This Year's Speakers
Tantoo Cardinal
Tantoo Cardinal is an award-winning actress of Indigenous descent who will be seen
with Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s newest feature, Killers
of the Flower Moon, which is premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2023.
Recent TV series work includes playing Sue Lynn Blackbird in the ABC Television
Network series Stumptown. Or opposite Alfred Molina in the series 3 Pines on Amazon
(produced by the same producers of The Crown).
The fall of 2023 she will be seen in the new Marvel series, Echo.
A Canadian native, she has appeared in over 120 film and television projects over the
course of her 50-year career. Multi Award winning performer, including the Earle Grey
Award (a lifetime achievement award by the Canadian Screen Awards), is a Member of
the Order of Canada and is a CBC/Playback Hall of Fame inductee and a recipient of
the 2020 Governor Generals Artistic Achievement Lifetime Achievement Award–
Broadcasting and Film (awarded in 2021). She has Honorary Doctorates from 5 Universities.
Her credits include numerous plays, television programs, and feature films, including the
features: Legends of the Fall, Dances with Wolves, Black Robe, Falls Around Her, Wind
River, The Grizzlies, Where The Rivers Flow North, Maina, Chasing Shakespeare and Eden.
Television credits include: SEE, Westworld, Longmire, Mohawk Girls, Frontier,
Blackstone, Lonesome Dove, Nobody’s Girls, Godless and Penny Dreadful among others.
Theatre work includes playing "Gertrude in Hamlet," Regan in the production
of "King Lear" and the role of Pelajia in a production of "The Rez Sisters”.
She was Awarded the Theatre Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work on
“The Inheritance” at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.
Wes Studi
From small-town Oklahoma native to internationally acclaimed actor and musician, Wes Studi
credits his passion and multi-faceted background for his powerful character portrayals that
forever changed a Hollywood stereotype.
Drawing from his rich life experience, Wes moved audiences with unforgettable performances in
“Dances with Wolves,” “The Last of the Mohicans,” “Geronimo: An American Legend,” and
“Heat,” as well as James Cameron’s “Avatar,” Paul Weitz’s “Being Flynn” and Scott Coopers
“Hostiles.” Breaking new ground, he brought fully-developed Native American characters to the
screen, and then took his craft a step further highlighting the success of Native Americans in
non-traditional roles.
In 2019, Wes received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Governors Award, an
honorary Oscar statuette, given to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement.
In 2018, Wes, a Vietnam Veteran, was invited to present at the 90th Academy Awards. To a
viewership of 26.5 million households, he introduced a video montage of military movies as a
tribute to our veterans.
Wes was inducted in to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s Hall of Great
Western Performers in 2013. Throughout his 30-year career he’s won numerous awards,
including several First Americans in the Arts awards and the 2009 Santa Fe Film Festival Lifetime
Achievement Award.
Speakers
Beatrice Love
Performer
Blain Constant
Motivational Speaker/Musician
Christian Wassana
Actor/Motivational Speaker
Jade Turner
Singer/Songwriter
Meet This Year's Host's
Jill Featherstone
Jill Featherstone is the author of the Amazon #1 bestselling book, The Tale of Tiger Lily. She is a retired university professor, the founder of Featherstone Group, and the host of Driving While Indigenous the Podcast, which airs Mondays on all podcast platforms.
"Empowering our Indigenous young people is always on the forefront of whatever I am doing, and whether it's through workshops, speaking, events, or social media, I am always in search of ways to reach people on a larger scale."
Jessica Dumas
Ted Williams
Greg Personius
Jessica is a professional speaker coach and the host of The Confidence and Communication Podcast. She has been recognized for her professional expertise as a recipient of the Manitoba 150 Women Trailblazer Award from the Nellie McClung Foundation for 2021, Ace Burpees Most Fascinating Manitobans for 2019, the 2017 Future Leaders of Manitoba and the CBC’s Top 40 Manitobans under 40 for 2015. She has a 2017 TEDx talk called The Journey to a Woman’s Identity.
Hailing from The Chippewas of
Rama First Nation in Southern Ontario, Ted grew up like many of us, in a small space full of lots of brothers and sisters and no running water. He went on to become the Chief of Rama at the age of 29 and Councillor at 25. He was also a professional golfer, artist and the founder of Casino Rama. A venture that generated over $500 million in its first year and created thirty-five hundred jobs.
From Big Eddy in Opaskwayak
Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba, Greg is a father
to 2-year old Roselyn and works as an event planner.
Greg has a passion for music, comedy and engaging with
people as an Emcee. He is following his dreams and will showcase his talents with us in his comedy routine and as Emcee of the Gala.
Behold this day, it is yours to make.
BLACK ELK
Last Year's Event!
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