Drew Rickard is 26-years-old and currently attending the University of Toronto, double-majoring in Philosophy and Indigenous Studies. He is a full-time student committed to studies and to his work-study related projects, such as First Story. In his own time, Drew is a visual artist.
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Rachel Giese is an award-winning journalist and a deputy national editor at The Globe and Mail. Formerly, she was the editorial director of Xtra Magazine. Her 2018 book Boys: What it Means to Become a Man (HarperCollins Canada and Seal Press) was a Canadian bestseller and won the Writers’ Trust of Canada Shaughnessy Cohen Prize […]
Kit Pearson was born in Edmonton, Alberta and worked for many years as a children’s librarian in Ontario and B.C. Since 1986 she has written twelve novels, a picture book and an anthology. She has won seventeen awards for her writing, including the B.C. Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence in 2014. In 2018, Kit […]
Nadine Neema, born in Montreal and of Egyptian and Lebanese descent, is a multi-disciplinary artist and workshop facilitator. As a recording artist she has released four albums, was mentored by Leonard Cohen and has opened for Elton John, Joe Cocker and Cyndi Lauper. Neema began working with the Tłı̨chǫ, first as a community manager of […]
Alisa Siegel makes radio documentaries for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Her work has been recognized with many international awards. Over the past 20 years, Alisa has produced stories on subjects as varied as the underground railroad for refugees in Fort Erie, daring women artists in 1920s Montreal, the return of the trumpeter swan, Canadian nurses […]
Tziporah (Tzippy) Cohen was born and raised in New York and spent eighteen years in Boston before landing in Toronto, where she now lives with her husband, three kids, two cats and one dog. Tzippy studied French and theater arts at Cornell University, where she was one of a handful of chimesmasters who performed concerts […]
Born in the city of La Paz-El Alto (Bolivia), she arrived as an immigrant in São Paulo in 2008. She started working in sewing until she started her own business. Freelancer, urban activist, rapper and mother. Nascida na cidade de La Paz-El Alto (BOLÍVIA). Chegou como imigrante em são Paulo no ano de 2008. Começou […]
Brisa de la Cordillera, more commonly known as Brisa Flow, is a Mapurbe interdisciplinary artist and works as a singer, musical producer, performer, researcher and poet. Brisa de la Cordillera mais conhecida como Brisa Flow é artiste transdiciplinar mapurbe, atua como cantore, produtore musical, performer e pesquisadore poeta.
He is a poet, slam artist, rapper, singer, audiovisual producer and composer. Born in Roraima, he is of the Wapichana people. He is one of the Indigenous youths who communicate the cultural values of resistance, strength and spirituality in their artistic expressions. Ancestry is the guide of his messages of peace and healing, but also […]
Rapper, poet and urban Indigenous individual from Rio de Janeiro. Amidst the destruction of the earth and the consequences of the constant genocide and ethnocide of his Indigenous people, originating from the four states of the Southeast of Brazil, the Puri people. In combat, Kandu is part of the group for the revitalization of the […]
Auritha Tabajara is an author of cordel literature, holistic therapist and Indigenous storyteller. Her first book, Indigenous Teaching of Prose and Poetry, was adopted by the Basic Education Department of the State of Ceará. First Indigenous woman to publish books of cordel literature in Brazil. Auritha Tabajara é escritora cordelista, Terapeuta Holística, contadora de histórias […]
Maraíza Santos Pinheiro, more commonly known as Amarú Pataxó, was born in 2000 in Prado, in the extreme south of Bahia. Her paternal family migrated from the mother village of the Pataxó in Barra Velha. She is a b girl, flautist, LGBTQI+ poet, known for participating in MC battles. She began her career at 16 […]
Son of the river Araguaia and of the meeting between the Karajá people and remaining quilombolas*. Poet and rapper, he lives in Brasilia, where he acts as a cultural agent and teacher. He expresses his outrage at the destruction of forests and rivers through music. His poetry is in Portuguese, Yorubá and Iny Rybè (language […]
wescritor is a writer, actor, composer and singer, of the Indigenous Tupinambá people of Olivença, born and raised in the Baixada Santista (São Paulo). His objective is to bring consciousness, love, spirituality, strength and equality to all who identify with his expression. He is the owner of the artistic label Palavrando and a member of […]
Bryan Rodrigues, 27 years old, commonly known as Delapaz, is a Bolivian immigrant artist working in São Paulo. He has been an event organizer since 2015 and started with the Kantupac Latin Hip Hop Project, which was a series of events in immigrant communities in the capital, bringing together groups from various countries through hip […]
Katú Mirim is a rapper, singer, composer, actor and activist for Indigenous and LGBTQIA+ causes. She mixes futurism and the ancestral. Katú Mirim é uma rapper, cantora, compositora, atriz e ativista da causa indígena e LGBTQIA+. N’ativa vinda do asfalto, ela faz recorte entre o futurismo e o ancestral.
Her Indigenous name is Aratykyra, she is a journalist, producer, poet, consultant, curator, screen-writer and visual artist. She founded the Indigenous production company Originárias Produções. Collaborator of the Visibilidade Indígena network. For 15 years she has been working with the dissemination of Indigenous culture and ethnocommunication. She has been on the Curating Council of TV […]
Kahsenniyo is a spoken word artist from the Mohawk Nation Wolf Clan. Kahsenniyo began utilizing her poetry as a tool for social change and community engagement in 2008. Her work is centered around Indigenous issues. She aims to educate non-indigenous people about the struggles, beauty and realities facing Indigenous people. As well her work attempts […]
K’alii Luuyaltkw is a spoken word artist who comes from the Nisga’a Nation in British Columbia. Her name means “to return upriver” and serves as a constant reminder for her to always return to culture in her work of upholding oral storytelling traditions.
Theresa Cutknife is a queer Nehiyaw and Puerto Rican actor, writer, curator, storyteller and producer from Maskwacîs, Alberta located on Treaty 6 Territory and is a member of the Samson Cree Nation. As a playwright her work brings her both to Toronto and her homelands and has been presented as a participant of the Indigenous […]
Jill Carter is an Anishinaabe-Ashkenazi theatre worker and educator based in Tkaron:to.
Audrey Rochette is Anishinaabe from Waabadowgang-Whitesand First Nation. As Director, Indigenous Initiatives, she leads George Brown College’s efforts to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Calls to Action and oversees Indigenization measures as part of the college’s Vision 2030/Strategy 2022 initiative. Audrey’s passion for Indigenous relations was cultivated through her roles in the Indigenous community as […]
Dr. Jon Johnson is an Assistant Professor – Teaching Stream, at Woodsworth College, University of Toronto. His research is focused on urban land-based Indigenous Knowledge in Toronto and their representation through oral and digital forms of storytelling. He works actively within Toronto’s Indigenous community in his capacity as a lead organizer for First Story Toronto, […]
Markus Aurelyus is a Scarborough-based singer and songwriter with a story to tell. He has a unique R&B vocal style that’s influenced by Gospel, Soul, Pop and Hip-Hop. He has performed on stage with artists like Jully Black and DVSN, recorded with Serena Ryder, as well as many local artists, such as Quincy Morales and Katasha […]
