Update: We’re pleased to announce that Niigaan Sinclair, award-winning author of Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre, will join this event. katherena vermette, who was scheduled to appear in this event, is regrettably no longer able to join.
This groundbreaking new anthology collects letters from Indigenous writers, activists, and thinkers, exploring the histories that have brought us to this moment, the challenges and crises faced by present-day communities, and the visions that will lead us to a new architecture for thinking about Indigeneity. Stephanie Sinclair, co-editor of A Steady Brightness of Being, joins us on-stage for an essential conversation with award-winning contributors from across Turtle Island, David A. Robertson, Kyle Edwards and Niigaan Sinclair.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, Talking Stick Festival and Full Circle: First Nations Performance.
This event is open to everyone, and has been curated with the Pro-D day for teachers in mind. Teachers may be interested in the following information. This event is also suitable for students in grades 10–12.
Themes: Pro-D, anthology, storytelling, tradition, Indigenous, reconciliation
Curriculum Connections: Contemporary Indigenous Studies 12, B.C. First Peoples 12, Explorations in Social Studies 11
More information about the Festival:
Box Office | Accessibility | Venue Map
Event Participants:
KYLE EDWARDS is an Anishinaabe journalist and writer from the Lake Manitoba First Nation and a member of the Ebb and Flow First Nation. He has won two National Magazine Awards in Canada and was named Emerging Indigenous Journalist by the Canadian Association of Journalists. His work has appeared in CBC, Toronto Star, and Global News, among others.
DAVID A. ROBERTSON is the bestselling author of the ongoing Misewa Saga, the forthcoming picture book Little Shoes, and new adult titles All the Little Monsters and 52 Ways to Reconcile, and the two-time winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award. Dave is a member of the Norway House Cree Nation and lives in Winnipeg.
NIIGAAN SINCLAIR is Anishinaabe from Peguis First Nation and a professor at the University of Manitoba, where he holds the Faculty of Arts Professorship in Indigenous Knowledge and Aesthetics in the Department of Indigenous Studies. Niigaan is a multiple nominee of Canadian columnist of the year (winning in 2018) and is a featured commentator on CBC's Power & Politics and APTN’s Truth and Politics panel. Niigaan was recently named to the “Power List” by Maclean’s magazine as one of the most influential individuals in Canada and is a former secondary school teacher who won the 2019 Peace Educator of the Year from the Peace and Justice Studies Association based at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He is an award-winning author, speaker, and curriculum developer, and was co-editor of Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings from the Land of Water (Highwater Press)—the book voted by Manitobans in the “On the Same Page” competition as the top book to read in 2012.
STEPHANIE SINCLAIR is Publisher of McClelland & Stewart, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada. She is a Cree, Ojibwe, and German/Jewish settler. She is a fierce advocate and activist, serving as a mentor and curator, and organizing publishing events to challenge colonial practices in publishing and to advance the work of reconciliation. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario, with her two children.
