This Place

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm (she/her/hers) is a writer, publisher, activist, and member of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, on the Saugeen Peninsula in Ontario. An Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, Kateri's publications encompass poetry, fiction, non-fiction, radio plays, television and film, libretti, graphic novels, and spoken word. Her teaching and creative work is firmly decolonial-a practice of cultural resurgence, affirmation, and survivance. Kateri is also the founder, publisher, and art director for Kegedonce Press, for which she was awarded the 2025 Ivy Award to recognize her substantial contributions to Canadian publishing. Sonny Assu is an interdisciplinary artist whose diverse practice is informed by a deep connection to Kwakwaka'wakw art and culture and melded with western/pop principles of art making. His work has been accepted into the National Gallery of Canada, Seattle Art Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery and into various public and private collections across Canada, the US, and the UK. He currently resides in unceded Ligwi?da'xw territory (Campbell River, BC). From Listuguj, Quebec, Brandon Mitchell is the founder of Birch Bark Comics and creator of the Sacred Circles comic series, which draws on his Mi'kmaq heritage. He has written five books with the Healthy Aboriginal Network, (Lost Innocence, Drawing Hope,¿River Run, Making it Right, and Emily's Choice). Brandon has written and illustrated Jean-Paul's Daring Adventure: Stories from Old Mobile for the University of Alabama, as well as two Mi'qmaq language-based stories for the Listuguj¿Education Directorate. He has also completed an art installation for Heritage and Culture New Brunswick. Brandon currently resides in Fredericton, New Brunswick.@writerbrandonmitchell Of Inuit-Cree ancestry,¿Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley¿was born in a tent on northernmost Baffin Island. She learned Inuit survival lore from her father, surviving residential school and attending university. In 2012, she was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for numerous cultural writings. Of Scottish-Mohawk ancestry, Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley¿was born in southern Ontario, learning woodcraft and stories from his father. Training as an artist, then writer, Sean's sci-fi work won 2nd place at the California-based Writers of the Future contest, published by Galaxy Press.¿Rachel¿and Sean have worked for decades as Arctic researchers and consultants. In writing together, they have published 10 successful books and many shorter works, celebrating the history and uniqueness of Arctic shamanism, cosmology, and cosmogony. Their novel,¿Skraelings: Clashes in the Old Arctic,¿was a Governor General Awards Finalist and First Prize Burt Award winner. Of Inuit-Cree ancestry,¿Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley¿was born in a tent on northernmost Baffin Island. She learned Inuit survival lore from her father, surviving residential school and attending university. In 2012, she was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for numerous cultural writings. Of Scottish-Mohawk ancestry, Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley¿was born in southern Ontario, learning woodcraft and stories from his father. Training as an artist, then writer, Sean's sci-fi work won 2nd place at the California-based Writers of the Future contest, published by Galaxy Press.¿Rachel¿and Sean have worked for decades as Arctic researchers and consultants. In writing together, they have published 10 successful books and many shorter works, celebrating the history and uniqueness of Arctic shamanism, cosmology, and cosmogony. Their novel,¿Skraelings: Clashes in the Old Arctic,¿was a Governor General Awards Finalist and First Prize Burt Award winner. David A. Robertson (he/him/his) is a two-time winner of the Governor General's Literary Award, has won the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, as well as the Writer's Union of Canada Freedom to Read award. He has received several other accolades for his w...