FMNI STORYTELLERS

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Virginia Barter is a Toronto based historical writer/storyteller/musician and filmmaker. As a multi-disciplinary artist, Virginia is known for her unique style of storytelling using visual art, film and Aboriginal music and language. Virginia is a passionate advocate of Métis culture and history. Her family history, “Searching for the Silver Fox” was published as part of an anthology, The Long Journey of a Forgotten People: Métis Identities and Family Histories, Wilfred Laurier University Press. (2007)

Brenda Wastasecoot is a member of the York Factory Cree Nation, born and raised at Churchill, Manitoba. Her life was deeply impacted by her sibling’s experience of Residential schooling. She, too, experienced Canada’s assimilation policy in the public school at Churchill, resulting in loss of pride in her identity as a Cree woman. “I went to university after graduating high school. Education, as an adult, has meant healing and empowerment, in the long run it has opened my eyes to the incredible beauty and power of my culture and language.”

She became a mental health worker and counsellor in Indigenous communities near Brandon, Manitoba. She was hired by Brandon University for nine years in the First Nations & Aboriginal Counselling Degree program. Brenda moved to Toronto in 2008 and completed her PhD in the Adult Education & Community Development program at OISE, UT in 2016. Currently, she teaches Indigenous Studies courses at University of Toronto. Her pedagogic forte is grounded in her stories of historic trauma, relating stories to students from her own personal experience of being a Native girl during the 60’s.