Zahgausgai “Sun Ray”, Mukwa “Bear Clan”, is an Ojibwa and a 3rd Degree member of the Three Fires Midewiwin Society. John’s home community is Wasauksing First Nation near Parry Sound, Ontario. John’s childhood was rich in stories of his people; his Midewiwin Education began in 1982 and is ongoing. He has made it a life passion to study the “Mlikaans” Teachings which are about the whole development of the human before, during and after life. John is a Storyteller, Big Drum Carrier, Ceremonialist, Singer and Dancer. His greatest joy is watching Ojibwa youth learn and practice the culture. John generously shares his knowledge throughout Ontario. He currently works as an Elder and Knowledger Keeper at Dnaagdawenmag Binnoojiiyag Child & Family Services and is woven across many organizations. Nationally he is a founder of Feather Carriers: Leadership for Life Promotion and has carried many different roles in his life from being a young Chief for his community bringing the culture forward, to moving out into different teams, from the Early Psychosis Intervention Team at Canadian Mental Health Association as a Healer to an Elder/Healer at the Mental Health Centre in Penetanguishene and Fenbrook Medium Institution. He lectures and shares teachings in various orgnaizations and learning institutions. John travels internationally and is a well-respected teacher and elder in the Anishinaabe Nation.

Marcia Turner is an award-winning consultant and TEDx speaker. She is Gitxsan from the community of Gitanyow and grew up in Gitsegukla. Marcia is from the Lax Gibuu (wolf clan) and Wilp Haijimsxw (House of Chief Haijimsxw) and carries the name Tsu’malit, a leadership responsibility. She is a mother of four grown sons and currently lives on Vancouver Island in unceded Snuneymuxw territory also known as Nanaimo. 

Marcia is the CEO/Founder of Daxgedim Haanak’ Consulting, a company specializing in systems change and decolonization to dismantle white supremacy and advance the rights of Indigenous Peoples. In 2023 she received the Indigenous Business of the Year award from the BC Achievement Foundation, and in May 2024 was invited to speak at TEDxRRU about a framework she developed – the Four Indigenous Conditions of Systems Change™. Drawing from her ancestral teachings, Marcia’s work is rooted in her Gitxsan values, teachings and practices. Marcia and her team of all-Indigenous associates address equity for Indigenous peoples, privilege Indigenous knowledge systems, and amplify the voices of Indigenous peoples. 

Marcia brings a wealth of knowledge with over thirty years of experience working collaboratively with a diverse range of First Nations communities, Indigenous organizations, public agencies, non-profit organizations, post-secondary institutions, and governments across BC and Canada. She has a Master’s Degree in Leadership from Royal Roads University, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science with a minor in Indigenous Studies from the University of Victoria. 

Karri-Lynn Paul, a seasoned Indigenous adult educator from Wôlastôqewisqehsan (Woodstock First Nation), brings a distinctive leadership approach. Beyond mere theory, her personal leadership journey is filled with stories of resilience, perseverance and turning failures into stepping stones. Holding a Master's in Adult Education and over two decades of practical experience, she's dedicated to creating transformative learning experiences and promoting positive social change. Karri-Lynn is passionate about tapping into our inner wisdom and envisioning a future rooted in Indigenous values. She believes that recognizing life's abundance, sharing our stories, and engaging in reflective practices are the foundations of powerful and enduring leadership.

Cherie Dimaline is an internationally bestselling author. Her 2017 book The Marrow Thieves was named by TIME magazine, one of the Best YA Books of All Time and won the Governor General’s Award and the Kirkus Prize. Her novel Empire of Wild became an instant Canadian bestseller, was named Indigo's 2019 Best Book and is being adapted into an opera. Hunting By Stars was a 2022 American Indian Library Association Honor Book and her new novel VENCO debuted at #1 on Canadian bestseller lists. Other 2023 titles include Funeral Songs for Dying Girls, Anthology of Monsters and Into the Bright Open. Cherie lives in her Georgian Bay Métis Community and writes/produces for screen and stage.

Catharine Chen is the editor of Arsenal Pulp Press, a small publisher located in Vancouver, on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, that has twice won the Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year award. Now in its 54th year, Arsenal publishes literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry; LGBTQ2S+ and BIPOC voices; social issues and gender studies; graphic novels and non-fiction; children’s and young adult lit; and books in translation. Born and raised in Vancouver, Catharine earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia before moving to Toronto to pursue a career in publishing. She is currently writing a short fiction collection, and she has done freelance work for Playwrights Theatre Centre, the Vancouver Writers Fest, HarperCollins Canada, Dundurn Press, Inhabit Media and Education, and Wattpad Books. 

Amal El-Mohtar is an award-winning writer of fiction, poetry, and criticism. Her stories and poems have appeared in magazines including Tor.com, Fireside Fiction, Lightspeed, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, Apex, Stone Telling, and Mythic Delirium; anthologies including The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories (2017), The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales (2016), Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories (2014), and The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities (2011); and in her own collection, The Honey Month (2010). She is co-author, with Max Gladstone, of the multiple award-winning This is How You Lose the Time War. Her articles and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, NPR Books and on Tor.com. She has been the New York Times's science fiction and fantasy columnist since February 2018, and she is represented by DongWon Song of HMLA

Ai Jiang is a Chinese-Canadian writer, Ignyte, Bram Stoker, and Nebula Award winner, and Hugo, Astounding, Locus, Aurora, and BFSA Award finalist from Changle, Fujian currently residing in Toronto, Ontario. Her work can be found in F&SF, The Dark, The Masters Review, among others. She is the recipient of Odyssey Workshop's 2022 Fresh Voices Scholarship and the author of Linghun and I AM AI. The first book of her novella duology, A Palace Near the Wind, is forthcoming 2025 with Titan Books.

Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is a poet, playwright & performer, graphic artist & designer and founder of: The Midnight Run (an arts-filled, night-time, urban walking experience.), The Rhythm and Poetry Party (The R.A.P Party) which celebrates poetry & hip hop, and Poetry + Film / Hack (P+F/H) which celebrates Poetry and Film. Identity, Displacement & Destiny are reoccurring themes in his work, where he tries to mix the old with the new: traditional African oral storytelling with contemporary poetics, paint with pixel, texture with vector. His books are published by Flipped Eye, Akashic, Nine Arches, Penned In The Margins, Oberon & Methuen. 

Emma is Artist in Residence at Concordia University, and a Director and Dramaturg. She is the former Artistic and Executive Director of Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal, where for fourteen years, she dramaturgically collaborated on many plays, including Mizushōbai by Julie Tamiko Manning, Thy Woman’s Weeds by Erin Shields, Jabber by Marcus Youssef, Squawk by Megan Gail Coles, Instant by Erin Shields, I am Genius, Does Anyone Here Know Me? by Lois Brown, and Behaviour by Darrah Teitel.

Emma has directed new Canadian plays across the country, including Grace and Falling Trees by Megan Gail Coles, Okinum by Emilie Monnet (co-director), Refuge by Mary Vingoe, I Don’t Even Miss You by Elena Belyea, The Baklawa Recipe by Pascale Rafie. She co-founded Talisman Theatre for whom she directed, among others, the award-winning productions That Woman by Daniel Danis, Down Dangerous Passes Road by Michel Marc Bouchard, and The Medea Effect by Suzie Bastien. She co-created Skin, a performance piece with the interdisciplinary company The Bakery.

Emma is a recipient of LMDA’s Elliott Hayes Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy, and the Conseil Québécois du théâtre Prix Sentinelle.  She is a graduate of Concordia University’s Theatre Department, and NTS’ Directing Program. She feeds her inner punk rocker by playing in basement bands The Tibaldos and The Dépanneurds

PHOTO: Bernardo Fernandez