Kim Wheeler (Anishinaabe/Mohawk) is the executive producer of Words and Culture. She is also the host/producer of several audio shows including The Kim Wheeler Show; Turtle Island Talks on SiriusXM; the podcast Auntie Up!; and The Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack’s Fund A Day to Listen. She is also a writer/producer for The Juno Awards and wrote Remembering the Children, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation broadcast event. Kim occasionally writes for The New York Times and Chatelaine. Her work has been recognized by the Canadian Screen Awards, the New York Festivals, and imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival.
Kaylen Belair is a Métis audio producer from Saint Laurent, Manitoba. He is the music director for SiriusXM channels 165 The Indigiverse and 171 Top of the Country Radio. Kaylen also produces the Indigenous Music Countdown, Turtle Island Talks, and The Kim Wheeler Show.
Kristi Lane Sinclair is a producer, director, musician and proud Indigenous woman whose goals includes challenging herself creatively and using her gifts to benefit Indigenous peoples.
When she thinks about her ancestral lands of Haida Gwaii, she thinks about preserving and revitalizing the Haida language; the ocean; the rights and titles of Indigenous Peoples; family and the lived experience. And tell these stories in a good way.
Kristi wanted to create a film company that tells Indigenous stories through an Indigenous lens (top to tail). Her production company – Gaayangaay – is based on a structure that adheres to our value system as Indigenous peoples. Haida have a well established concept of respect referred to as Yah’guudang. It honours the future and past generations, encompasses the land, sea and ancestral heritage. As caretakers of the physical and spiritual relationship with Haida Gwaii, Kristi says they co-exist with all things. This is based on a mutual respect based on caring for one another.
To be an impactful and sustainable presence as an Indigenous owned /operated company, they chose to shed the hierarchical model often utilized in the film and music industry. To have a voice, to have/give respect in a space that adjusts to give the time to listen, create and flourish is what Gaayangaay Productions is built upon.
sumaxatkw Tracey Kim Bonneau is a distinguished broadcast journalist from the syilx Nation,
proudly born and raised on the unceded territory of the suknaqinx (Okanagan).
With over thirty years of experience, she has been at the forefront of writing, directing, and producing award – winning news stories, print articles, and documentaries. Her recent works include 52 dynamic episodes of “Quest Out West: Wild Food” on APTN, and she is currently pioneering XR storytelling to illuminate vital narratives about food sovereignty, cultural history, and language.
As a matriarch with the IM4 Lab, Tracey is dedicated to empowering Indigenous communities
through free training in AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality), and XR (extended reality). On September 27, 2024, her long-term project “Huckleberry” made a significant impact at the DIGI BC Signals Creative Tech Expo 2024, in collaboration with the Vancouver International Film Festival.
This exhibition showcased an engaging VR 360 prototype for language learning. It features an
interactive experience with stunning 360-degree 8K video and innovative light sensors that invite viewers to immerse themselves in nsyilxcn (the syilx language) words.
Pamela Palmater is a Mi’kmaw lawyer, professor, author, podcaster, filmmaker, and producer from Eel River Bar First Nation, who has been creating and producing Indigenous content as part of her public education and advocacy on Indigenous issues since 2012. She is the President and CEO of her own Indigenous production company, Warrior Life Studios Inc.
Creator, producer, and host of the popular Warrior Life Podcast – featured at digital media, podcast, film, and art festivals like imagineNATIVE – Pam uses her podcast to help lift the voices of Indigenous land defenders, water protectors, advocates, and leaders from all over Turtle Island.
Pam is also the producer and host of the award-winning Warrior Kids Podcast which combines her passion for Indigenous cultures with her desire to educate
and inspire young children to act on social justice and climate change issues.
Criminals on Patrol is her latest podcast currently in pre-development which turns the true crime genre on its head by shining a light on the dark side of the “thin blue line” by investigating criminality, corruption, and cover-ups in policing.
Leela Gilday is a celebrated and award-winning musician: songwriter, singer, guitarist, composer, creator, speaker, and advocate from Denendeh who has released 5 full length solo recordings and led numerous other collaborative projects/recordings and shows. Her music has been recognized with many awards including two Junos, and she has toured nationally and internationally for the better part of 25 years.
Leela’s career as an Artistic Director has included projects such as the Circumpolar Soundscape, Muskoskwew Quartet, Tsekwi Huya Gala celebration, the finale of Indspire awards gala 2017/2020, the Gho-Bah/Gombaa collective concert and recording, six years as Musical Director for the national Arctic Inspiration Prize Ceremony (2018-2023), and work as Music Supervisor for a number of film projects in Indigenous health and wellness.
As a part of her worldview which places community at the centre, Leela has also worked extensively throughout her career with various communities and individuals in schools, with arts institutions and social justice groups across North America to inspire and educate people (particularly Indigenous youth) about the power of the voice (both figuratively and literally). She has also personally mentored several people in developing their art practice and careers, thereby amplifying northern Indigenous voices and authentic Indigenous musical/narrative sovereignty. Her work also includes dedicated workshops on ways for arts organizations and individuals to engage in reconciliation through the arts.
Leela is a dedicated volunteer, and was a key founding member and active board member of two major arts organizations: Music NWT, and the new national Indigenous Music Office, where she is current Board Chair. She also helped to create and is a senior artist member of the Atti! Indigenous Arts Collective. Leela spent many years on the board of the NWT Arts Council, and also sits on the boards of two national music organizations: the Music Managers Forum Canada, and the Canadian Live Music Association. She lives in and works from Treaty 8 Chief Drygeese Territory in Yellowknife, NT (Denendeh).
Shelagh Rogers is a veteran broadcast-journalist, and most recently, she was the host and co-creator of CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter. Shelagh is the co-editor of the 3 volume “Speaking My Truth” series about residential school, healing and reconciliation published by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.
In 2011, she was inducted as an Honorary Witness for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a life-changing honour; she has since devoted her focus to amplifying Indigenous voices, Indigenous narratives and the truth of Canada’s history.
She has been recognized with honorary doctorates from eight universities, and she served as Chancellor of the University of Victoria from 2015 to 2021. She is now the 16th Chancellor of Queen’s University, succeeding her cousin, the Honourable Murray Sinclair.
Shelagh Rogers is a member of the Métis Nation of Greater Victoria, with family roots in Red River, Manitoba. Her great-grandmother Edith was the first Métis woman and the first woman to be elected to the Manitoba Legislature. To meet her Métis family and to walk in the land of her
ancestors, Shelagh now lives in Winnipeg.
January Rogers is a Mohawk/Tuscarora writer from Six Nations of the Grand River. She owns and operates Ojistoh Publishing and Productions. She works in page poetry, spoken word, performance poetry, video poetry and recorded poetry with music. January is a radio broadcaster, media producer and sound artist. She has produced and written media for gallery and broadcast with 2Ro Media since 2015. In 2020, she won Best Music Video at the American Indian Film Festival for Ego of a Nation. In 2021, January took home an ImagineNATIVE award for Best Experimental Sound for her sound piece The Struggle Within.
Michael Hutchinson is a citizen of the Misipawistik Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory. He began his career as a journalist but moved over to communications to work for the Indian Claims Commission in Ottawa as a writer. He returned to his home province where he worked as the director of communications for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, and then as a project manager for the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba. Eventually, Michael moved back into journalism and has worked on APTN Investigates, as the host of APTN National News, produced and hosted Face to Face and The Laughing Drum. He recently did a short stint as a co-host on CTV Morning Live Winnipeg. Currently, Michael is the Communications Manager for the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre, which is on the front lines of language and cultural revitalization.
Christine Genier is a Wolf Clan citizen of the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council (Yukon). She is a broadcaster, journalist, writer, poet, performer, and language and culture worker. Since 1995 Christine has been navigating a career spanning northern theatre, journalism, broadcasting, writing, spoken word and public speaking, and getting angry. She tries to do this all with
honesty and humor, language and culture. Christine works to pass on her ancestral languages, Tageesh Koshé and Dawkwanjé (Southern Tutchone). Christine is a regular guest host with the popular podcast Auntie Up!
Melissa Spence is a professionally trained, award-winning broadcaster who is enrolled in Lake Manitoba First Nation. Bornand raised in Winnipeg until relocating to the US in 2015, she is from the Anishinaabe/Ojibway Nation (Turtle Clan) and now calls Las Vegas home. With over 15 years of professional radio to her credit, Melissa has been a part of several Indigenous broadcast programming on local, regional and national levels. She thrived as a popular morning show personality, developed an Indigenous youth radio station Streetz/Rhythm 104.7 (CIUR), hosted the first ever Indigenous Music countdown show (@IMCountdown) on SIRIUS XM (channel 165) and served as the first-ever female Indigenous music programmer at CIUR – Rhythm FM. She’s currently a Cultural Humility facilitator, advocates for MMIWP’s, is the producer and host of IVMusic and the IVpodcast, and takes care of all social media and creative communications at Indigenous Vision.
Madeleine Allakariallak is Inuk and was born and raised in Canada’s second most northerly community. Madeleine is currently the director of production and post-production of an Inuit-owned television and radio broadcaster in Montreal. She began her career at CBC Iqaluit. Madeleine hosted a bilingual Inuktitut/English radio morning show for almost 10 years before taking on a job as TV host-producer for the APTN. She returned to CBC North as host of the only Inuktitut evening news program. She sight-translated on the fly. All of her interviews were only in Inuktitut, and there, she gained valuable history of Inuit from many knowledge carriers from across the circumpolar Arctic world.
