Contributors

Patricia Makokis, '79 BEd, is a nehiyaw iskwew (Cree woman) from Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Alberta. She is director of Indigenous programs in the Faculty of Extension and an author and pioneer for Indigenous education, health and values.

Fay Fletcher, '84 BPE, '94 MSc, '04 PhD, is an associate professor and associate dean in the U of A's Faculty of Extension and was born and raised in Edmonton. Her focus is on respectful and thoughtful inclusion of Indigenous knowledge in lifelong learning.

Janice Makokis, '05 BA(NativeStu), is an Indigenous legal scholar, activist and treaty educator. She is a nehiyaw iskwew from Saddle Lake Cree Nation and an Indigenous education adviser/instructor in the U of A's Faculty of Extension.

Tanya Harnett, '95 BFA, '02 MFA, is a member of the Carry the Kettle First Nation in Saskatchewan, an artist and an associate professor at the U of A in the Department of Art & Design and the Faculty of Native Studies.

Curtis Gillespie, '85 BA(Spec), is a writer and journalist who has five books published, including the novel Crown Shyness, and seven National Magazine Awards. In 2010 he co-founded Eighteen Bridges, a narrative journalism magazine. He was born in Edmonton, where he lives with his wife and their two daughters.

Rhonda Kronyk, '04 BA(Hons), '07 MA, is Tsay Keh Dene from northern British Columbia. She is on her own reconciliation journey to understand the connections between her settler and Indigenous heritage. She works at the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights and is also a writer and editor.

Lana Whiskeyjack is an artist from Saddle Lake Cree Nation who is completing her PhD at Blue Quills university, a former residential school that her mother and grandmother attended. These women inspired Whiskeyjack through their traditional arts. She works at the U of A's Faculty of Extension as a visual arts scholar.

Jane Ash Poitras, '77 BSc(Spec), '83 BFA, '15 DLitt (Honorary), is an artist and writer of Cree descent who was born in Fort Chipewyan, Alta. She influenced the development of a new visual vocabulary for First Nations perspectives in contemporary art. Poitras was a sessional lecturer in the Faculty of Native Studies for more than 20 years and has lectured internationally throughout her career.

David Garneau is a descendant of Métis activist and homesteader Laurent Garneau, who used to own part of the land where the U of A's North Campus sits. He is a multidisciplinary artist and associate professor of visual arts at the University of Regina, and is working on a public art project in Edmonton.

Chelsea Vowel, '00 BEd, '09 LLB, is Métis from manitow-sâkahikan territory (Lac Ste. Anne, Alta.), and is working on her master's in the Faculty of Native Studies. She is mother to three girls, stepmother to two more and has a baby on the way. She blogs at apihtawikosisan.com and makes legendary bannock.

In the ongoing photo series Signs of Your Identity, photographer Daniella Zalcman uses multiple exposure photography to create haunting images of Canadian residential school survivors, who are reflected in the sites where the schools once stood. Zalcman, who is based in London and New York, focuses much of her work on the legacies of western colonization around the world.