Jury

Writing Challenge Patrons

	Honorary Patron Shawn Atleo, National Chief, Assembly of First Nations
	Honorary Patron Clément Chartier, President, Métis National Council
	Honorary Patron Mary Simon, President, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
	Honorary Patron The Honourable John Duncan, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada
	Patron Phil Fontaine, Former Chief, Assembly of First Nations

Writing Challenge Jury and Advisory Committee


	Joseph Boyden A Canadian of Irish, Scottish and Métis roots, Joseph Boyden is the award-winning author of Three Day Road, which won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year Award, and Through Black Spruce, which won the 2008 Giller Prize. He recently released a double-biography on Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont. He divides his time between Northern Ontario and Louisiana, where he teaches writing at the University of New Orleans.
	Lee Maracle Lee Maracle is the author of a number of critically acclaimed winning literary works including:Sojourner’s and Sundogs, Ravensong, Bobbi Lee, Daughters Are Forever, Will’s Garden, Bent Box, I Am Woman, and First Wives’ Club: Salish Style, and is co-editor of a number of anthologies including the award winning My Home As I Remember, Telling It: Women and Language Across Culture. Ms. Maracle is a member of the Sto:Loh nation. Maracle has served as the Distinguished Visiting Professor at both University of Toronto and Western Washington University. In 2009, Ms. Maracle received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the St. Thomas University. Upcoming work: Memory Serves: and other words
	Brian Maracle Brian Maracle is the author of Crazywater (1993) and Back on the Rez (1996) and the Mohawk-language film Tsi Tkahehtayen (2009). A former journalist for CBC Radio and The Globe and Mail, Brian Maracle lives on the Six Nations Grand River Territory where he writes English commentaries and a Mohawk blog.
	Drew Hayden Taylor An Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario, Drew Hayden Taylor has worn many hats in his literary career, from performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., to being Artistic Director of Canada’s premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. He has been an award-winning playwright, a journalist/columnist, short-story writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and has worked on over 17 documentaries exploring the Native experience.
	Rachel A. Qitsualik 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 Barbara Van Haute is a Metis woman born and raised in Manitoba. Recently, she has been appointed as Research Fellow to the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. She is currently working with the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples to facilitate the development of various legislative, health and justice initiatives that speak to the needs and interests of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples at the federal level.

	Mark Reid Mark Reid is Editor-in-Chief of Canada’s History magazine. An award-winning writer and editor, Mark contributed two chapters to the book Native Leaders of Canada (2008). He also edited 100 Photos that Changed Canada (HarperCollins 2009), a national bestseller.

	Past Jury Members

	Tomson Highway Tomson Highway was born in a snow bank on the Manitoba/Nunavut border to a family of nomadic caribou hunters. Today, he enjoys an international career as playwright, novelist, and cabaret artist (as pianist/songwriter). His best known works are the plays, “The Rez Sisters,” “Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing,” “Rose,” Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout,” and the best-selling novel, “Kiss of the Fur Queen.” For many years, he ran Canada’s premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. He divides his year equally between a cottage in northern Ontario and a seaside apartment in the south of France, at both of which locales he is currently at work on his second novel.
	Senator Patrick Brazeau 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 third youngest person ever named to the Senate.