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Michael Swinwood was called to the bar of Ontario in 1974. He was blessed with three children, Sean, Sarah and Katie between 1971 and 1985. In 1994, Michael had an epiphany which led him to his twin flame, Susan Hagar, and a magical mystery tour. Susan, Michael, and their daughter Alura met William Commanda when Alura was 20 days old, and Samael joined the tour in 2002, and together they live and love. 

From 1994 to 1999, Susan, Michael and Alura travelled with Grandfather William Commanda, and interviewed Native Elders throughout North and South America. In 1998, they met their spiritual teacher, Willaru Huayta and his wife Maria Luz from Cusco Peru. They have worked with them since. 

In 1999, Grandfather William Commanda asked Michael to go back to the practice of law and help his people. Elders Without Borders was incorporated as a non-profit, to assist indigenous people in attaining their sovereignty and self-determination. Since 2002, Michael has worked very closely with Algonquin historian Stacy Amikwabi and Liza Swale, who also acts as legal counsel with Elders Without Borders. 

Since 1999, Michael continues to work with indigenous causes throughout the territory known as Canada. He works with a traditional circle of Algonquin Grandmothers and the sacred circle of humanity. 

Called to the Bar in 2004, Liza Swale initially found her voice in the arts. Years of education and creative inspiration came to a head in an honours thesis which explored the impact of censorship on the immergence of the Canadian

Theatre industry. Her first introduction to the Canadian Charter of Rights and

Freedoms inspired a complete 180 and Liza entered Osgoode Hall Law

School. While finding her footing, Liza summered and articled in commercial

litigation with a large Toronto law firm. While maneuvering her way through

the corporate seas that flooded the law school, Liza took a keen academic

interest in Constitutional Law and Indigenous Rights litigation. It spoke to her deeply and the humanity of the issues called for support and it was at that time that she realized the tools she was acquiring were meant to serve. It was in that commitment to herself, and what she had worked hard to accomplish, that she walked away from a corporate career with a knowing that her tools would otherwise find a voice. Shortly thereafter, Michael Swinwood and Elders Without Borders serendipitously stepped into her world and she began her journey walking with traditional Elders while upholding their rights, lands and traditions as their voices called. On that journey two beautiful children were born and her family, in particular her farmer husband, were led back to the

land as they built a sustainable life and organic farm honouring their

relationship to the Earth as stewards of the land. After working extensively

with residential school survivors for a number of years, Liza took time to

reconnect with herself, the land, and the teachings she had been gifted and

was settling into a peaceful life off-grid when Covid-19 erupted. This

unprecedented time has led her back to the sacred circle and the work she has been called to do.

I have been working with Michael Swinwood and Liza Swale for 18 years. I work with the traditional Algonquin Grandmothers. I seek to reconnect the sacred hoop of the Amikwa Algonquin Anishinabe Nation. I am of the Amikwa Nation, family and clan and have been misidentified, all my life, as Stacy McQuabbie, an Ojibway of the Ojibway Henvey Inlet First Nation at KitchiKitigaaning, Ogawamenong. Although this place is identified as Henvey Inlet First Nation, it is actually properly named as Kitchi-Kitigaaning (Big Garden), Ogawamenong (Pickerel People’s River) of the Algonquin Nation and not the Ojibway Nation. At the age of 10, my grandfather, Harry Amikwabi told me that McQuabbie was not my family name and that it was actually Amikwabi. He advised me that the name had been changed, but that he did not know why. At the age of 23, I began to reflect on that statement and at the year 2000, I began my own personal research journey into the change of family name from Amikwabi to McQuabbie. Since the year 2000, I have accumulated extensive historical source documents to assist me in this task. Beginning with the many volumes of Jesuit relations and the books produced by Champlain, entitled ‘Champlain’s Voyages’, I have accumulated a vast body of knowledge on Amikwa and its meaning in history. I came to realize over time that it was a reference to a dominant tribe in the Algonquin nation, a clan name (Amik = Beaver), a family name and a name the authorities sought to make extinct by changing it to McQuabbie. I have personally educated myself on this extensive history. In researching my own genealogy I came to the realization that I am a descendant of the Amikwa Nation of the Algonquin Nation, which occupied a vast territory from Lake Nipigon Ontario, to Baie Comeau in Quebec and beyond, since many hundreds of years before European contact.

After the birth of my second son in 2008, I chose to leave my corporate sales job of 10 years to embark on a new adventure, this time putting myself first.  

Healthy, that was my focus.  I wanted to take care of me and so, I decided to start with the physical me (my outer and inner body).  I worked hard and received certification as a Personal Training Specialist and soon after as an Orthomolecular Health Care Practitioner, graduating with honors. 

​Then my life started a new path, a new beginning and I answered the call, this is when Wolf Woman became me, or I became her.

We are given names with the belief from Spirit that we have it in us to become the essence of that name. 

Wolf Woman was the beginning for me in returning to my roots, that of the Algonquins.  When I was a young child, I remember dreams, knowings, and feelings, though I felt if I shared them, I would not be supported and therefore shut it down until chaos visited.  Wolf Woman was always inside me and when Spirit asked if I would honor this name, I was ready, ready to continue my journey as so intended.  This was a difficult journey, though I made it through the chaos and now I walk as Wolf Woman.

​Continuing on my Earth Walk, working even more closely with Spirit, my understandings of the WHOLE became clearer.  All that is, was meshing as ONE and there was no longer a separation between the physical and spiritual.

​This is when the name CicaWa was given to me.  CicaWa ignited the medicine I was inherited to carry and now today I Stand Tall with this honor, humbly thankful for this medicine and responsibility bestowed within me. 

I've always been a truth seeker, but it wasn't until my daughter's birth in 2010 that I began my journey researching and questioning all the things that I was told I should be doing but just didn't feel right, from healthcare to sleep schedules to nutrition. I quickly realized "the experts" really didn't have all the answers to my questions. From then on, I used intuition as my guide and spent hundreds of hours researching all of the recommended healthcare interventions and conventional child-rearing practices of our western culture and, consequently, became a strong advocate for medical freedom. As the years went by, the hours questioning those things naturally subsided as my children reached each milestone and grew towards adolescence. I spent the next several years running a successful photography business; until 2020, when everything changed. As soon as covid-19 arrived, my passion was reignited, and I felt called to learn everything I could about our legal system so that I could help other parents navigate what I anticipated would be challenging times ahead. I immediately applied and was accepted to the Paralegal program, where I began my journey seeing things through a legal lens and learning the history of this land and this system; I also had an introduction to the history of the Indigenous peoples and instantly knew this was another area I needed to somehow support. Shortly thereafter, Elders Without Borders magically came into my life; their mission is everything I aim to do; I finally feel at home, within this sacred circle.