Özten Shebahkeget is a member of Northwest Angle 33 First Nation in Treaty 3 territory, born and raised in Winnipeg. Her poetry has appeared in CV2, Prairie Fire, the Winnipeg Free Press and with the Winnipeg Art Gallery. She’s previously taken part in literary residences at the Banff Centre and Sage Hill. She was also recently shortlisted for the Foster Poetry Prize.

Özten graduated from the University of Winnipeg’s creative writing program in 2020, winning several writing prizes during her studies. She also holds an MFA in writing from the University of Saskatchewan, where she received the Elizabeth Brewster memorial scholarship and a graduate thesis award nomination. She’s been working as a full-time reporter with CBC Manitoba since her successful thesis defence in September 2022.

Her thesis, Mashkode, is a speculative verse novel set at the Manitoba legislative building. The story focuses on representations of hybridized “Others” within the building’s architecture.

Joshua is a Dine’ (Navajo) comedian, actor, and writer based in Denver, Colorado. He produces the Native American comedy showcase, Bad Indian, at clubs and festivals around the world including at Netflix is a Joke, SF Sketchfest, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Joshua’s documentary, also called Bad Indian, was selected for SeriesFest Season 11 and his short film, Finding the Funny, is currently on display at the Denver Art Museum. He is a regular contributor with CityCast Denver and Westword Magazine. Joshua was selected for the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Arts & Culture in 2023 and was named to the NCAIED’s Native American 40 under 40 in 2026. He currently serves on the board of the Arts District on Sante Fe and the Denver American Indian Commission. Joshua lives at home with partner, Rachel, their two dogs, Lola and Arianna, and their two cats, Nibbler and Joanna.

When Cree Métis filmmaker Jay Cardinal Villeneuve arrived in Vancouver he just dropped out of college on a Theatre Scholarship determined to get into the movie game, even though Y2K was threatening our very existence. Armed w/ a camcorder and an "exotic look" (according to casting directors) he shot numerous no-budget short films and played bit parts in some ill-fated tv shows until graduating from the Indigenous Film Program at Capilano University. 

Jay then worked as a videographer recording private statements w/ the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for several years while concurrently making his own independent films. He directed the residential school documentary Holy Angels that won him a Leo Award for Screenwriting, and was chosen for the inaugural Warner Media Canadian Academy Writer's Program. His latest effort is the Louis Riel drama Gods & Devils currently playing festivals. 

At the moment Jay's in the edit suite cutting his award-winning short comedy Buffalo Testicles for the Soul into a feature aimed at Netflix, where he can be seen (if you don't blink) opposite Jennifer Lopez in The Mother, as a Doctor, not named Dr. Jay. He also has three rad kids, who collaborate and perform in his short films on YouTube.

Koromiko Jacob-Williams is a dynamic poet, activist, writer, facilitator, creative, and future filmmaker who hails from Tauranga, Aotearoa, New Zealand(Iwi/Tribes of Ngāiterangi, Ngāti Ranginui). They are a member of the spoken word poetry group Rehekōrero, who took out the Word - The Frontline competition in 2023 and the Trans-Tasman poetry slam. The group has also performed at Laneway Music Festival, Splore Festival, Fat Freddy’s Drop’s SloMo tour, and much more. Individually, they are fluent in te reo Māori and incorporate their language into their written poetry. They speak about Te Ao Māori and political issues through an indigenous lens while touching on what it's like to be a young wāhine Māori. Currently, they're studying for a Bachelor of Communications, studying film and journalism at AUT. They hope to write and release a collection of poetry in the future and create films focusing on indigenous storytelling.

Gabriela Noujaim, born in Rio de Janeiro, 42 years
Gabriela Noujaim was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1983. At the age of 12, she was already enrolled at the School of Visual Arts (EAV) at Parque Lage. Her work raises questions about the ancestral indigenous socio-environmental heritage, protection against aggression toward the female body, and the limitations of sociopolitical structures in Brazilian society. Graduating in Printmaking from the School of Fine Arts at UFRJ in 2007, the artist structured her poetic approach based on her interest in technical images created from videos, photographs, and initially, printmaking, as well as the idea of fixing an image in time.

She lives and works in Rio de Janeiro and Portugal. In 2023, she participated in the exhibition “Zonas de Transição,” curated by João Silvério, and her works are part of the PLMJ collection in Lisbon, as well as the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation collection in Lisbon, Portugal. In 2022, she participated in the group exhibition “Mascaras na Pele,” curated by João Silvério at Galeria Movart in Lisbon, and in the group exhibition “Poder da Terra” at Contemporary Art Gallery Montoro12 in Brussels, Belgium. In 2021, she held a solo exhibition at the National Museum of the Republic, Brasília - Federal District. In 2020, she was affiliated with ARTFEM –2nd International Biennial of Women Artists in Macau, China, and participated in the Capacete exhibition and artistic residency in Rio de Janeiro. In 2019, she participated in the solo exhibition “Maracá” at Galeria Simone Cadinelli Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro. She received an honorable mention at the “Lumen EX” video art festival (Badajoz, Spain), was a finalist at the 3M Festival Love Songs at the Tomie Ohtake Institute (2014), received the acquisition prize at the 39th Contemporary Art Show of Santo André (SP 2011), and was nominated for the PIPA Prize(2012).

Her works are part of the collections: Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo; Museum of Art of Rio; Ibero-American Institute, Berlin; Cultural Center São Paulo; Museum of Digital Art, Valencia; Palace of the Arts Belgrano, Buenos Aires; House of Latin American Culture (CAL/UnB); School of Visual Arts of Parque Lage; Cândido Mendes Gallery, Rio de Janeiro; SESC, Copacabana; Palace of the Arts Belgrano, Buenos Aires; Correios Cultural Space, Rio de Janeiro.

Dawn Amber Tonks is a respected member of the St’uxwtéws band of the Secwepemc Nation from the interior of British Columbia. She completed her Master of Fine Arts with the University of British Columbia in May 2026. For her thesis she wrote a feature length screen play, titled “The International Auntie Pageant”. For which she has had to learn a lot about beauty pageants, as well as how to spell “pageant”. She writes in most genres with the focus on being Indigenous in Canada. 

In November 2025 Dawn was invited to attend a Writing Residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. She was awarded the Indigenous Graduate Scholars Fellowship in 2024, and the First People Cultural Council Scholarship. Dawn was invited to attend the Women in Film and Television International Film Festival because of her work during the Tricksters and Writers Screenwriting Program. 

Dawn comes from a large boisterous family. Consequently, she enjoys being alone but can’t work when it’s too quiet. With her sons, Talon and Kit, grown and out of the house Dawn can often not be found as she is outside somewhere with her dog, Duke, thinking deep thoughts. She also enjoys adventures with her husband Chris, conversations with little kids, running and talking to the crows she’s befriended. Dawn is rarely serious but always creative. 
Dawn currently lives in Ucluelet, Vancouver Island BC—the perfect place to be outside. 

Arsan Buffin is an Indigenous artist hailing from Northern Saskatchewan that has been residing in Edmonton for the past twenty years. He is an accomplished
artist as a photographer and a videographer. He has worked in industrial video production for several years producing videos for local non-profits agencies. He also has
over a decade experience with photography which has been his passion. His work has been shown in several galleries throughout Alberta.

Over the past five years, Arsan has begun working using comedy as a medium. He is a member of the community of Indigenous comedians that regularly contribute on social media having over 2 million views and over a million likes on Tik Tok. After his success online, he has begun performing stand-up comedy throughout Edmonton. As a comedian, he looks to provide Indigenous peoples with ways to laugh at normal day to day aspects of life in Treaty Six territory.

His professional career is dedicated towards education and training front-line support workers to have tools they need to succeed in assisting vulnerable populations. It is these experiences that he wishes to educate people on the arts. Right now presenting stand-up comedy and improv workshops in northern communities.

Cassandra (River) Blondin Burt is a member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. They are a two- spirit Dene musician, poet, artist and Earth Medicine Maker. Recently they have worked as a communications consultant for YKDFN, and air a weekly feature titled Medicine Stories for CKLB Radio 101.9fm The Voice of Denendeh, named after their weekly column for Northern News Service publications (News North, the Yellowknifer) over the last four years since 2022.

Their writing has been published across Turtle Island, appearing in the Malahat Review, the Watershed Sentinel (BC), with the Yellowhead Institution (ONT), and online for Ink Stick Media (USA). Recently Cassandra released their second collection of Poetry titled Starchives Vol. 2 Meditations on Earth Philosophy.

Cassandra was featured in the 2024 Storytelling Festival Heart of the Dene with the Northern Arts Cultural Centre (NACC), which toured through all five regions of Denendeh, sharing original songs and stories, but has performed on stage as a musician and storyteller for over two decades in BC and the NWT.

Amala Groom (b. 1979, Casino, NSW, Australia) is a Wiradyuri conceptual artist living and working on her Mother’s Wiradyuri Country in Kelso, NSW. Her practice centres the performance of cultural sovereignty, grounded in Wiradyuri ontology and guided by Yindyamarra—an ethic of respect, care, and relational accountability. Integrating lived experience with archival, legislative, and cultural research, she articulates sovereign ways of being within and against settler-colonial systems.

Working across performance, moving image, installation, and digital forms, Groom produces ceremonial interventions that disrupt colonial temporalities and re-map place through Wiradyuri cosmologies. Her work mobilises the body, voice, and image as sites of resistance, renewal, and cultural resurgence.

Selected fellowships include the Bandalang Studio Residency, Australian National University (2025); Power Institute / Cité Internationale des Arts Residency Fellowship (2024); Create NSW First Nations Creative Fellowship with the State Library of NSW (2022); and the University of Technology Sydney Artist in Residence (2021).

Her work is held in public and private collections including Artbank, Blacktown City Art Collection, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Charles Sturt University, Deutsche Bank, Darebin Art Collection, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, and Western Sydney University.

Adeline Bird is an Afro-Indigenous writer, filmmaker, and storyteller whose work explores identity, belonging, and the emotional landscapes of people searching for home. A proud Afro-Anishnaabe woman, she draws inspiration from the oral storytelling traditions of her family and community, as well as the quiet, intimate moments that shape who we become. 

Adeline began writing as a child, inspired by her grandfather Norman Amyotte, a Métis man who never had the opportunity to learn how to read or write. Storytelling became a way to honor and transform that legacy, carrying forward stories that might otherwise be lost.

In addition to her literary work, Adeline has written for acclaimed television projects including Don't Even (Crave) and contributed to the docuseries Indigenous Love (CBC). Her experience in film and television has deepened her commitment to character-driven storytelling that blends emotional truth with cultural specificity.

At Banff, Adeline will be working on her debut novel, a coming-of-adult story that weaves modern life, and the complexities of Afro-Indigenous identity. Her writing centers the beauty, contradictions, humor, and resilience of communities often left out of mainstream narratives.

Through her work, Adeline aims to create stories that feel both intimate and expansive, stories that honor who we are today.