Participants: Arlea Ashcroft, Liz Barron, Michael Hutchinson, Curtis Kaltenbaugh, April Seenie, Jordan Wheeler, Kim Wheeler To guide this cohort to the 2026 Pimootayowin: A Festival of New Work, we welcome Herbie Barnes as the Interim Program Director who will carry these artists on their own writing journey.
Arlea Ashcroft is an Anishinaabe/Saulteaux French multi-disciplinary artist, with ancestral ties to Minegoziibe Anishinabe (Pine Creek First Nation). She has been active in the arts for over 30 years, garnering local, national and international recognition. Her work explores Indigenous and mixed-blood identity, issues of mental health, female sexuality and art as activism. From her beginnings in the Goddess Rising Theatre comedy troupe, as a visual artist, experimental filmmaker, guitarist in the punk band SHRIMP, and published author in various literary formats, her style embodies a rebellious energy that encourages dialogue about the healing and transformative power of art. Ashcroft is writing her first book, Non-Identifying Information – A Memoir, which tells the story of her growing up in 1980s Winnipeg as an adoptee searching for her Nation. She is happiest surrounded by nature, camping under the stars. Ashcroft is honoured to be blessed with the opportunity to join the Pimootayowin Creators Circle. Chi Miigwetch all my relations. www.arleaashcroft.com
Liz Barron is the Director of Operations with the Indigenous Curatorial Collective (ICCA) and the Project Lead for Bend in the Bow, a major public art initiative in Calgary exploring environmental, Indigenous and community-based curatorial practices. A proud Métis cultural worker whose family names include Barron, Peltier and Miller, she brings decades of experience in arts management, curation, and advocacy for Indigenous and Métis artists across Canada. Liz is a founding member of the Harbour Collective, which leads a series of LABS focused on advancing artists’ skills in media, film, visual art and artificial intelligence. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Board for Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (MAWA) and Chair of SCALE (Sustainability in the Arts Leadership). Her writing was recently published in Herizons, Canada’s foremost feminist magazine. She is currently enrolled in Whiskey University, where she studies the cultural histories and craft of spirits as a reflection of place, tradition and storytelling. A devoted Prince fan and unapologetic Fluevog collector (with a self-imposed two-pair-a-year cap), Barron infuses her work with creativity, humour and vision.
Michael Hutchinson is a citizen of the Misipawistik Cree Nation, in the Treaty 5 territory, north of Winnipeg. As a young adult, he worked as a bartender, a caterer for rock concerts and movie shoots, and, eventually, as a print reporter. Michael moved from journalism to communications to work for the Indian Claims Commission in Ottawa as a writer. He returned to his home province to start a family, 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, where he helped create the "We are all treaty people" campaign. Eventually, he moved to APTN where he made mini-documentaries, became host of the national news and produced Face to Face and APTN’s version of Politically Incorrect, The Laughing Drum. Returning to communications, he worked for the Assembly of First Nation, where he was press secretary for the National Chief. Currently, he is the Communications Manager for the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre. Michael is the author of the award-winning Mighty Muskrat Mystery series. Michael wrote the books hoping that First Nation and impoverished youth will feel represented, and to educate Canadian and Indigenous youth about the history of the First Nations-Canadian relationship and how it has impacted Indigenous communities. Michael's greatest accomplishments are his two lovely daughters.
Curtis Kaltenbaugh, who is of mixed Ojibwe-Scottish heritage, was born in Portage la Prairie, but adopted out to a non-Indigenous family at the tail end of the 60s scoop. Curtis has been a registered nurse for nearly eight years. He works with a non-profit, providing harm reduction services and street-based nursing, for the homeless community, in downtown Winnipeg. Prior to becoming a nurse, Curtis worked in documentaries; most notably, sharing his own cross-cultural adoption experience in the NFB film, A Place Between: The Story of an Adoption. He also worked as writer/director/researcher on The Sharing Circle, a television documentary series exploring issues relevant to indigenous communities, for three seasons.
Zaagii’iwe Kwe (Loves Her People) aka April Seenie is an Anishnaabe Kwe and Nii-mama (mother) from the Roseau River Anishnaabe First Nation in Southern Manitoba. Her theatre works include: The Girl Who Loved Her Horses, directed by Marion De Vries; Finding Ourselves, directed by Lee Maracle and choreographed by Troy Emery Twigg; Speakeasy or Else, directed by Herbie Barnes; Better Off Knowing, You Promised–I Lied, both directed by Muriel Miguel; The Last Walk of Adolpho Ich, written & directed by Marion de Vries; Skin and Peacemaker, both directed by Lila Cano; and Like Mother, Like Daughter, directed by Rose Plotek. She has been an instructor with the Native Youth Theatre program at the MTYP, served as a board member for Sarasvàti Productions and has joined the advisory board for the Centre for Indigenous Theatre. Currently, she is employed at the First Nation Health & Social Secretariat of Manitoba in the Research department. April hopes to inspire people by sharing her story while listening to theirs, so people truly believe they can overcome all and any obstacles. We are all beautifully and wonderfully made.
Jordan Wheeler has been writing professionally since 1982 and working in film and television since 1984. A member of the George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan, his numerous credits as scriptwriter, story editor and producer include: North of 60, Arctic Air and renegadepress.com. He has been nominated and won numerous awards including a Gemini (now a Canadian Screen Award) for best writing in a children’s or youth program or series. When Jordan is not writing, he is story editing, teaching writing and scriptwriting, telling oral stories and playing golf. He lives on Treaty One Territory with his wife Kim Wheeler.
Kim Wheeler is a Mohawk/Anishinaabe kwe who has brought positive Indigenous stories to the mainstream and Indigenous media since 1993. Kim works from her treehouse media office in Winnipeg on Treaty One Territory. She is the executive producer of Words and Culture, a national Indigenous language radio/podcast series with an all-Indigenous team of hosts and producers. She is also the host/producer of several audio shows including The Kim Wheeler Show, Turtle Island Talks on SiriusXM, the podcast Auntie Up!, Indigenous Screen Office’s Storytellers, and The Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack’s Fund A Day to Listen. She is also a writer/producer for The Juno Awards and Remembering the Children, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation broadcast event. Her work has been recognized by the Canadian Screen Awards, New York Festivals, imagineNATIVE and the Indigenous Music Awards. She also lectures at universities and writes for a variety of mediums, including occasionally The New York Times and Chatelaine.