Senator Patrick Brazeau was called to the Senate in December 2008 after serving as the National Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) since 2006. Patrick is an Algonquin from the Kitigan Zibi reserve near Maniwaki, Quebec. He has worked extensively with the United Nations and is the second youngest person ever named to the Upper Chamber of Parliament.

Joseph Boyden is a writer-in-residence at the University of New Orleans. He has published a collection of stories, Born with a Tooth, and two award-winning novels, Three Day Road (2005) and Through Black Spruce (2008), which recently won Canada's most prestigious literary prize, the ScotiaBank Giller. Boyden is a contributing writer for Canada's Maclean's magazine and continues to publish fiction and nonfiction.

Lee Maraclewas born in North Vancouver, B.C. She is the author of a number of critically acclaimed literary works including Bobbi Lee (1990), Ravensong (1995), I Am Woman (1996), Bent Box (2000), Daughters Are Forever (2002), and Will’s Garden (2002). She is also the co-editor of several anthologies, including My Home As I Remember (1997). She is currently the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Canadian Culture at Western Washington University.

Brian Maracle is the author of Crazywater, Native Voices on Addiction and Recovery (1993) and Back on the Rez (1996). A former journalist for CBC Radio and The Globe and Mail, Brian Maracle now lives on the Six Nations Grand River Territory near Brantford, Ontario, where he teaches the Mohawk language to adults and is active in the Mohawk Longhouse.

Drew Hayden Taylor is best known for his plays, including Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock/ Education is our Right, which won the Chalmers Canadian Play Award in 1992, The Bootlegger Blues (1990), which won the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for Best Drama, and Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth (1996), which won a Dora Mavor Moore Award. He is the author of Fearless Warriors (1998). He is also a regular contributor to numerous newspapers and magazines, a screenwriter, and documentary director.

Rachel A. Qitsualik was born into the traditional Inuit culture of the 1950s. She has worked as an educator, bureaucrat, consultant, translator and writer and has published 300+ articles on Inuit culture/folklore in various countries. Together with her husband, she has recently published a number of Inuit-inspired fantasy fiction stories including the 2008 book Qanuq Pinngurnirmata: Inuit Stories of How Things Came to Be.

Barbara Van Haute is of Métis heritage and originally hails from Stony Mountain, MB. Barbara holds a Master's degree from the University of Manitoba and is soon to complete her doctorate in Political Science/International Relations. She is currently the Director of Program Development with the Métis National Council.

Tomson Highway, born near Maria Lake, Manitoba, in 1951, now divides his time between Banyuls-sur-mer, France, and Ontario. An accomplished musician, he studied to be a concert pianist before coming to prominence as a playwright with the award-winning The Rez Sisters (1986) and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing (1989). His novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen, was published in 1998. Tomson Highway helped establish Native Earth Performing Arts, Canada's first Aboriginal theatre company.