This Place

We have chosen to accompany each poem with artwork from a contemporary Native American artist. Some of these artists are members of the same nation as the person featured in the biographical poem. Their works illustrate contemporary concepts and concerns--many of which are the same as or similar to those of their ancestors. Other poems are accompanied by a Native American artist from another nation whose work connects to the subject of the biography in an important way. Our hope is that these works of art will expand the reader's view of Native American art and reveal how vibrant and significant it is in continuing and reflecting the hopes and struggles of Native Americans today.

Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley was born at the northernmost edge of Baffin Island, in the Canadian Arctic. She grew up learning traditional survival lore from her father. She and her husband Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley were brought together by a love of nature and each other. They write Arctic speculative fiction and nonfiction for various ages.

Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley was born at the southernmost edge of Ontario, learning woodcraft from his father. He and his wife Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley were brought together by a love of nature and each other. They write Arctic speculative fiction and nonfiction for various ages.

David A. Robertson is a two-time Governor General's Literary Award winner and has won the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award and the Writers' Union of Canada Freedom to Read Award. He has received several other accolades for his work as a writer for children and adults, a podcaster, a public speaker, and a social advocate. He was honoured with a Doctor of Letters from the University of Manitoba in 2023 and a Doctor of Laws from both the University of Lethbridge in 2025 and Queen’s University in 2026. He is a member of Norway House Cree Nation and lives in Winnipeg.

Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe from Peguis First Nation. He is an award-winning writer, editor and professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba who was named by Maclean’s in 2022 as one of the most influential people in Canada. Niigaan is a multiple nominee of Canadian Columnist of the Year (winning in 2018), and his commentary appears weekly on multiple platforms across Canada – from the pages of The Winnipeg Free Press to TV shows on CBC, APTN and on his co-hosted podcast Niigaan and the Lone Ranger. His first book, Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre (McClelland & Stewart, 2024), was a national bestseller that won the 2024 Governor General Award for Non-fiction. He is a former secondary school teacher who won the 2019 Peace Educator of the Year award from the Peace and Justice Studies Association based at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

katherena vermette (she/her/hers) is a Red River Métis (Michif) writer from Treaty 1 territory, the heart of the Métis Nation, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

In 2013, her first book, North End Love Songs (The Muses’ Company) won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. Since then, her work has garnered awards and critical accolades across genres. Her novels The Break (House of Anansi) and The Strangers (Hamish Hamilton) were both national best sellers and won multiple literary awards.

She is the author of numerous other bestselling titles, including the A Girl Called Echo series (HighWater Press) and the Seven Teachings Stories series (HighWater Press).

Chelsea Vowel is Métis from manitow-sâkahikan (Lac Ste. Anne) Alberta, residing in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton). Parent to six children, wiya has a BEd, LLB, and MA.

Chelsea is a queer, disabled, nêhiyawêwin (Cree) language instructor, public intellectual, author, and activist educator whose work intersects language, gender, Métis self-determination, and resurgence.