Brian Maracle (also known as Owennatekha; [1] born 1947) is a Mohawk writer and broadcaster from Canada. [1] He is most noted as a two-time nominee for the Writers' Trust of Canada's Gordon Montador Award, for his books Crazywater: Native Voices on Addiction and Recovery in 1994 [2] and Back on the Rez in 1997. [3]
A member of the Six Nations of the Grand River, Maracle was raised Ohsweken, Ontario and in New York before being educated at Dartmouth College. [1] He then worked for indigenous organizations in Canada before returning to school, studying journalism at Carleton University, and then worked as a journalist on indigenous issues for The Globe and Mail and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, most notably hosting the radio series Our Native Land. [1] He published Crazywater: Native Voices on Addiction and Recovery, an extensive study of addiction issues in First Nations communities, in 1993, and Back to the Rez, a memoir of his own experiences moving back to Ohsweken after having spent many years living and working in the wider world, in 1996. [1]
After moving back to Ohsweken, he established a Mohawk language immersion school in the community, and hosted the radio program Tewatonhwehsen! on community radio station CKRZ-FM. [1] He has also collaborated with his daughter, filmmaker Zoe Leigh Hopkins, on the 2012 sound art piece Karenniyohston – Old Songs Made Good. [1]
Bobbi Lee Maracle was an Indigenous Canadian writer and academic of the Stó꞉lō nation. Born in North Vancouver, British Columbia, she left formal education after grade 8 to travel across North America, attending Simon Fraser University on her return to Canada. Her first book, an autobiography called Bobbi Lee: Indian Rebel, was published in 1975. She wrote fiction, non-fiction, and criticism and held various academic positions. Maracle's work focused on the lives of Indigenous people, particularly women, in contemporary North America. As an influential writer and speaker, Maracle fought for those oppressed by sexism, racism, and capitalist exploitation.
The Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte (MBQ) are a Mohawk community within Hastings County, Ontario. They control the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, which is a 7,362.5 ha (18,193-acre) Mohawk Indian reserve on the Bay of Quinte in southeastern Ontario, Canada, east of Belleville and immediately to the west of Deseronto. They also share Glebe Farm 40B and the Six Nations of the Grand River reserves with other First Nations.
Joseph Boyden is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. He is best known for writing about First Nations culture. Three Day Road, a novel about two Cree soldiers serving in the Canadian military during World War I, was inspired by Ojibwa Francis Pegahmagabow, the legendary First World War sniper. Joseph Boyden's second novel, Through Black Spruce, follows the story of Will, son of one of the characters in Three Day Road. The third novel in the Bird family trilogy was published in 2013 as The Orenda.
Ohsweken is a dispersed rural community located within the Six Nations of the Grand River, in the County of Brant, Ontario, Canada. Approximately 300 of the 2,700 homes on the reserve are in Ohsweken, and it is the site of the reserve governmental and administrative offices.
CKRZ-FM is a radio station in Ohsweken, Ontario. Owned by the Southern Onkwehon:we Nishinabec Indigenous Communications Society (SONICS), the station airs a community radio format for the region's Six Nations and Mississauga First Nations.
Shawn Brant is a Native activist who lives on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Ontario, Canada. He has been involved in direct action struggles for Native land rights, in conflict with Ontario provincial authorities.
Cheri Maracle is an Aboriginal Canadian actress and musician of Mohawk-Irish descent.
Sidney Bobb is a Canadian actor and television presenter. He is the co-artistic director at Aanmitaagzi in North Bay, Ontario and an instructor at the Centre for Indigenous Theatre. From 2007 to 2016, he, along with Patty Sullivan, hosted the programming block Kids' CBC.
Clifford Lloyd Maracle (1944–1996) was a Canadian Indigenous artist from the Mohawk Nation, Tyendinaga Reserve near Deseronto, Ontario. Both a painter and a sculptor, he was best known for his depictions of the plight of urban Indians in the 1970s. Maracle did not rely on traditional motifs but rather established himself as a leader of a new expressionistic style among First Nations artists.
Zoe Leigh Hopkins is a Canadian Heiltsuk/Mohawk writer and film director who began her career in acting in 1991 and later pursued filmmaking.
Rosanna Deerchild is a Canadian Cree writer, poet and radio host. She is best known as host of the radio program Unreserved on CBC Radio One, a show that shares the music, cultures, and stories from indigenous people across Canada, from 2014 to 2020. With CBC Radio One, she has hosted two other shows; The (204) and the Weekend Morning Show. She has also appeared on CBC Radio's DNTO. She has been on various other media networks: APTN, Global Television Network, and Native Communications (NCI-FM).
Janet Marie Rogers is a First Nations Mohawk/Tuscarora writer from the Ontario Six Nations. Her work includes poetry and spoken-word performance poetry.
Beverly "Bev" Beaver is a Mohawk Canadian athlete from the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada, known for her performance in fastball, hockey, and bowling. Beaver was born to Reg and Norma Henhawk and had four siblings, Sidney Henhawk, Charlene Nuttycombe, Toni Johnson, and Justine Bomberry. Beaver's competed as a professional athlete from 1961 to 1994. She is known to have developed her athletic skills by playing sports with boys throughout her childhood, even becoming a prominent player on a boy's bantam hockey team at age 13. Beaver played exclusively on Native fastball teams; however, she has played on non-Native teams in other sports. Throughout her career she earned awards such as the Regional Tom Longboat Award for Southern Ontario (1967) and the National Tom Longboat Award (1980). Beaver is credited with earning other awards for performance in fastball, hockey, and bowling. Some of her hockey artifacts are in the Hockey Hall of Fame, in its diversity exhibit.
Indigenous peoples of Canada are culturally diverse. Each group has its own literature, language and culture. The term "Indigenous literature" therefore can be misleading. As writer Jeannette Armstrong states in one interview, "I would stay away from the idea of "Native" literature, there is no such thing. There is Mohawk literature, there is Okanagan literature, but there is no generic Native in Canada".
The Road Forward is a 2017 musical documentary film written and directed by Marie Clements about key moments in the history of Indigenous rights in Canada, from the 1930s to today. The film was produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
The Gordon Montador Award was a Canadian literary award, presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada to honour non-fiction writing on social issues. Created in 1991 in memory of book editor and publisher Gordon Montador, the award was presented until 1999, when it was superseded by a reorganization of the Writers' Trust Awards. The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, presented for the first time in 2000, encompassed much of the same subject area; although the Cohen award was never formally stated by the organization to be an official replacement for the Montador award, no new winner was ever announced for the Montador award after the Cohen award was introduced.
Falen Johnson is a Mohawk and Tuscarora playwright and broadcaster from Canada.
Crazywater is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Dennis Allen and released in 2013. Adapted from Brian Maracle's non-fiction book Crazywater: Native Voices on Addiction and Recovery, the film centres on the issue of alcoholism in First Nations communities.
Cody Caetano is a Canadian writer from Toronto, Ontario, whose debut memoir Half-Bads in White Regalia was the winner of the Indigenous Voices Award for English prose in 2023.