, her sense of history, and creation itself. She began recording stories of lifelong friendships between Blackfoot and settler individuals in 2013, culminating in the publication in 2024 of "In the Cathedral of the Plains".