Speaker Introduction - Governor General’s History Award winner Jo Anne Broders

Jo Anne Broders will be speaking in the Peer Share Panel on Saturday, October 18th at the upcoming heritage conference.

Joanne Broders is a secondary English Language Arts and Social Studies teacher at Smallwood Academy in Gambo, Newfoundland and Labrador who has thirty years teaching experience. She was born and raised in Tilting, Fogo Island and began her teaching career at Hopedale, NL, where she taught from 1995 to 1999. She is currently teaching at Smallwood Academy in Gambo and has been there since 2001. Joanne also worked as an assistant principal and as an ELA program specialist for grades 7, 8, and 9 with the Department of Education in Newfoundland and Labrador. Joanne received the Premier’s Award for Excellence in Innovative Teaching in 2023 and the Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Teaching in Canada in 2024. 

Joanne enjoys focusing on people, history, culture and heritage in her classes working on such collaborative projects such as 9/11 visual art which hung at the Come From Away show in New York for five years. Another project in 2023 encouraged signage and rediscovered the people-history of the Mi’kmaq Cemetery in Gambo with students, the town council of Gambo, and Chief Mi’sel Joe. This project was featured on CBC’s Land and Sea. In the spring of 2025, Joanne, high school students, Colleen Fox, and members of the Mi’kmaq Cultural Foundation spent many months working on Patty Boy’s Project honouring the life of Mi'kmaq RCMP officer, Patrick Gehue and the importance of Truth and Reconciliation through canvases, art quilt, a digital book, and hoodies. Joanne also interviews people from Tilting and beyond during their annual Irish celebration, Feile Tilting, capturing and preserving the heritage and history of the people. Her passion is listening to and honouring the stories of all people.


Register for the 2025 Heritage Conference to hear other organizations' projects, plans and accomplishments.

Registration deadline is 4:30 PM NDT on Monday, October 6th, 2025.

To register: https://forms.gle/ecQFJqkHeVkaFzwu5

For more information, visit the conference website at: https://museumsnl.ca/2025-heritage-conference/