The Legacy Schools High School Artist Ambassador program brings Indigenous and non-Indigenous musicians and other artists into high schools across Canada to inspire student leadership and forward the journey of reconciliation in school communities.
Artists share their art, music and stories through workshops and/or performances, and engage students in learning and conversations about reconciliation. High schools hosting Artist Ambassadors are also encouraged to have students share their own stories, art, and reconciliACTIONs with their guests.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by Artist Ambassadors are those of the artist and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund.
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Adam Sturgeon of the London, Ont.-based band Status/Non-Status is getting a lot of attention right now for the honesty, power, truth and beauty of his songs.
Adam is ‘non-status’ as defined by the Canadian government. Adam’s grandfather Ralph made the difficult decision to enfranchise in order to support himself and his family by joining the Armed Forces. Enfranchisement was the government’s term for the legal process of turning in one’s Status Card, terminating one’s Indian Status, and becoming instead a Canadian citizen. It was a pillar of the government’s assimilation policy and a requirement for any Indigenous person who wished to enlist. Much of Adam’s work surrounds his families complex history and identity. Either as an artist, educator or mentor (Adam is the founder of the award winning Indigenous youth program Rezonance), Adam is entrusted with his family teachings as well as helping others explore their own identities and intergenerational healing through acts of reclamation, accountability and truth.
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Adrian Sutherland is from Attawapiskat First Nation on the remote James Bay coast. He’s a musician, singer, songwriter, recording artist, entrepreneur, speaker, author, advocate, and the fascinating frontman and founder of Northern roots-rockers Midnight Shine. He’s also a father of four, a grandfather to four, a hard-working and handy husband, and a respected cultural leader, proud of who he is and where he comes from.
In addition to making meaningful music that resonates widely, Adrian is fluent in his Cree language, practices traditional ways of the land, and is a genuine example of someone who lives authentically. An innovative and insightful thinker who has chosen to raise his family in Attawapiskat, Adrian has begun writing his first book for Penguin Random House Canada (for 2022 release).
After putting out four albums with Midnight Shine, he is now working on solo material. His debut solo single Politician Man reached #1 on its radio chart, won the video award for Best Performing Arts & Entertainment at Canada’s oldest film festival, and was named Best Music Video at three international motion picture events.
Adrian cares deeply about many causes, and uses his songs, written words, and growing voice to share first-hand perspective on issues like contaminated water, housing shortages, food insecurity, addiction, mental health, and the suicide crisis. At this time of increasing awareness around Reconciliation, Adrian is hopeful for all Canadians to better understand one another, and take further steps together.
Passionate about making a difference, Adrian is driven to ensure young people have access to arts, education, recreation, and land-based learning. He’s a Master Corporal with the Canadian Ranger Patrol in the James Bay region, and an Artist Ambassador for the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund. He launched a music program with support from MusiCounts, and was instrumental in bringing ArtsCan Circle to his community.
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One of the most acclaimed Indigenous directors in the world, Alanis Obomsawin came to cinema from performance and storytelling. Hired by the NFB as a consultant in 1967, she has created an extraordinary body of work—more than 50 films and counting—including landmark documentaries like Incident at Restigouche (1984) and Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993). The Abenaki director has received numerous international honours and in 2019 was named a Companion of the Order of Canada—its highest distinction. “My main interest all my life has been education,” says Obomsawin, “because that’s where you develop yourself, where you learn to hate, or to love.”
www.nfb.ca/directors/alanis-obomsawin
L’une des plus éminentes réalisatrices autochtones du monde, Alanis Obomsawin a commencé sa carrière comme chanteuse et conteuse avant d’en arriver au cinéma en 1967 à titre de consultante à l’ONF. Son œuvre extraordinaire — plus de cinquante films, et elle tourne encore — comprend des documentaires phares comme Les événements de Restigouche et Kanehsatake – 270 ans de résistance. La cinéaste abénaquise, qui a reçu d’innombrables honneurs nationaux et internationaux, est devenue en 2019 compagnon de l’Ordre du Canada, la plus haute distinction au pays. « Toute ma vie, je me suis principalement intéressée à l’éducation, parce que c’est par l’éducation qu’on se développe, qu’on fait l’apprentissage de la haine ou de l’amour. »
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JUNO-nominated Métis artist Amanda Rheaume’s latest single, “The Best,” is sitting at the top of the Indigenous Music Countdown this week.
It’s a successful follow-up to her earlier single, “The Skin I’m In,” which hit No. 1 on the Indigenous Music Countdown in May, 2019.
She has long employed her music as a force for good. She’s performed for Canadian military personnel in Afghanistan three times, and visited the Canadian Forces Station Alert base in Canada’s far north. For the past two years she’s been promoting Indigenous music by organizing and co-creating the Indigenous Music Summit and We Are The Stronghold events.
Rheaume co-founded Babes4Breasts, an initiative that, through concerts and recording projects, has raised money for breast cancer charities across Canada over a ten year period.
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Angel Baribeau is a singer-songwriter/multidisciplinary artist from Mistissini Cree Nation, Quebec. An absolute powerhouse vocalist, Baribeau flows with emotions and an intimate vulnerability that cascades through distinct warm textures and catchy acoustic pop melodies. As an Alumnus and participant in various N’we Jinan Programs, Angel has developed their own artistic practice and is looking to make their mark on the world.
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Angela Amarualik was born and raised in the tiny community of Igloolik. Like many small communities in Canada’s Arctic, Igloolik had many social problems. Angela worked hard to retain a good attitude, improve her circumstances, and be a good role model for the younger kids in her town. Already community role model – as well as Miss Igloolik – Angela now uses her music to inspire Nunavummiut youth and share Inuit culture with people around the world. Her music has taken her across Canada, and she is finally ready with her first album. Starting off with the Ukulele, Angela began writing songs in her native language, Inuktitut. Her musical style is a mix between ancient Inuit melodies and throat-singing, and the pop music of her childhood heroes, Beatrice Deer and Hilary Duff. In November 2018, Angela will be releasing her self-titled debut album. The first single is called Angirrarviga (a-ni-ak-vi-ga) and is a pop/rock song about missing home.
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Angela is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and artist from Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta – Treaty 6 territory) and is a member of Frog Lake First Nation. She has over 15 years of professional dance experience as an entertainer and has taught in countless schools, Indigenous communities, youth centres and conferences throughout North America since 2004.
Angela believes in a responsibility to share the knowledge she has gained and continues to pursue dance education while using her existing skills to mentor others so they can succeed. Currently, Angela tours with the Juno Award winning group A Tribe Called Red and is available for performance opportunities, teaching & speaking engagements.
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Beatrice Deer, Canadian Aboriginal Music Award-Winning and Canadian Folk Music AwardWinning singer-songwriter, is from Nunavik. Half Inuit and half Mohawk, Deer left her small village of Quaqtaq, QC. in 2007. She has five albums to her credit. This is a body of work in which she uniquely blends Traditional Inuit Throat Singing and Contemporary Indie Rock. “My All to You”, her fifth album, marks a milestone in the history of ‘Inuindi’ music (a genre pioneered by Deer), as for the first time, she composed all of the original music and lyrics. The themes covered encompass classic Inuit folk tales and legends, and also deal with personal growth as an important tool in the search for understanding and the search for meaning. She has won over audiences around the world and her songs are particularly loved in the Canadian Arctic, where audiences sing her songs during the many concerts she performs there. She sings in three languages: Inuktitut, English and French. As a role model for her community and a healthy lifestyle activist, Deer is often invited to speak. Her main message is that each of us must take control of our own life.
“No one else can do it for us. It is impossible to change what has happened. You can only adopt new ways of dealing with the past.”
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Blake Angeconeb is an Anishinaabe woodlands artist who hails from Treaty 3 territory. His first venture into art began 6 years ago during a fun painting session with his younger niece, which has since launched him into a full-time career as an artist. Blake’s primary practice involves acrylics and multimedia on canvas, blending the school of woodlands art with pop culture references. Blake is a self-trained painter with a growing collection of small and large scale works who enjoys collaborating with other artists. He is part of the Caribou clan and a proud member of Lac Seul First Nation.
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Bomgizhik (Isaac Murdoch) is from Serpent River First Nation and is from the Fish Clan. He has spent year living in the bush as a trapper, wild rice harvester, maple syrup maker and hunter. He is a student of the pictographs of his people and the stars. He currently lives at Nimkii Aazhibikoong Language and Cultural Community.
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Since her groundbreaking debut, 1964’s It’s My Way!, the Cree singer-songwriter has been a trailblazer and a tireless advocate, an innovative artist, and a disruptor of the status quo. Sainte-Marie has spent her whole life creating, and her artistry, humanitarian efforts, and Indigenous leadership have made her a unique force in the music industry. In 1969, she made one of the world’s first electronic vocal albums; in 1982 she became the only Indigenous person to win an Oscar; she spent five years on Sesame Street where she became the first woman to breastfeed on national television. She’s been blacklisted and silenced. She’s written pop standards sung and recorded by the likes of Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, Donovan, Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes. She penned “Universal Soldier,” the definitive anti-war anthem of the 20th century. She is an icon who keeps one foot firmly planted on both sides of the North American border, in the unsurrendered territories that comprise Canada and the USA.
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Chantal’s traditional name is dáduqvḷá k̓in̓ua q̓ṇ́s w̓áw̓ísk̓a, which means, “person who watches over a place”, her English name is Chantal Pronteau. She is Indigenous with mixed ancestry, including Métis heritage on her maternal side and Coast Tsimshian first nation on her fraternal side. She grew up with her four brothers in East Vancouver until 14, where she moved to Klemtu B.C. to live with her fraternal grandmother in 2008. She continued her education at Kitasoo Community School and graduated there in June 2012.
One of her most recent jobs was working as a Costal Guardian Watchmen for the Kitasoo Xai’xais Stewardship Authority of the Kitasoo Xai’xais First Nations enforcing K/X nation laws.
She works as a supervisor where she is tasked to document and save the Kitasoo and Xai’xais heritage languages.
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Chelsea Vowel is Métis from manitow-sâkahikan (Lac Ste. Anne) Alberta, residing in amiskwacîwâskihikan (Edmonton). Mother to six girls, she has a BEd, an LLB, and a MA, and is a Cree language instructor at the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta.
Chelsea is a public intellectual, writer, and educator whose work intersects language, gender, Métis self-determination, and resurgence. Author of Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit Issues in Canada, she and her co-host Molly Swain produce the Indigenous feminist sci-fi podcast Métis in Space, and co-founded the Métis in Space Land Trust.
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The Toronto-native is an award winning producer and DJ who is impacting the global music community with his fresh sound and meaningful collaborations with diverse artists. Drawing inspiration from his life and culture, Classic Roots developed his original sound through integration of traditional Anishinaabe drumming and singing, with unique sound of techno/house, to establish a sense of indigenous cultural freedom that echoes throughout the electronic music scene.
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Cody Coyote was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and is of Ojibwe/Irish descent with ancestry from Matachewan First Nation. With his fusion of strong, profound lyricism accompanied by corresponding influential sounds, this multi-award nominated and award winning Hip-Hop/Electronic artist grasps his listeners attention and delivers a mesmerizing performance.
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Her new album Church House Blues (due April 17th on True North Records) reflects that dedication and devotion and finds her co-writing seven of the ten songs on the album. Produced by her husband, collaborator and cowriter Dewayne Strobel, it not only marks her fourth blues effort to date, but one of her most demonstrative as well. That’s evident at the outset, from the fiery delivery of the title track, the riveting drive of “New Orleans Is Sinking,” and the assertive strains of “Rather Be Alone,” to the quiet, contemplative desire and despair that scorches “Evil Memory,” the radio-ready hooks illuminated in “Hey Love,” and the emotive strains instilled in the bittersweet ballads “When It Comes To Love” and “Bigger Than the Blues.” At the center of it all is Crystal’s evocative vocals, a powerful, provocative force of nature that elevates each encounter and sends the album’s entries soaring towards the stratosphere.
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Desiree Dorion grew up a mile and a half from the grounds of Dauphin Country Fest, one of the biggest outdoor music festivals in Canada. As a little girl she would ride her bike there when the festival wasn’t on, climb up on the stage, and pretend to play to the thousands of fans that come to watch big country music acts. In 2014 her dream of playing the mainstage came true.
Desiree released her fifth studio album on February 7th, 2020 with Break the Chain. Exploring the themes of poverty, resilience, breaking the cycle of violence, and family ties, Desiree’s music and lyrics are a reflection of the world around her. You can hear the emotional weight of these themes in her vocal. A departure from her previous albums, she has incorporated a hint of pop into her country music style with Break the Chain.
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Cheyanna Kootenhayoo AKA Kookum is a DJ and multi media maker from the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, and Cold Lake First Nations, their maternal Denesuline traditional territory. Based out of Vancouver BC, Kookum has been making a name for their self across the country and is no stranger in the community.
Kookum is an open format DJ inspired by EDM and Hip Hop music. This diversemix-diva is a force on the decks and always keeps the party hype, fresh, and unpredictable.
Before the pandemic Kookum was touring nationally and internationally with the Snotty Nose Rez Kids, holding down a weekly DJ residency, facilitating videography and DJ workshops, operating sound and lighting for community dance parties, and working as a DJ mentor at a weekly East Van youth drop in program called The Hip Hop Drop.
Now you can catch DJ Kookum performing virtually for online festivals, curating online events, hosting online workshops, making beats in the studio, and selling merchandise on their online store.
Kookum has been a video editor for 10 years and has experience editing television, documentaries and promotional videos. Kookum is also the music supervisor for the children’s television series called ‘Coyote Science’ and is works with the Indigenous Matriarchs 4 Media Lab to host a new podcast on immersive art and VR technology.
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Orene Askew, aka DJ O Show, has experience teaching with an inspired approach. She is an inspirational speaker, having travelled across the country to bring ambition and drive to all generations, and is an elected member and Spokesperson for the Squamish Nation Council.
O Show has DJ’d the red carpet for WE Day Vancouver and was voted the official DJ for YES in Ottawa since 2012, and the official DJ for Gathering Our Voices for five years. She has hosted/MC’d numerous events, including Bowling for Big Brother’s Classic, Babes on Babes, Hershe and working for radio stations like Vancouver’s Virgin 94.5 and Washington’s Movin’ 92.5. She is the recipient of a 2015 BC Indigenous Business Award and a 2018 Stand Out Award from the Vancouver Pride Society.
Coming from a diverse background, O Show is driven by her passion. She is Afro-Canadian and First Nations, and a proud member of the Squamish Nation. Feeling as though she stood out in a unique way, she has embraced both her cultural backgrounds and incorporates the teachings she has learned into everything she does.
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During the last thirty years of his career, Drew Hayden Taylor has done many things, most of which he is proud of. An Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario, he has worn many hats in his literary career, from performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., to being Artistic Director of Canada’s premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. He has been an award-winning playwright, a journalist/columnist (appearing regularly in several Canadian newspapers and magazines), short-story writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and has worked on numerous documentaries exploring the Native experience. Most notably as a filmmaker, he wrote and directed REDSKINS, TRICKSTERS AND PUPPY STEW, a documentary on Native humour for the National Film Board of Canada, and for CBC, co-created SEARCHING FOR WINNITOU, an exploration of Germany’s fascination with North American Indigenous culture.
As a playwright, Drew has proudly been a part of what he refers to as the contemporary Native Literary Renascence. An author of more than 20 plays (resulting in almost a hundred productions), his popular plays such as TORONTO AT DREAMER’S ROCK, ONLY DRUNKS AND CHILDREN TELL THE TRUTH, THE BERLIN BLUES, and COTTAGERS AND INDIANS have left their mark on the Canadian theatre scene.
In the world of prose, he enjoys spreading the boundaries of what is considered Indigenous literature.
In 2007, Annick Press published his first Novel, THE NIGHT WANDERER: A Native Gothic Novel, a teen novel about an Ojibway vampire. 2010 saw the publication of his novel MOTORCYCLES & SWEETGRASS (Finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction). More recently, Douglas & McIntyre published a collection of his Native themed science fiction short stories, titled TAKE US TO YOUR CHIEF AND OTHER STORIES. Last fall, a new novel titled CHASING PAINTED HORSES, published by Cormorant Press, brought his publication total to 33 books.
His success as a writer has allowed him the opportunity to travel the world, spreading the gospel of Native literature. Through many of his non-fiction books, from the four volume set titled FUNNY, YOU DON’T LOOK LIKE ONE, to the ME FUNNY, ME SEXY, ME ARTSY series, he has tried to educate and inform the world about issues that reflect, celebrate, and interfere in the lives of Canada’s First Nations.
Self-described as a contemporary story teller, his exploration of the storytelling tradition has explored many boundaries. For example, he co-created and was the head writer for MIXED BLESSINGS, a television comedy series as well as contributed scripts to four other popular Canadian television series including BEACHCOMBERS and NORTH OF 60. In 2007, a made-for-tv movie he wrote, IN A WORLD CREATED BY A DRUNKEN GOD (based on his play which was a finalist for the Governor General Award for Drama) was nominated for three Gemini Awards, including Best Movie. In 2011 and 2012, he wrote the script for the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards, now known as the INDSPIRE AWARDS
The last few years has seen him proudly serve as the Writer-In-Residence at the Berton House in Dawson City Yukon, the University of Michigan, the University of Western Ontario, University of Luneburg (Germany), Ryerson University, Wilfrid Laurier, as well as a host of Canadian theatre companies i.e. Cahoots theatre, Blyth Theatre etc.
The years of writing have brought him many accolades by his peers, including the Floyd S. Chalmers Award, Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Canadian Author’s Literary Award, He has also been the recipient of many other varied honours; an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Mount Allison University, a Plaque of Honour on the Peterborough Walk of Fame, the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Award, Ontario Premier’s Award for Creative Arts and Design, and Victoria Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement in Theatre, to name a few.
Oddly enough, the thing his mother was most proud of was his ability to make spaghetti from scratch.
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Drezus has been a staple in the Indigenous music scene for over a decade. Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada and from the Muskowekwan and Cote First Nations respectively, Drezus has opened up a new world that combines traditional Anishinaabe and Nehiyaw teachings with hip-hop music and expression. He credits his growth and perseverance through life’s challenges to the creative arts.
Drezus won five Indigenous Music Awards from 2012015, was nominated for a Juno in 2009, and most recently won an MTV Video Music Award for “Best Fight Against the System” in 2017 with Taboo of The Black Eyed Peas. In 2019 he appeared on the acclaimed Paramount Network TV series”Yellowstone” alongside Kevin Costner in Season 2.
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Dr. Duke Redbird is an established Indigenous intellectual, poet, painter, broadcaster, filmmaker and keynote speaker, he brings his breadth of cultural knowledge and artistic practice to the benefit of a global audience. Dr. Redbird was instrumental in the implementation of innovative multimedia, technologies and beyond, bringing an Indigenous approach to art education that was rooted in his pioneering work at OCAD University. Dr. Redbird’s legacy stretches far beyond his work in Canada. His art has been exhibited and his poetry has been published and translated in anthologies around the world.
He works as a multifaceted artist, practicing across a number of disciplines including literature, painting, theatre, cinema and most recently rap poetry. A well-known Canadian broadcaster and television personality, he is in demand as a keynote speaker in corporate, industry, and educational settings. Dr. Redbird received his Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from York University in 1978, and his Doctorate from OCAD University in 2013. As a poet, essayist and screenwriter, Dr. Redbird has published and performed poetry readings, theatrical productions, video and film, both locally and internationally. His published book of poetry Loveshine and Red Wine was the inspiration for a multimedia musical production of his poetic work, at a command performance before Queen Elizabeth II.
In 1985, Dr. Redbird represented Canada at the Valmiki World Poetry Festival in India, reading the opening address. He has written and directed many dramatic films and documentaries. In 1993 Dr. Redbird was presented the Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago Film Festival for a drama he produced for TV Ontario. For fifteen years, from 1994 to 2009, Dr. Redbird was a familiar face on television as an on-air Arts & Entertainment reporter for CityTV.
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Ecko is a Nlaka’pamux Artist and Entrepreneur, raised with the shishalh Nation and currently living on/marrying into the Pentlatch (Qualicum) Nation on Vancouver Island. Ecko is a trained digital media and performing artist who specializes in the creation of safe spaces to empower sacred creativity. She works through the disciplines of singing, spoken word, rap, writing, speaking, music, sound, film and sacred space/empowerment facilitation.
In 2016 Ecko graduated from the Art Institute of Vancouver with a diploma in Professional Recording Arts. In 2017 she received the Fred Sheratt MusiCounts Award for Outstanding Recording Arts and Sciences in Toronto, ON. In 2019, Ecko completed the SFU LEAP Program (Social Economy Accelerator), founding Sacred Matriarch Productions, recently transitioning to Sacred Matriarch Creative. In 2020, she completed the Aboriginal Business and Entrepreneur Skills training program and has recently embarked on a journey through the Fireweed Fellowship (Canada’s first national Indigenous Entrepreneur Accelerator program) to expand her business to a Social Enterprise that trains and hires Indigenous youth in digital media storytelling and sacred space facilitation. The launch of this social enterprise will go hand in hand with the design and build of a mobile studio that establishes the meaning of safe spaces in creativity for Indigenous people.
Ecko is the daughter of a residential school survivor and cycle-breaker for her two young sons. She utilizes her art as a method of healing from intergenerational traumas and believes in using every opportunity to address tough conversations with truth and education. Ecko is regularly called on as a digital witness and safe space facilitator to help her communities in their healing and to share their stories from grassroots to global.
“My goal as an artist and entrepreneur is healing; healing my own traumas, inspiring others to want to heal and providing the tools for our youth to heal from their bloodline traumas. I truly believe that we are given our gifts and our dreams for a reason… trust them! The world needs more people who are in alignment with their gifts from Creator.” -Ecko
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In September 2018, Elisapie released The Ballad of the Runaway Girl, her third solo album. Arguably the most significant work in the singer-songwriter’s career, the album earned her two Felix awards (for Album of the Year – Other Languages and Best Album Production) and a total of five nominations at Gala de l’ADISQ, one nomination for Indigenous Album of the Year at the 2019 JUNO Awards and a feature on the 2019 Polaris Music Prize short list. In addition to taking her all over North America and Europe, this intimate album has amassed great reviews. Rolling Stone France called the music a delicately violent album that seduces as much as it questions, while NPR said Elisapie synthesizes stories from her eventful life with hypnotic arrangements that channel ‘70s rock, indigenous folk music and the low, moody rumble of barnstormers like Tom Waits. On June 19th, 2020, Elisapie returned with a new single called Asuguuq. This song is a gift to Inuit communities in the wake of National Indigenous Peoples Day.
Ambassador for Inuit culture, Elisapie represents the wild and rough beauty of the North. Her new album, The Ballad of the Runaway Girl, is the musical tale of an expatriate Inuk. She sings about the different facets and challenges of being a woman, but also an adopted child, a mother and a lover. Through this exploration of her northern roots and her femininity, we learn about an Inuk who is proud of her origins and who works for the recognition of her people’s historic difficulties. Elisapie’s journey started when she was given up for adoption as a baby, on the tarmac of an airport. She went on to grow up in Salluit, dreaming of the South. Then came her escape to Montreal, where she started a family and forgot about the extremes of the North.
The artist is now reconnecting with her origins, offering her soulful down-home folk music as she tenderly looks back on her heritage. Her style is direct as she tells her story and makes aboriginal musical classics shine. This album goes back to her roots, with both soft and raw moments and her very own mix of Inuktitut, English and French, unveiling the woman behind the music.
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Emily Kewageshig is a 23-year-old Anishinaabe artist. She was raised in Saugeen First Nation #29, a small community located along the shores of Lake Huron. Emily captures interconnection of life forms using acrylic paint, sometimes also working with oil paint, watercolour paint and other culturally significant materials gathered from the land. Her work consists of bold lines, bright colours, and symbolism which is inspired by traditional Ojibwe Woodland artists and Indigenous world view.
She graduated from Sheridan College’s Visual and Creative Arts Diploma program with Honours in 2017, receiving the “Best in Show” award at the final graduate exhibition. She is currently in her final year at OCAD University to receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts in the Indigenous Visual Culture program.
Emily presented her first body of work in 2020 at her first solo exhibition titled “Mooshknemgog Bmaadziwin: Full Circle” at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound, Ontario.
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G.R. Gritt is a Juno Award winning, Two-Spirit, Transgender, Francophone, Anishinaabe/Métis artist. After living many years in Yellowknife and forming the band Quantum Tangle, they have recently moved back to Sudbury/Robinson Huron Treaty territory where they grew up. This homecoming coincides with a journey that they feel better represents them. With these changes has come a new voice both physically and in the growing magnetism of their songwriting. G.R. Gritt pulls effortlessly from the past to create soulful futurisms with their new sound that elegantly weaves the melodies using vocals, guitar and new electronic elements. They create both intimate and anthemic music that would fit in a folk club, a dance club and anywhere in between.
The Northern cities G.R. Gritt has lived in forced them every winter through snow and harsh temperatures to make a choice between isolation and seeking community as a source of warmth. Their music serves as one of these beacons of connection for all who come near it. Welcoming yet truthful, they reclaim space through songs that show that intersectional identity is expansive and not to be divided into parts. By exploring the emotional and cultural core of their heritage as a non-binary, queer, Indigenous artist they create new space and encourage others to do the same.
G.R. Gritt is currently preparing for the release of a new full-length album titled, Ancestors, in 2021 on Coax Records.
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James Jones is a Traditional First Nations Hoop Dancer who has performed and travelled across Europe, China, Australia, and North America. Some of James’ notable performances include; 2010 Vancouver Olympics, 2014 Juno Awards, the 2015 Coachella Music Festival, and the 2015 Sydney Opera House. James has worked with such artists as K-OS and Snoop Dogg. In 2009, James appeared as a finalist on the popular TV show “So You Think You Can Dance Canada.” For the past 4 years, James has toured with Juno Award-winning group “A Tribe Called Red”. James also holds a degree in social work and enjoys mentoring youth and sharing his talents and culture worldwide.
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Founder & CEO – Redcloud Studios Inc.
Jennifer Podemski is an Anishinaabe/Ashkenazi actor, writer, director and producer with a 30+ year career. Her on screen credits include Dance Me Outside, The Rez, Degrassi TNG, Blackstone, Empire of Dirt, Departure and Reservation Dogs.
Through her production company Redcloud Studios Inc., Jennifer has been at helm of a variety of television series including: The Seventh Generation, Rabbit Fall, The Other Side, Moccasin Flats, and Future History (Canadian Screen Award 2020 for best director Factual) and the acclaimed feature film Empire of Dirt which Jennifer was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Picture and Shannon Masters received the award for writer making her the first Indigenous woman in this category.
More recently, Jennifer wrote, directed and produced Unsettled a ten-part drama series for TV Ontario and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and is in pre-production with Little Bird, a limited dramatic series for Crave and APTN.
In 2020, Jennifer launched The Shine Network Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating Indigenous women in film and television through training, mentorship and professional development.
Jennifer is the recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work in the Indigenous community, The Birks Diamond Tribute Award, the Nell Shipman Showrunner Award, The 2018 ACTRA Award of Excellence and The Weengushk Film Institute’s 2021 Award of Excellence.
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Jesse Thistle is a Métis-Cree Ph.D. Candidate in the History program and Assistant Professor at York University, Toronto. Currently, he is working on theories of the intergenerational and historical trauma of the Métis people. Jesse’s work involves reflections on his own previous struggles with addiction and homelessness and has been recognized as having a wide impact on both the scholarly community and the greater public.
Thistle was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. In 1979 he and his two brothers were removed from his family home and moved to Brampton, Ontario to be brought up by his paternal grandparents. During his late teens and twenties, Thistle struggled with addiction, homelessness, and served several brief stints in jail for petty theft. After an unsuccessful robbery attempt in 2006, Thistle turned himself in to police custody and entered a drug rehabilitation program. In 2012 he entered the undergraduate history program at York University.
Thistle is a Trudeau Scholar, a prestigious award administered by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, a Vanier Scholar, and was awarded a Governor General’s Silver Medal in 2016. He has won numerous other awards, including the Odessa Award in 2014 and the Dr. James Wu prize in 2015 for his paper “We are children of the river: Toronto’s Lost Métis History,” and in 2019 became an Atlohsa Peace Award Honoree.
In 2019, Jesse published his autobiographical and acclaimed book “From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless and Finding My Way,” which went on to be a #1 bestseller as well as nominated for Canada Reads. Jesse is the author of the Definition of Indigenous Homelessness in Canada published through the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, and his historical research has been published in numerous academic journals, book chapters, and featured on CBC Ideas, CBC Campus, and Unreserved.
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Jodie Williams is a mix of Irish and Anishinaabe from the Beaver Clan. She currently works as the Indigenous Education Lead for the Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board and is also the Co-Chair for the First Nations, Métis and Inuit Education Association of Ontario. Jodie travels globally giving workshops and developing resources to support Indigenous Education in schools. She is also the lead on a provincial Community of Practice for Indigenous Knowledge and Mathematics which involves a collaboration with NASA scientists, Maori educators from New Zealand, the Navajo Nation as well as the Anishinaabek, Kanyen’kehá:ka and Cree Nations.
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Joseph Pitawanakwat an Ojibway from Wiikwemkoong, married with one daughter. He is the Founder & Director of Creators Garden, an Indigenous outdoor education-based business, focused on plant identification, beyond-sustainable harvesting, and teaching every one of the plants’ linguistic, historical, cultural, edible, ecological and medicinal significance through experiences. His lectures and intensive programming are easily adaptable to make appropriate to individual audiences, and have been successfully delivered to a variety of organizations including over 80 first nations communities, 20 Universities, 12 colleges, and dozens of various institutions throughout Canada and the United States.
Joseph is currently a Masters Student in the MES program at York University, but has learned from hundreds of traditional knowledge holders and is uniquely blending and reinforcing these teachings with and array of western sciences.
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Musician and songwriter.
Founding member of Skydiggers since formation in 1988. They have released 18 albums over their 30 plus year career.
Long-time collaborator with Gord Downie’s solo recordings and tours starting with Coke Machine Glow (2001) and including Away Is Mine (2020), the last recording Gord made before his passing.
Many songwriting, record production, and TV and film composition to his credit.
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Julian Taylor is a Canadian singer-songwriter of West Indian and Mohawk decent. Formerly associated with the band Staggered Crossing, he has continued to record and perform as a solo artist. He is a prolific artist who has released nine studio albums since 2001 – three with Staggered Crossing, four with his band the Julian Taylor Band and two on his own.
A Toronto music scene staple and a musical chameleon, Julian Taylor is used to shaking it up. With his songs being placed in such TV shows as Haven, Private Eyes, Kim’s Convenience and Elementary, his versatility as a songwriter is signature; one minute he’s on stage playing with his band spilling out electrified rhythm and blues glory, and the next he’s featured at a folk festival delivering a captivating solo singer-songwriter set reminiscent of Jim Croce.
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Justin Stephenson is an award-winning filmmaker and moving image designer.
Justin’s recent work includes the animation for Tasha Hubbard’s We Will Stand Up, directing, editing and animating Gord Downie’s Secret Path in Concert for the CBC, Distributed, a 360-degree video work commissioned by the Canadian Film Centre Media Lab, and the animated film for Gord Downie’s The Secret Path. Justin’s film based on the work of bpNichol, The Complete Works, toured internationally and won two Golden Sheaf awards at the Yorkton Film Festival.
Justin’s work focuses on materialities – the physical qualities of subjects and media. For example, the ink, paper, and letterforms used in his title work for David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, in which the narrative is staged against handwritten letters. Developing concepts through process, Justin takes a hands-on approach with all aspects of production from the design, editing, and animation through to post production.
Other works include direction and design for television, commercials, interactive media, and live performance. He created the video design and interactive projections for Fujiwara Dance Inventions’ production of Christian Bök’s Eunoia, the animation design for the remounting of Robert Lepage’s Erwartung and Bluebeard’s Castle with The Canadian Opera Company, and interactive video design with Tribal DDB NYC, Digitas Boston, Strawberry Frog, Struck Salt Lake City among others.
Some notable film title works include Atom Egoyan’s Guest of Honour and Remember, Sarah Polley and Mary Herron’s Alias Grace, Keith Behrman’s Giant Little Ones, Miranda de Penciers’s The Grizzlies, Nathan Morlando’s Mean Dreams and Edwin Boyd, and David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars, and Cosmopolis.
Justin’s work has won two Canadian Screen Awards (Secret Path, Gord Downie’s Secret Path in Concert), garnered a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Director (Gord Downie’s Secret Path in Concert), a Juno Nomination for Video of the Year (The Stranger), two Golden Sheaf Awards (The Complete Works), and many BDA, Applied Arts and Hustonfest awards for his design work.
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Kahentawaks Tiewishaw is a Kanien’kehá:ka visual artist from Kanehsatake. Her practice includes 3D modeling, illustration, game making, and sculpture. She is also the Skins Workshops Associate Director with Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC) and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures (IIF). She graduated from Concordia University with a BFA specializing in Computation Arts. Kahentawaks is deeply interested in video games as a vehicle for indigenous culture & experience, as well as their capacity to facilitate the healing of intergenerational trauma.
www.indigenousfutures.net/workshops
www.abtec.org
www.indigenousfutures.net
kahentawakstiewishaw.com
Instagram
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Kevin Hearn is best known as a multi-instrumentalist from Barenaked Ladies, the multi-platinum selling band he’s played with for over two decades. One of the most respected Toronto musicians of the past 25 years, Hearn’s solo albums always attract equally brilliant collaborators such as singer/songwriters Ron Sexsmith and producer Gavin Brown (Metric, Tragically Hip, Sarah Harmer), not to mention his 22-year-relationship with the rhythm section of Chris Gartner and Great Bob Scott. Hearn’s recently released album ‘Calm and Cents’ features violinist Hugh Marsh, alongside Gartner, and Brown.
Also released earlier this year is Hearn’s exclusive EP titled Kevin Hearn and Friends Present: The Superhero Suite. The special edition 12” EP is a wild medley of vintage superhero-related songs, including iconic music from TV and film running the gamut from the classic Batman theme to the 1978 soundtrack of Superman. The musical luminaries include Ron Sexsmith, Michael Ray of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Carole Pope, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Alan Doyle, The Persuasions and more. One noteworthy highlight is Violent Femmes, Barenaked Ladies and Colin Hay joining forces for the theme song from TV’s Batman.
One of Hearn’s closest relationships, both musical and personal, was with the late, great Lou Reed, for whom Hearn acted as keyboardist and musical director from 2007 up until his passing in 2013.
Though Hearn has contributed songs to Barenaked Ladies albums in the past 10 years, the songs on his solo records are much more personal, both in subject matter and musical exploration. “It’s fun for me to make music that doesn’t have to fit a certain criteria, whether it be regarding the style or sound, or who is playing it,” he says.
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If you’re from the North, Leela Gilday’s music is home. If you’ve never been, it will take you there. Born and raised in the Northwest Territories, she writes about the people and the land that created her. The power in her voice conveys the depth of her feelings of love and life in a rugged environment and vibrant culture, as if it comes straight from that earth. Leela’s family is from Délįne on the shore of Great Bear Lake, and her rich vocals dance across the rhythmic beats of traditional Dene drumming as smoothly as a bass line onstage the largest venues in the country. And she has played them all.
Leela has toured festivals and concert halls with her four-piece band through every province and territory in Canada. She has played in the United States, Greenland, Australia, New Zealand and several countries in Europe. Her live shows are where she connects with fans who have followed her on a 20-year career and where new fans are born. She reaches into their hearts and feels the energy of every person in front of her as she guides them on a journey through song and experience. She believes music has an inexplicable effect on people. It is a place where she can share light and dark and the most vulnerable moments, with a clarity and genuine purpose that reassures her listeners through every word. She is a storyteller, and through this, reflects the world onto itself.
Five years after her last album was released—five years of growth, healing and head-down work—Leela’s fifth album “North Star Calling” was released fall 2019. It is more raw, more intimate and more Leela than anything you’ve heard from her before.
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Maize Longboat is Kanien’kehá:ka from Six Nations of the Grand River and was raised on the unceded territory of the Squamish Nation near Vancouver, BC. He is the Skins Workshops Associate Director with Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC) and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures (IIF). He holds an MA in Media Studies from Concordia University and a BA in First Nations Studies and History from the University of British Columbia. His MA research examined Indigenous videogame development through the production of his own game, Terra Nova, an award-winning cooperative platformer with an interactive narrative.
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It’s the kind of sound many musicians take years searching for, and since the rave reception of Mariel Buckley’s acclaimed sophomore album, Driving In The Dark, she has planted her flag firmly as a singer-songwriter who’s in it for the long haul.
Buckley’s momentum has built quickly, and 2019 earned her Roots Solo Artist of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards and first place in the Project WILD – Country Artist Development Program. She finds herself touring steadily with a dependably captivating live outfit, and with performances in support of k.d. lang, Sam Roberts, Sarah Shook & The Disarmers and The Deep Dark Woods; she’s garnered impressive experience and charisma.
Driving In The Dark solidified her as a rising name among the roots community, and earned a coveted position as one of No Depression’s Favourite Roots Music Albums of 2018. She experienced chart success, sitting on the CBC Top 20 List for more than 8 consecutive weeks – and placed No. 54 on the CBC Music’s Top 100 Canadian Songs of 2018 for ‘Rose Coloured Frames’.
Her songwriting has been described as melodic and tender – a “dazzling and assured take on the sounds of classic country.” (Jonathan Frahm, PopMatters) Now carefully assembling songs for her third release, Buckley’s studious attention to her craft and appetite for stellar recordings will no doubt produce an exceptional collection of music.
She proves that with each new endeavour she is bound to vulnerability and authenticity. This signature candour is what captivates audiences and listeners alike, and will continue to drive her forward. Whether you’ve heard Mariel Buckley or not, you will soon.
Email: mariel@marielbuckley.com
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Marika Sila is an Inuit actress from Yellowknife, NWT. She is best known for her work on the popular TV series ‘The Twilight Zone’ where she played the lead role as Sergeant Yuka Mongoyak, the first female Inuit police officer to attain the rank of Sergeant in the state of Alaska. Marika also specializes in stunts and special skills including, hoop dancing, fire spinning, sword and staff handling. She started her special skills journey as a hoop dancer and was recently voted Canadian Hoop Dancer of the Year. Marika is currently filming a TV series called ‘Tribal’ and is passionate about sharing their RedPath Empowerment programs to schools and communities across the world. You can watch her episode #4 of ‘The Twilight Zone’ on CBS All Access, or download it on iTunes.
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Maurice Switzer, Bnesi, is a citizen of the Mississaugas of Alderville First Nation, where his grandfather Moses Marsden was Chief from 1905-1909. He is Wazhashk (Muskrat) Dodem Anishinabek, and Okwaho (Wolf) Clan Haudenosaunee, passed down from his great-grandmother Esther Hill from Tyendinaga. He also is proud of his Jewish ancestry. He currently serves as chair of Nipissing University’s Indigenous Council on Education and as president of the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre. At various times he has been a member of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, an adjunct professor of communications and Indigenous studies on the Laurentian University campus, and a reporter, editor, and publisher at five Canadian daily newspapers. We are all Treaty People and Gdoo-Sastamoo Kii Mi (for high school students).
We are all Treaty People: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP-mSTLSI4U
Gdoo-Sastamoo Kii Mi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSx0rOyoIaY
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Lloyd Gwin first volunteered to play Santa in the 1970s, he loved it, Since then he would ride around on a snowmobile delivering presents to families of his colleagues at the volunteer fire department in High Level, Alberta. Last year, he was able to fulfil his dream of being what he calls Métis Santa. A Métis Santa wears a sash rather than a belt, mittens and moccasins instead of gloves and boots. Join Lloyd as he reads Métis Christmas Mittens by Leah Marie Dorion and then takes questions from students about Métis Christmas. In the Metis Culture, it’s all about being grateful, thanking our Creator for the gifts of family, friends and community and sharing the spirit of the Christmas Season.
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If you can embrace the grace and power of Northern Ontario landscapes, you will feel the music of Mimi O’Bonsawin. She epitomizes the powerful scenery and the beauty of its waters through her music, all the while yielding to her rich and warm French Canadian and Abenaki roots. Her musical creations flow through a center of love, with the intention to give back and spread awareness.
Her newest release ELLE DANSE if a French EP that has been placed on several Spotify Curated Playlists as well as Amazon Music and Apple Music playlists bringing her listener audience to over 4K over all platforms.
Mimi’s music has gained some momentum and has received various awards and nominations. She was recently awarded Best Pop Record at the Indigenous Music Awards. She has performed in front of international audiences and has shared the stage with artists like Buffy Sainte-Marie, Crystal Shawanda and more. Mimi’s music is regularly aired on CBC & Sirius XM in Canada and the US. She has composed instrumental tracks for film & TV and her song ‘Stone Gaze’ was placed in Showtime’s Ray Donavon TV Series (E1S5) and other tracks from her records are featured on APTN’s Mohawk Girls.
Mimi O’Bonsawin’s presence is not limited to the stage and radio play. You may witness her passion for songwriting and music by attending her inspirational workshops given in schools and conferences across the country.
It has been said that at the age of 24, Mimi O’Bonsawin is an old soul who is not afraid of creating intimacy with her audience and sharing laughs and tears and teaching you a thing or two about yourself and the world around you.
In a time where you may feel like it has all been done before, Mimi is a rare find. She is one of a kind. When you meet her, you will know it.
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Mo is ukwe (they/them) and is a neurodiverse Onyota’a:ka x French art-maker x visual storyteller who is currently based on Dish with One Spoon Territory (Tkaronto). They grew up on Anishinaabe aki, down river from Aamjiwnaang First Nation, where they have family ties.
Through their art practice (sewing, beading, painting murals, journaling), they aim to express and share stories about intergenerational healing, neurodiversity, identity, empowerment, and truth. They are inspired by stories, memory, community and growth, individually and collectively. Aura’s aim is to address intergenerational healing in their family by trusting the creative process. The core of their work is about moving through the world with love and fierceness. Their art is their voice, their truth and an extension of who they are. Aura’s hope is that their art reaches others in a way that inspires thoughts and feelings igniting questions, curiosity, reflection and self-love.
“It is through the freedom of the creative process that imagination and creativity are ignited, connections are restored, meaning is built, passions are discovered, visions are manifested, ideas are born, inspiration becomes contagious, strength is called upon, and all voices and stories are heard.”
-Monique Aura Bedard (Mo / Aura), BFA, DTATI Candidate
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When he was young, Thunder Bay based singer-songwriter and guitarist Nick Sherman’s grandfather would pick him up in the wee hours from his parents’ place in Sioux Lookout, and drive up the winter highway to North Caribou Lake First Nation. It was there that Sherman accompanied his grandfather while he tended to his trapline, and also where he heard his grandfather sing and play guitar. “He would have been the first person I ever saw sit down, pick up a guitar, play it and sing at the same time,” Sherman says.
Fast forward nearly three decades and countless kilometres later, Sherman has a partner and two boys of his own but a similar spirit still drives his music.
Sherman’s music has taken him across the country where he has performed at various events and festivals such as Ottawa Bluesfest, Vancouver Folk Festival, Luminato Festival, and more.
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Johnston’s spirit name is Wiishkoonseh Miigizi’enh means Whistling White Headed Eagle. He grew up in Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and apprenticed with Storytellers since his youth. Sources of his artistic inspiration include woodland painters, Story Tellers and the traditions of his indigenous culture. Johnston notes: “In a time of reconciliation, it is important for all people to know that we exist and have such a strong, beautiful legacy of stories and teachings from the Anishinaabe Nation that are grounded in my experience and identity.”
A painter, mural artist, traditional storyteller, and traditional helper, Johnston uses his gift of storytelling to connect his peoples’ stories of love and healing with the broader world and offer support to a range of community organizations. His work has been exhibited across many of Canada’s most important institutions, from the AGO and ROM to the Evergreen Brickworks and the Chippewas of Nawash Cultural Centre. His artistic practice is focused on illustrating stories of the Anishinaabe Nation in a variety of media in order to raise awareness of their unique histories as they in turn inform his process. He was born and raised on his beautiful reserve, Neyaashiinigmiing, on the Saugeen Peninsula (Bruce Peninsula) and took a keen interest in painting and art at a very young age.
Johnston has an established portfolio of work and is well recognized in Toronto. His original works are showcased at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in the Jennings Young gallery (J.S. McLean Centre for Indigenous & Canadian Art). Johnston’s Diiyah Muh’gaanag (Our First Family) is a collection of images of spiritual beings, plants and animals based on Anishinaabe teachings. Drawn in a pictographic style, they tell stories of botany, astrology and the interconnectedness of all living things. Johnston currently lives in Toronto, Ontario, and is a contributing member to the Indigenous & Canadian collection at the AGO
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Patrick Hunter is a 2-Spirit Ojibwe painter, graphic designer, and entrepreneur from Red Lake, ON. In 2011, he made the move to Toronto to pursue a career in the visual arts after completing the graphic design program at Sault College in Sault Ste. Marie, ON. After spending too long working in the service industry, it became clear that a major career move would need to be made. Knowing that his cultural background was an asset to his success, in 2014 he launched Patrick Hunter Art & Design. The focus being specializing in original and digital artwork and designs from his Ojibwe roots with the intent to create a broader awareness of Indigenous culture and iconography. He is best known for his paintings in the Woodland art style. However, he is also making a name for himself in the corporate world through artistic and graphic collaborations with RBC and BMO Banks, Ernst & Young, TSN, and most recently the NHL Blackhawks. Patrick’s dream to create a positive future for his people has led him to become the first Artist in Residence for the Prince’s Trust Canada, a Royal charity in which aides in the reclamation of Indigenous languages in Canada. He currently resides in Toronto, and is busily preparing a Made-in-Canada collection of apparel, paintings and houseware products to share with all of you.
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The Poets are a band that is based in Moose Factory / Moosonee in northern Ontario. They first got their start in 2018 at local community art and music festival called The Gathering Of Our People.
Band members include guitarists Clint Hamilton, Rob Carter, bassist Jon Kapashesit, keys Oscar Hamilton, drummer Paul Chakasim and rounding it off is lead singer Vic Linklater.
All the guys reside in Moose Factory and Moosonee. Vic saw an opportunity to start something to support Gord Downie’s cause of reconciliation in the wonderful unity that is the Downie Wenjack Fund.
The band continued into 2021 and beyond with their passion for building bridges and creating partnerships with Indigenous and non-indigenous people and communities across Ontario in the spirit of Gord, Chanie and reconciliation.
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Reuben and the Dark is the spirited folk-rock outfit led by songwriter/vocalist Reuben Bullock. Contemplative, passionate, and expansive, Bullock’s songwriting has earned comparisons to contemporaries like Vance Joy and Matt Corby. Together, the group makes chilling, emotive folk and alt-rock driven by dark, introspective lyrics that explore the duality of sorrow and joy.
un | love, the new album by Reuben and the Dark, is a collection of lush and beautiful songs about endings and hope for the future. Chronicling a tempestuous time in frontman Reuben Bullock’s life, the album’s eleven songs represent an exploration of life’s crossroads, and the personal growth that comes from it. On the band’s third album, Reuben and the Dark evokes the raw emotion of Bullock’s soulful vocals with spacious sonics that suggest the levity that comes with the passage of a storm. un | love was produced by the band and Marcus Paquin (The National, Timber Timbre, Local Natives), who also takes up the mixing chair, as well as Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene.
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Rhonda Head is from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in northern Manitoba, Canada. Rhonda is a Mezzo-Soprano and has released five albums to date, numerous singles, and is currently working on her sixth album. Rhonda has received 16 nominations in total and won six International music awards since she began her music career in 2010. She writes her lyrics in her Indigenous Cree Language, and composes her melodies based off the landscape in her home reserve of Opaskwayak Cree Nation.
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A highly accomplished arts leader, creator, and innovator, Sandra Laronde, M.S.C., O.M.C., B.A. (Hon), Hon. LL.D. has 30 years of experience in the arts and culture sector. She is from the Teme-Augama Anishinaabe (People of the Deep Water) in Temagami, northern Ontario, and based in Toronto.
Sandra plays a pivotal role in the ongoing Indigenous cultural resurgence of Canada. For three decades, she has created an extraordinary body of work and inspired programming with collaborators that has led to powerful, transformational arts experiences. She has helped to elevate the ecology of arts and culture in this country while strengthening an international presence.
A champion of Canada, Sandra is active in diplomacy, forging stronger ties by representing the nation at numerous high-profile international platforms including Canadian Heritage’s first Creative Industries Trade Mission to China, the Trade Mission to Europe in 2022, Canadian High Commission in Mongolia, and as an Official Delegate at the 19th ASSITEJ World Congress in South Africa, to name a few.
Sandra founded Red Sky Performance in 2000, Canada’s leading company of contemporary Indigenous performance in Canada and worldwide. Their mission is to create inspiring experiences of contemporary Indigenous arts and culture that makes meaningful change in society.
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Sandra Sutter is an award winning Cree Métis recording artist, singer/songwriter and musician who writes, records and performs in a variety of styles including Americana, folk, country, pop, jazz and rock.
Raised in a loving non-Indigenous family, Sandra discovered and embraced her ancestral and cultural roots later in life. Like many displaced Indigenous people, honouring her proud heritage is important to a woman whose birth heritage was lost through time and circumstance. Her culture influences her every step through life and she has grown into an active and passionate advocate for Indigenous culture and rights. Her life journey in both the non-Indigenous and Indigenous worlds has given her a unique perspective and opportunity to bring people together through her songs of reconciliation.
Her truth and reconciliation focused album, Cluster Stars, speaks of the fundamental strength, beauty and resilience of Indigenous Peoples, receiving 11 Industry nominations to date for the 2018 release. Sutter created Cluster Stars with producers and JUNO-winners Vince Fontaine (Eagle & Hawk/Indian City) and Chris Burke-Gaffney (The Pumps/Orphan). She picked up Best Americana recording at the 2018 Nammy’s, Best Producer/Engineer at the 2019 Indigenous Music Awards, an Esquao Award (Arts) from the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women and an Aboriginal Role Model of Alberta (Arts) Award both in 2019. Other nominations include Best Pop Album at the IMA’s, Indigenous Songwriter of the Year at the CFMA’s, Best Female Artist, Best Pop Recording and Song of the Year at the NAMA’s, Zachariah and the Prophets Memorial Award at the YYC Music Awards and Best Recording in Country, Folk, Pop and Spoken Word at the ISMA’s. In November, Sandra was recognized by WXN as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada.
In December 2019, Sutter released an A/B short album (Fireside) consisting of two new singles and continuing the Cluster Stars work. Fireside evolved into a full length album in November 2020, called Aurora 12, focused on some of the very complex social and emotional impacts of Christmas and mainstream holidays often experienced by Indigenous peoples.
Sandra is the Aboriginal Partnerships Manager for PTW Energy Services and the President of the Board of Directors for the Circle for Aboriginal Relations Society. She sits on several Indigenous serving boards and committees across Canada. She lives and breathes the concepts that she thinks, speaks and sings about every day.
www.sandrasutter.com
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Santee is a multidisciplinary artist from the Kahnyen’kehàka Nation, Turtle Clan, Six Nations of the Grand River, Haldimand Treaty Territory, Ontario.
Santee trained at Canada’s National Ballet School, completed Physical Education and Psychology degrees from McMaster University and a M.A. in Dance from York University. Santee premiered her debut work Kaha:wi – a family creation story, in 2004 and one year later founded Kaha:wi Dance Theatre which has grown into an internationally renowned company.
Santee’s artistic work speaks about identity and Indigenous narratives. Her body of work includes 14 productions and numerous short works which tour nationally and internationally. Her commissions include choreography for the National Arts Centre Orchestra and recent Grand Acts of Theatre, among others. She is the recipient of the K.M. Hunter Award; Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award; John Hobday Award; Hamilton Music Award for Kaha:wi; Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Choreography in Dance for Susuriwka – willow bridge, REVEAL Indigenous Arts Award, and the inaugural Johanna Metcalf Prize for the Performing Arts. Her work Blood Tides received Outstanding Production and Outstanding Performance Ensemble in Dance at the 2019 Dora Mavor Moore Awards and 5 Dora Mavor Moore 2020 awards went to her production of The Mush Hole.
Santee is a sought-after teacher and speaker on the performing arts and Indigenous performance and culture. Her life and works have been the topic of TV series and films and most recently on CBC Arts – The Move. Smith is the 19th Chancellor of McMaster University.
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Sara Dawn Nungos Cornthwaite is a content creator from Nipissing First Nation and is currently living and working in Toronto. She is a cinematographer and photographer, helping to bring projects full circle with editing and animating. With over nine years of professional experience, she frequents television sets and broadcast productions, along with solo videography and documentary work.
With a love for people and travel, her work has taken her around the world. Often travelling as a solo camera operator, she documents stories from a global perspective. She’s also taken her passion back home, to work with her community to share important stories and teachings.
Her content has been featured online and in television programming, across radio platforms, digital billboards and concert arenas. Her photography has been published in branded packaging, books, magazines, newspaper and digital articles across North America.
Sara strives to tell meaningful stories in a beautiful way.
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Sebastian Gaskin is a multi-instrumentalist R&B singer-songwriter based in Winnipeg, Canada, who grew up in Tataskweyak Cree Nation, or Split Lake as it’s better known. Sebastian writes and self produces music that is anything but formulaic, thanks to eclectic musical tastes in R&B, Hip Hop, Metal,and Punk. The Winnipeg Free Press says: “…think Post Malone mixed with Frank Ocean, all swag and smooth vocals, hits of hip-hop and rap, rounded out with emotive thoughtful lyrics.”.
Following the release of Gaskin’s debut EP, “Contradictions”, on their own imprint, LieBoy Concepts, Sebastian made some impressive strides. Gaskin headlined a cross-Canada club tour, and made appearances at established festivals throughout the country, including Festival du voyageur, Canadian Music Week, Interstellar Rodeo, and Calgary Stampede. They have supported artists like Common, T-Pain, and has toured supporting the iconic songwriter and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie. Sebastian frequently collaborates with DJ and producer, Boogey the Beat.
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Shadow Colomb AKA Shadow Xtreme came into the wrestling ring by way of Pukatawagan, Manitoba. Shadow trained to be a Pro Wrestler in 2008 and has pursued a long career in professional wrestling across Canada. He has entertained crowds with his technical and high-flying wrestling action as seen on MTV Canada, Vice TV, and many other TV programs across North America.
In 2013, Shadow saw a void in the market and launched the first 100% First Nations-owned wrestling company known as Northern Empire Wrestling (NEW). Through NEW he continues to travel across Canada hosting live wrestling events and anti-bullying workshops, working closely with youth promoting positive and healthy life choices.
He understands the experiences of growing up on a reservation and made a goal to inspire and give hope to First Nations youth. He continues to work very hard to motivate everyone around him through his work in filmmaking, music and pro wrestling training.
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ShoShona is an Anishinaabekwe community organizer, producer, activist, & international touring artist with the JUNO award winning band, DIGGING ROOTS.
In 2018 ShoShona was recognized for her work with the Professional Excellence Award from WOMEX, “for her role in the ongoing revolution, using the medium of music as an agent of change, to awaken our humanity and help us connect”.
She is the founder and Artistic Director of the International Indigenous Music Summit and she serves as President on the Board of Directors for Folk Music Canada.
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I am a survivor of St Paul’s Indian Day School from 1966-1968 and Sechelt Residential School from 1968-1971. Born and raised on Eslha7an Reservation in North Vancouver, BC. Both my parents are Residential School survivors as both set of grandparents. My late wife was also a Residential School survivor, so our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren are inter-generational survivors.
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Tanya Talaga is Ojibwe with roots in Fort William First Nation in Ontario, Canada. She worked as a journalist at the Toronto Star for more than twenty years, and has been nominated five times for the Michener Award in public service journalism. Talaga holds an honorary Doctor of Letters from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, and shares her expertise on the boards of PEN Canada and The Narwal. Tanya is the President and CEO of Makwa Creative, a production company focussed on Indigenous storytelling.
Tanya is the acclaimed author of Seven Fallen Feathers, which was the winner of the RBC Taylor Prize, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, and First Nation Communities Read: Young Adult/Adult. The book was also a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Nonfiction Prize and the BC National Award for Nonfiction, and it was CBC’s Nonfiction Book of the Year, a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book, and a national bestseller.
Tanya was named the 2017–2018 Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy and this series resulted in her new book, All Our Relations: Finding A Path Forward, Tanya shared the messages of this book through the Massey Lectures 2018 across Canada. This book was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writer’s Trust Prize for Non-Fiction in 2019. All Our Relations has also been published and released in the United Kingdom and Australia under the title, All Our Relations: Indigenous Trauma in the Shadow of Colonialism. The book will be released in French in 2020.
She lives in Toronto with her two teenage children, but her heart is in northern Ontario. Her great-grandmother, Liz Gauthier, was a residential school survivor. Her great-grandfather, Russell Bowen, was an Ojibwe trapper and labourer. Her grandmother is a member of Fort William First Nation, and her mother was raised in Raith and Graham, Ontario.
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Theland Kicknosway is a member of Wolf Clan, of the Potawatami and Cree Nation, from Walpole Island, Bkejwanong Territory in Southern Ontario. He is currently in high school in the Ottawa Region and enjoys offering his gifts of song, dance and voice for all. He is a singer, a grass and hoop dancer, and helps in ceremonies in many places. In November 2015, at just 12 years old, Theland led the incoming Prime Minister and cabinet into the swearing-in ceremony with a drum song.
He has offered his voice and songs for the Indian Residential School Survivors in 2008 and in the closing of the TRC in 2015, and has been a Kairos Blanket Exercise Facilitator for the past seven years. Theland completed his 6th annual MMIWG2S run in Spring 2020 in partnership with Families of Sisters in Spirit, raising awareness of the children left behind in the wake of this crises. He hopes to expand his run to a national scale, and is preparing to run from Victoria, BC to Ottawa, ON in 2021.
Theland received the Indspire Award in 2018 under the category Culture, Heritage and Spirituality for his achievements, and is the youngest Indspire recipient in history of the awards.
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Tom Wilson was raised in the rough-and-tumble world of Hamilton—Steeltown— in the company of World War II vets, factory workers, fall-guy wrestlers and the deeply guarded secrets kept by his parents, Bunny and George. For decades Tom carved out a life for himself in shadows. He built an international music career and became a father, he battled demons and addiction, and he waited, hoping for the lies to cease and the truth to emerge. It would. And when it did, it would sweep up the St. Lawrence River to the Mohawk reserves of Quebec, on to the heights of the Manhattan skyline.With a rare gift for storytelling and an astonishing story to tell, Tom writes with unflinching honesty and extraordinary compassion about his search for the truth. It’s a story about scars, about the ones that hurt us, and the ones that make us who we are.
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Tracy Bone is a 2009 JUNO Award Nominee, a Multi-Award Winning Singer/Songwriter, Mother, and Spiritual Explorer.
Her spirit name “Peta Awanyanke” (Lakota language) in English translates to “Keeps The Fire” which humbly speaks to her Life Purpose and will also be the title of her 3rd upcoming studio album. Bone has been determined, guided, and focused on healing for seven years; January 2020 marked the fullness of that cycle.
“I chose this courageously terrifying journey because I wanted to learn how to break the cycle of unresolved traumas in my family line due to both my Grandmothers experiences in Indian Residential School and my Grandfather’s PTSD as a veteran. I was willing to do whatever it took to be a healthy minded person not knowing a thing about what that would ask of me. To heal all my wounds that I had yet to uncover so I could someday grow into an empowered Woman and Mother that my children and I could depend on and be proud of.”
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Singer / Songwriter Vern Cheechoo grew up in Moose Factory, Ontario, a small community on an island on the Moose River, about 200 miles away from the nearest town, with his parents, three brothers and five sisters. Vern is a proud member of the Moose Cree First Nation, and presently resides in Timmins, Ontario.
Self-taught, Vern started playing guitar at the age of six. He would watch his brothers play and would later try and reproduce what he saw and heard—he was a natural. By the age of eight he was chording for his father, who was entering Vern in talent shows. Vern has come a long ways in the music business. From playing in talent shows to playing such venues as the Mariposa Music Festival, Massey Hall, London Home County Folk Festival, North Dakota Arena, Winnipeg Park Theatre, Toronto Danforth Hall, Harbor Front, Toronto North By Northeast, Vancouver’s Music West, Northern Lights Music Festival, Chapleau’ s Nature Fest, Montreal’s First peoples Music Festival, to name a few and opening shows with the likes of Bruce Cockburn, Indigo Girls, Buffy Ste. Marie, Jim Witter, Don Burnstick, Kashtin, and sharing the stage with artists like, long time friend Lawrence Martin, Kevin Welch, Joe Ely, the Spence Boys, Valdy, Willie P. Bennett, and many, many more.
Vern has three solo recordings to date. His first release “Lonesome and Hurting” released in 1993 and was an innovative and contemporary collection of country songs and ballads. Vern was featured on CBC-TV’s “Ear to the Ground”, 1993 season—a show that profiles rising Canadian musicians. The single “Lonesome and Hurting” was featured on the popular CBS television series “Northern Exposure”. Vern also made an appearance in “Dance Me Outside” a Bruce McDonald and Norman Jewison movie that also featured the title cut “Lonesome and Hurting” and “Love Me Tonight” as part of the movies sound track.
Vern’s second and third releases garnered more attention receiving Nominations, twice for the Juno Awards in 2000 and 2003. Vern is also a two-time Saskatchewan Country Music Award Nominee and 7 times Aboriginal Music Award Nominee, and a winner at the 2000 Aboriginal Music Awards for the Best Produced Album of the year. Vern says, “It’s the love of music and entertaining folks, the fans, that keep me going and I’ll keep going until I can’t play or sing no more”.
For more information on Vern Cheechoo contact: verncheechoo@mushkegowuk.ca
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Allan and Christian Nabinacaboo are brothers from the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach, a small community in the northern borderlands of Quebec and Labrador, and are founders of the rap group, Violent Ground. The group’s name is inspired by the history of the land we live on and issues indigenous people face, such as drug addiction, alcoholism, colonialism, racism, crimes, and violence. They want to give a voice to all native people through their music. They are composers and lyricists who aim to enlighten and inspire crowds with powerful lyrics and their unique brand of music.
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Waubgeshig Rice is an author and journalist originally from Wasauksing First Nation. He’s written three works of fiction, most recently the national bestseller Moon of the Crusted Snow. He lives in Sudbury, Ontario with his wife and two sons.
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Kwey kwey, Wahjay, I am Algonquin / Cree from Timiskaming First Nation. My workshops and inspirational talks are a culmination of what I have learned through various life experiences. In 1992 I went to a native treatment center in Thunder Bay. There I learned the Anishnabe way of life, and how to live without drugs and alcohol. Several years went by and a couple of artist friends taught me how to paint and stretch canvas. This started me on another new journey where I began selling art across North America and parts of Europe. I took a break from creating art and worked in the mines in Northern Ontario for a few years, later transitioning into a position as elected Chief of Timiskaming First Nation. After stepping aside from the 2019 summer election, I picked up my paint brushes again. I find painting to be therapeutic and enlightening.
Meegwetch.
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Wesley Hardisty is a fiddler and composer whose music blends rock, country, folk, Celtic, Métis and Traditional sounds. His passionate playing is compelling to watch, his love of music evident.
Wesley is from the Dene First Nation in the Northwest Territories. Largely self taught, he took up the fiddle at age thirteen in Fort Simpson through the outreach work of the Kole Crook Fiddle Association. He attended the prestigious Gulf Islands School of Performing Arts on Saltspring Island BC.
His debut CD 12:12 won the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Award for Best Fiddle CD. Just 26, he has an impressive resume with hundreds of gigs, festivals and TV performances. Wesley creates emotionally evocative music, and is a soulful musician and inspiring young man.
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Since their debut in 2011, Toronto’s Whitehorse has evolved from magnetic folk duo to full-blown rock band. In truth, Whitehorse is never fully either one or the other, but an ever-evolving creative partnership between Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet. As five consecutive JUNO nominations in four categories attest, whether it be a holiday album or reworked blues covers or pop noir album, Whitehorse rises to every challenge with guitar wizardry and magnetic harmonies.
With The Northern South Vol. 2, Whitehorse returned to their JUNO Blues Album of the Year nominated project, which reimagines the early days of electric blues. For the second instalment, The Northern South Vol. 2 deals 1950s blues bops, sexed-up cuts and hellfire gospels to meld the grooves and melodies of the original selections with the band’s steamy, swampy, squalling approach. Both snapshot and slingshot, with an eye on the end-of-days and Whitehorse’s ear for blues grooves, The Northern South Vol. 2 expanded the universe of the Northern South with foreplay, foreboding, fever and Fenders — plenty of them — on cuts from Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Jimmy Reed, Slim Harpo and more.
www.whitehorsemusic.ca
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The Artist Ambassador program has been made possible through the generous support of RBC Foundation, in support of RBC Future Launch.
Inspired by Chanie’s story and Gord’s call to build a better Canada, the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund aims to build cultural understanding and create a path toward reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Our goal is to improve the lives of Indigenous people by building awareness, education, and connections between all peoples in Canada.
Phone: 1-844-944-4545
E-mail: staff@downiewenjack.ca
Address:
PO BOX 749
OHSWEKEN, ON
N0A1M0
