Sheila North is a Cree leader and journalist, who formerly served as Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak. [1]
North is originally from Bunibonibee Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba. [2] As a teenager, she moved to Winnipeg to attend Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute, before graduating from Red River College in 2006 with a degree in communications. [3] She then worked as a journalist for CBC News and CTV News. [4] She was nominated for a Gemini Award in 2010. [5] In 2012, she helped coin the hashtag #MMIW, for missing and murdered indigenous women, while working for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. [6] She was involved in English-to-Cree translation for the 2012 documentary We Were Children. [7]
In 2015, she became Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, the first woman to hold the position. [8] She was named one of Chatelaine’s top 30 women of 2015. [9] In November 2016, she appealed to federal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to accept an invitation to visit Shamattawa First Nation after a fire destroyed the only grocery store in the nation. [10] In 2017, she addressed the federal parliament's Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee over the country's failure to compensate First Nations for hydropower development, as was agreed in the Northern Flood Agreement. [11]
After her term ended, she contested the 2018 Assembly of First Nations leadership election, finishing as runner up to incumbent Perry Bellegarde with 23,9% of the second ballot vote. [12]
In 2021, she announced she would be running to lead the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, aiming to become the first woman in history to become AMC Grand Chief. [13]
The Saulteaux, otherwise known as the Plains Ojibwe, are a First Nations band government in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. They are a branch of the Ojibwe who pushed west. They formed a mixed culture of woodlands and plains Indigenous customs and traditions.
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 fights for those oppressed by sexism, racism, and capitalist exploitation.
Thompson is the largest city in the Northern Region of Manitoba and is situated along the Burntwood River, 761 kilometres (473 mi) north of Winnipeg. Originally founded in 1956 as a mining town, it now primarily serves as the "Hub of the North", providing goods and services such as healthcare and retail trade to the surrounding communities.
Assembly of First Nations leadership elections are held every three years to elect the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. Each chief of a First Nation in Canada is eligible to cast a vote. Currently there are 634 eligible voters.
A tribal council is an association of First Nations bands in Canada, generally along regional, ethnic or linguistic lines.
First Nations in Manitoba constitute of over 160,000 registered persons as of 2021, about 57% of whom live on reserve. Manitoba is second to Ontario in total on-reserve population and in total First Nation population.
The Aboriginal Justice Inquiry (AJI), officially the Public Inquiry into the Administration of Justice and Aboriginal People, was a public inquiry commissioned by the Manitoba government into the administration of justice regarding the 1971 murder of Helen Betty Osborne and 1988 death of J.J. Harper. Commissioned in 1988, with its final report presented in 1991, its stated purpose was "to examine the relationship between the Aboriginal peoples of Manitoba and the justice system."
Garden Hill is the second largest of three reserves of the Island Lake region of Manitoba.
Red Sucker Lake is an Oji-Cree First Nation in Manitoba, Canada, located about 706 km (439 mi) northeast of Winnipeg. As of December 2014, the registered population was 1,067 of which 930 lived on their own reserve.
Tadoule Lake is an isolated northern community in Manitoba reachable by plane, snowmobile, dog team sleds, and in winter by winter road. In 1973, the Sayisi Dene moved here to return to their Barren-ground Caribou hunting life.
The James Smith First Nation is a Plains Cree Indigenous band government whose reserve is north of Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada. James Smith has two reserves, James Smith 100 and Cumberland 100A. James Smith has a current population of 2,412, with the on-reserve population estimated to be at 1,592 members. James Smith is part of the Prince Albert Grand Council. Bordering the reserve are the rural municipalities of Kinistino No. 459 and Torch River No. 488.
Bunibonibee Cree Nation, formerly known as Oxford House First Nation and as Oxford House Band of Indians, is a First Nation located along the eastern shoreline of Oxford Lake at the headwaters of the Hayes River and is approximately 950 kilometres (590 mi) northeast of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Tammy Beauvais is an Indigenous fashion designer from Kahnawake Mohawk Territory in Quebec, Canada. She left Kahnawake in 1990 following the Oka Crisis. In 1999 Beauvais launched Tammy Beauvais Designs a North American Indigenous Fashion company which produces contemporary, authentically Indigenous made clothing that honors Indigenous spirituality and traditions.
Ma-Nee Chacaby is an Ojibwe-Cree writer and activist from Canada. She is most noted for her memoir, A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder, which was co-authored by Mary Louisa Plummer and published by the University of Manitoba Press in 2016. The biography was awarded the U.S. Oral History Association's 2017 Book Award, as well as the Ontario Historical Society's 2018 Alison Prentice Award for Best Book on Women's History in Ontario. In addition, A Two-Spirit Journey was a shortlisted Lambda Literary Award finalist for Lesbian Memoir/Biography at the 29th Lambda Literary Awards in 2017, and was shortlisted for the Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher at the 2017 Manitoba Book Awards.
Carol Rose GoldenEagle is a writer and broadcaster, from Saskatchewan.
Santee Smith is a Canadian Kahnyen’kehàka (Mohawk) multidisciplinary artist, dancer, designer, producer, and choreographer of the Turtle Clan from Six Nations of the Grand River. She has used her voice and research to create dance works representing Indigenous identities. She is an advocate for Indigenous performances and is one of Canada's most dominating dance artists. Santee Smith has amassed many awards throughout her career and in 2019, she was appointed Chancellor of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Lana Whiskeyjack is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and researcher known for her work exploring experiences of Cree identity in Western culture. She is featured in the documentary film Lana Gets Her Talk by Beth Wishart MacKenzie.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act is a law enacted by the Parliament of Canada and introduced during the second session of the 43rd Canadian Parliament in 2020. The legislation establishes a legal framework and timeline to bring Canadian law into alignment with the United Nations' Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
Five Little Indians is the debut novel by Cree Canadian writer Michelle Good, published in 2020 by Harper Perennial. The novel focuses on five survivors of the Canadian Indian residential school system, struggling with varying degrees of success to rebuild their lives in Vancouver, British Columbia after the end of their time in the residential schools. It also explores the love and strength that can emerge after trauma.
Jaime Black is of Anishinaabe and Finnish descent. This Canadian multidisciplinary artist-activist is focused on First Nations and Indigenous representation and identity. She identifies as Métis, an ethnic group native to the three Prairie Provinces as well as parts of Ontario, British Columbia, and the Northwest Territories of Canada and the Northern United States, which traces descent to both Indigenous North Americans and Western European settlers. Black is best known for her art installation The REDress Project that she created as a response to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis in Canada as well as the United States. A 2014 report by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police found that more than 1,000 Indigenous women were murdered over the span of 30 years from 1980 to 2012. However, some Indigenous advocacy groups dispute these reports arguing that the number is much greater than the government has acknowledged.
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