Alestine is a Gwichya Gwich'in woman from the community of Tsiigehtshik (formerly Arctic Red River) in the Northwest Territories and represents the Gwich'in Nation. She holds a Master's degree from the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, B.C. and has decades of first-hand climate change observations along the Mackenzie River. For more than two decades, Alestine was the Heritage Researcher for the Gwich'in Tribal Council Department of Cultural Heritage where she assisted with over 120 research projects documenting Gwich'in Elders and land users about language, traditional knowledge, land use including place names, heritage sites, burial sites, traditional rivers/overland/dog team trails, genealogy, etc.
Currently she is a member of the Northwest Territories Species at Risk Committee and the Yukon Aboriginal Women's Council Medicine from the Land Teaching Module Working Group. Regarding the Arctic Rivers Projects, Andre shared, “I want to 'speak for the river systems' in the North.” An advocate for awareness and education, she describes herself as an ethnobotanist, fisherwoman, birder, traditional plant medicine practitioner, globe trotter, and heritage researcher, who speaks her Gwich'in language.