Jaime Black-Morsette (she/them) is a Red River Métis artist and activist, with family scrip signed in the community of St Andrews, Manitoba. Jaime lives and works on her home territory near the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. Founder of The REDress project in 2010, Black-Morsette has been using their art practice as a way to gather community and create action and change around the epidemic of violence against Indigenous women and girls across Turtle Island for over a decade. Black-Morsette's interdisciplinary art practice includes immersive film and video, installation art, photography and performance art practices. Her work explores themes of memory, identity, place and resistance. KC Adams (Ininnew/Anishinaabe/British) is a registered Fisher River Cree Nation member living in Winnipeg. KC is a relational maker, educator, activist, and mentor who creates work that explores technology in relation to her Indigenous culture. Adams is an award-winning, nationally and internationally known maker with a B.F.A. from Concordia University and an M.A. in Cultural Studies, Curatorial Stream from the University of Winnipeg. KC has had numerous solo and group exhibitions, residencies and three biennales. Mackenzie Anderson Linklater (she/her/hers) is an artist who creates with beading, printmaking, and installation. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with Honors at the School of Art at the University of Manitoba. Mackenzie is first degree Midewiwin at the Minweyweygan Lodge in Roseau River First Nation and her true name is Mispon Kisikaw Iskwew or Goonagiizhagokwe, which translates to Snowy Sky Woman. Christi Belcourt is a Métis visual artist, author, and activist from the community manitow sâkahikan (Lac Ste. Anne), Alberta. In 2012, Christi organized Walking With Our Sisters, a travelling exhibit consisting of over 1,763 beaded vamps, each representing a missing or murdered Indigenous woman or girl. Christi is the recipient of numerous awards, has authored three books, and her artwork can be seen in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, and the Canadian Museum of History. Judy Da Silva is an Elder, award-winning activist, and community leader in Grassy Narrows First Nation. She became an advocate for Indigenous rights and environmental justice after a chemical plant dumped 9,000 kilograms of mercury into the river near her community, poisoning the people of Grassy Narrows in the 1960s and 70s. She was awarded the Michael Sattler Award for Peace from the German Mennonite Peace Committee in 2013, and the Extraordinary International Activist award from Human Rights Watch in 2017. Karine Duhamel is Anishinaabe-Métis and an off-reserve member of Red Rock First Nation. From 2018 to 2019, Karine was Director of Research for the historic National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, drafting the Final Report, directing the Legacy Archive, and managing the Forensic Document Review Project. In 2020 and 2021, she chaired the Data Sub-Working group that created the MMIWG National Action Plan Data Strategy. She is now Director, Indigenous Strategy for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Deantha Edmunds is Canada’s first Inuk professional classical singer and an award-winning performer. Deantha’s most recent album, her award-winning solo album Connections (2022), earned her a nomination for a 2023 East Coast Music Award for Indigenous Artist of the Year. In 2023, Deantha was longlisted for the prestigious Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award from the Inuit Art Foundation. Cambria Harris (she/her/hers), West Flying Sparrow Woman, lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is an Ojibway member of the Long Plain First Nation. Cambria is one of the leading voices of the Search The Landfill Movement in response to the province of Manitoba’s refusal to search for her mother’s remains in a local landfill. Cambria uses her voice to call for government action and fight for justice for not only her mother, but all those affected by MMIWG2S. Jaimie Isaac is a curator and interdisciplinary artist, Anishinaabe member of Sagkeeng First Nation and is of British heritage. She was the Chief Curator at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria from 2021-2023, and advisor 2023-2024. She served as the Curator of Contemporary and Indigenous Arts at the Winnipeg Art Gallery 2015-2021. Isaac holds a degree in Art History From University of Winnipeg and a Masters of Arts from the University of British Columbia focused on decolonizing gallery/museum practices. Casey Koyczan is a Dene interdisciplinary artist from Yellowknife, NT, who uses various mediums to communicate how culture and technology can grow together in order for us to develop a better understanding of who we are, where we come from, and what we will be. He creates with whatever tools necessary to bring an idea to fruition, and specializes in sculpture, installation, 3D/VR/AR/360, video, and audio works such as music, soundscapes, and film scores. Crystal Lepscier (Waqsepāēhketukiw) is an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa. In May 2022, Crystal completed her Education Doctorate in First Nations Education from UW – Green Bay. She earned both her Master of Science degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (2011) and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art (2005) from UW-Madison. She currently works at UWGB as the First Nations Student Success Coordinator. Lee-Ann Martin is an independent curator of Indigenous Art. Previously she was the Head Curator at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan, and Curator of Contemporary Canadian Aboriginal Art at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec. Martin was the recipient of the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2019) and received an Honorary Doctorate from Concordia University in 2022. Diane Maytwayahsing is an Anishinaabe woman with Scottish ancestry who lives in Manitouabee (Where the spirit sits) in the Whiteshell area on the Manitoba and Ontario border. Her Anishinaabe name is Ozawa Giizis Ikwe (Yellow Sun Woman), and her family Clan is Migizi (Bald Eagle). Diane is an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper and Heritage Interpreter of the Petroforms, which are known as the Bannock Point Petroforms in Whiteshell Park. Over the past 8 years, Diane has conducted Indigenous Matriarchal presentations in universities, centers, and in the Whiteshell Park as land-based education. Cathy Merrick (1962–2024) was a proud Cree woman from the Cross Lake Band of Indians in northern Manitoba. Merrick’s leadership journey began as a Councillor in Pimicikamak, where she served for twelve years. After forty-four years of male leadership, Merrick was the second woman to be elected as Chief of Pimicikamak in 2013 and remained Chief for an impactful five years as per Pimicikamak election law. In October 2022, she made history by becoming the first female Grand Chief elected to the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.Sherry Farrell Racette (Metis/Algonquin/Irish) is an interdisciplinary scholar with an active arts and curatorial practice. She has worked extensively in archives and museum collections with an emphasis on retrieving women’s voices and recovering knowledge. Currently teaching in the Faculty of Media, Art and Performance (art history), she was previously cross-appointed to the Departments of Native Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Manitoba, and the Department of Art History at Concordia University, Montreal. In 2021 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the University Art Association of Canada. Gladys Radek is a human rights activist originally from the Gitxsan Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia, known as the Highway of Tears. Gladys’s niece, Tamara Lynn Chipman, disappeared out of Prince Rupert, BC, in 2005. In response, Gladys co-founded the grassroots organization Walk4Justice in 2008 to bring the families affected by MMIWG together. Gladys’s efforts played a significant role in the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Today, she continues to raise awareness about MMIWG and advocates for governments to act on the 231 Calls to Justice from the inquiry. Zoey Roy is an award winning Cree-Dene Michif spoken word poet, teaching artist, and creative consultant based out of Ottawa, Ontario. She is a PhD student at York University, focusing on songwriting as future-building for Indigenous nations. Zoey has received the Queen Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Women of Distinction Award in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the Congress of Aboriginal People Youth Leadership Award, the Indspire Award, and the Indigenous Graduate Leadership Award at the University of Saskatchewan. Jennifer Lee Smith is a Red River Métis Curator, Writer and Arts Administrator living on Treaty 1 Territory/Winnipeg. Her work focuses on the relationships between Indigenous artists, connections to land and material culture.
