Marie-Josée Tardif

Biography and recognition

The path, the creations and the commitments, for programs, introductions and official communications.

Who is Marie-Josée Tardif

For forty years, Marie-Josée Tardif has devoted her life to seeking what unites us, across cultures, traditions and beliefs.

She began her career in the media, working as a journalist for major television and radio networks in Quebec and Western Canada, before giving herself fully to the path of self-knowledge. For two decades she travelled the world, sitting with wise teachers of every tradition, studying the great spiritual philosophies and drawing out the common ground beneath them all.

It was in the middle of that search that she met the person who would change the course of her life: Anicinape hereditary chief Dominique (T8aminik) Rankin. She has walked alongside him for twenty years now. She received his teachings with respect and took their ancient wisdom to heart, letting it become the centre of a path all her own: gathering people around what unites them, and returning to the heart of who we are.

Three creations, one intention

Kina8at: the first project, and how it grew

Marie-Josée Tardif and T8aminik Rankin are the co-founders of the non-profit organization Kina8at-Ensemble. It is the first place where their shared vision took real form. Rooted in the philosophy and traditions of the First Nations, Kina8at offers programs of renewal, cultural awareness and training for Indigenous communities, schools, organizations and the general public. It also runs innovative programs for Indigenous youth and elders, supported by major institutional partners.

The Kina8at centre, nestled in the Laurentians of Quebec, is now on its way to becoming a major Indigenous cultural centre, with the support of the Canadian and Quebec governments. But beyond walls and funding, it is a living place: the heritage and philosophy of the First Nations pass from one generation to the next, elders and young people come together, and reconciliation between peoples takes root.

Kina8at →

The Dominique Rankin Foundation

Created as a continuation of T8aminik Rankin’s work, the Fondation Dominique Rankin is the philanthropic arm of their shared commitment. Its mission holds in three words: Protection, Transmission, Healing. And it reaches not only the First Nations, but all the first peoples of the world.

Dominique Rankin Foundation →

Les Enseignements Kisis

Kisis is the Sun, in the Anicinape language. It is light, warmth, all that glows from within. The Moon is Tibikikisis. It is the softness of night, the silence, the dreams, all that ripens in the dark. Day and night, brightness and mystery: Kisis holds the two together.

Born of the vision Marie-Josée shares with Chomis Dominique, Les Enseignements Kisis is the work she now carries closest to her heart and tends as it grows. It creates spaces where something essential can take place between people. You might think of it, too, as a publishing house for our times, with its printed books and its several offerings online.

Through its digital platform, you can carry on the path of the in-person retreats: programs to follow from home, if you wish to keep company with the teachings, wherever you may be across the French-speaking world.

Les Enseignements Kisis →

International recognition and commitments

Honours

Recipient of the 2025 Women of Excellence in Multi-Religious Action Award, presented in 2026 by Religions for Peace, one of the world’s largest interfaith organizations, an affiliate of the United Nations.

The Great Disconnection: Toward a Shift in Consciousness

With Dominique Rankin, she has also been nominated twice for the Niwano Peace Prize, and for the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity, among the most prestigious honours in the field of interfaith dialogue and reconciliation.

International presence

Marie-Josée is regularly invited to Europe, Africa and the Americas, for retreats, conferences and international events devoted to peace and reconciliation between peoples.

Institutional mandates and roles

Member of the World Council of the Religions for Peace Global Women of Faith Network, a United Nations affiliated organization
Member of the Global Committee of Traditional Leaders and Actors for the Prevention of Atrocity Crimes, under the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers
Contributor to the Muscat Plan of Action for traditional and Indigenous peoples and leaders, launched at the United Nations
Member of the Ethics in Action committee, a joint initiative of the Vatican, the United Nations, Religions for Peace and the University of Notre Dame
Adviser to the Council for Inclusive Capitalism, an initiative launched at the invitation of Pope Francis
Member of the expert committee of the ImpactIA Foundation (Switzerland)
Adviser and trainer at the Canada School of Public Service; member of the Knowledge Circle for Indigenous Inclusion (Canadian Heritage)
Regular speaker for the Moose Hide Campaign Foundation

For programs, introductions and official communications

Short biographical note

Marie-Josée Tardif is an author, teacher and former journalist. Together with hereditary chief and Anicinape elder Dominique (T8aminik) Rankin, her partner in life and in mission, she co-founded Kina8at-Ensemble, the Fondation Dominique Rankin and Les Enseignements Kisis, initiatives devoted to wellbeing, reconciliation and the passing on of ancestral wisdom. For more than twenty years, this work has reached thousands of people each year, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike.

What Marie-Josée carries and passes on in her own way is a vision of reconciliation that begins within each of us, in our relationship with ourselves, with others and with the Earth. Recipient of the 2025 Women of Excellence in Multi-Religious Action Award from Religions for Peace, she has for many years sat on the World Council of the Global Women of Faith Network of Religions for Peace, takes part in the Vatican’s Ethics in Action committee, and contributed to the Muscat Plan of Action, launched at the United Nations.

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