The Writers

B.H. Bates Originally from Williams Lake, British Columbia - writer, cartoonist, poet and entrepreneur B.H. Bates is a person of native heritage, who grew up on a ranch. And as he liked to quip: "I was the only kid I knew that could play cowboys and Indians all by myself!" The man of many talents now divides his time between writing, drawing and operating an advertising business: "AD-A-SMILE!" He's also starting another business, carving native Spirit Posts and with what little time he has left over, Mr. Bates (a.k.a. 3B) is also working on a few books at present.

Dorothy Christian is a writer, a video artist, and a producer & director of documentaries. She is of the Okanagan-Secwepemc Nations of the interior of British Columbia. Dorothy is a member of the Splats'in Indian Band, one of 17 Secwepemc communities. She is the eldest of ten and currently lives in Vancouver, B.C.
Ms. Christian has written many documentaries most of which she directed while working for the national multi-faith broadcaster, VISION TV. Her works have screened in many venues, regionally, nationally and internationally.





Dennis Charney's colorful life began with his birth in a log cabin in northern Alberta to his Metis mother and white father, the beginning of adventures that would take him down many different paths.





Lloyd Dolha is a Carrier from the Lake Babine First Nation in northern B.C. He began his writing career as a reporter for Kahtou in 1990. Since then he has written for numerous other publications and is a long-time contributor to The First Nations Drum. He lives in Vancouver and is currently developing an aboriginal action hero for young First Nations people.

Trevor Greyeyes from Peguis First Nation in Manitoba has worked as a freelance writer/ journalist in Winnipeg, Manitoba for the last 10 years. Prior to that he worked as a pizza delivery driver, steel grinder, carnival worker and at a host of other jobs. He's been published in Prairie Fire and has been a member of the Aboriginal Writers Collective in Winnipeg for seven years. He's workshopped stories with Thomas King, Armin Wiebe and David Bergen.




Joyce Hunter, 27, is a newspaper editor working for an Aboriginally owned and operated publication out of northwestern Ontario. She studied print journalism at Durham College in Oshawa and went to work for the Daily Press in Timmins as a general assignment reporter directly after graduating. After a two-and-a-half year stint at the Daily Press, Hunter went on to work at Wawatay News, where she has spent the last two years.

Jane Kwatleemaht Marston is a Coast Salish First Nation Artist. She started carving under the mentorship of Simon Charlie in 1984. She worked on art projects with Simon until April 2005. Totem poles, ceremonial rattles, dolls, talking sticks, dancing sticks, and ceremonial masks have become her specialties.

She went back to school and got her Masters Degree in Indigenous Government. This experience has given her art a greater depth and meaning. Through this education she has become aware of the effects colonization has had on the art of her people. She uses these ideas in her watercolors and her carvings.

Niigonwedom (James Sinclair) is Anishnaabe and a first degree Midéwiwin, originally from Ste. Peter's Reserve in Manitoba. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of English at the University of British Columbia, writing an Anishnaabe literary history as his dissertation. His poetry has appeared in Prairie Fire, juice, and WLT2, and his critical and creative prose is forthcoming in anthologies from Broadview Press and Michigan State University Press. Niigon dedicates this story to his daughter, Nimiijiian-Nibiens and his partner, Maengun-Geezhik.

Morgan Stafford O'Neal was born and raised in rural Saskatchewan, but has traced his ancestry back through the Staffords to the Birds of the Red River Metis in and around Inwood, Manitoba. He received his Master's Degree in English. He has taught literature as a sessional lecturer at Simon Fraser University where he is now preparing to defend his Ph.D. thesis "Form and Discontent: An Historical Study of the Essay as Praxis." He taught a seminar in First Nations Literature in Haida Gwaii a few years ago. He most recently taught rhetoric at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. He is married with two daughters, lives in Vancouver, and works now as a writer and editor for First Nations Drum and Totem Pole Books.

Urpi Pine was born in Cusco, Peru to a Quechua father and Scottish/French/Aboriginal mother from Turtle Island. Urpi uses her mix-blood identity to harness trickster energies in order to subvert colonial borders and boundaries. She sees storytelling in its diverse forms (written, oral and theatrical) as a way of reclaiming Indigenous histories.

Stephen Reid was raised in Whitehorse, Yukon and Bella Bella B.C respectively. His mother is of Southern Tutchone and Irish descent, while his father is from the Heiltsuk First Nation. Growing up fishing on the coast with his dad, and ski-dooing and camping with his mother was a blessing of both worlds. A graduate with a B.A. in Eduation, he now teaches Southern Tutchone in Whitehorse Yukon. Married and a father of three beautiful children, writing inspiration is abound, but time forever limited. Stephen began writing in large part to understand and explain where he comes from, who he is, and what it means to be an Indian in such a fast paced world. A spirit unquenched.

Janet Marie Rogers a Mohawk writer from the Six Nations territory in southern Ontario, was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1963. Janet began writing poetry, and now travels extensively sharing her poems as spoken word performance. She has two recordings of her poetry with music "Catching Smoke" and "Red". Her writing reflects her passions as a Native woman, as a political activist, and her spiritual relationship to land. Her poems and short stories can be found in anthologies all over Canada and the U.S.

Sharron Proulx-Turner is a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta. She's from Mohawk, Algonquin, Wendat, Ojibwe, Mik'maw, French and Irish ancestry. Her previously published memoir, Where the Rivers Join, written under a pseudonym, was short-listed for the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, and her second book, what the auntys say, was shortlisted for the league of Canadian poets' Gerald Lampert Prize for best first book of poetry.

Richard van Camp is a proud member of the Dogrib Nation from Fort Smith, NWT. He teaches Online Storytelling at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design as well as Creative Writing for Aboriginal Students at UBC. He is the author of the novel, The Lesser Blessed, a collection of short stories, Angel Wing Splash Pattern, and two childrens books with Cree artist George Littlechild: A Man Called Raven and What's the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses? He is also CBC Radio's Writer in Residence for their "North by Northwest" program.


Ukjese van Kanpen was born in Whitehorse, Yukon. He is a member of the Wolf clan, Northern Tutchone people. Ukjese has had a diverse life and served in the Canadian Forces with the now disbanded Canadian Airborne Regiment and later as the CO of an Air Cadet Squadron. Ukjese is a storyteller, writing his own stories which he later transferred to short stories. This is an example of a short story that evolved from his storytelling. Ukjese will be earning his Master of Arts at Athabasca University in 2006.

Katherena Vermette is a Metis writer of poetry and fiction. Her poetry has appeared in Prairie Fire, Juice, and Bone Memory - a complilation of work from Manitoba 's Aboriginal Writer 's Collective. Her story, Nortendgrrl is part of a larger collection of poetry and short fiction of the same title. Vermette lives, works and plays in Winnipeg.