Schedule of Events
Friday, May 30th
Rama Community Hall
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7:00 - 9:00 pm: Welcome from Chief Ted Williams / Meet Guest Artists
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8:00 pm: Christa Couture - 5 Short Films, "How to Lose Everything"
Saturday, May 31st
John Snake Memorial Multi-Purpose Grounds
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5:37 am: Sunrise Ceremony: All are welcome.
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Rama Community Hall​
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7:00 - 9:00 am: Community Breakfast
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10:00 -11:00 am: Session #1 - Children's Circle: Bridget George, Lynda Partridge
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11:00 -12:00 pm: Session #2 - Darrell York
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12:00 - 1:00 pm: Lunch
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1:00 - 2:00 pm: Session #3 - Justice Now: Christa Big Canoe
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2:00 - 3:15 pm: Session #4 - From Stories to Films: Christa Couture, Keesic Douglas
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3:15 - 3:45 pm: Wellness Break
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3:45 - 5:00 pm: Session #5 - Julie Pellissier-Lush and Thomas King​
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5:00 pm: Closing Remarks / Traveling Song
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Arts Orillia is proud to bring our guest speakers to local elementary and secondary schools as part of Gathering: Festival of First Nations Stories
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We're also very proud to work with the amazing folks at Manticore Books.
All events are free of charge. Gathering is made possible through public funding, private donors, and sponsorships. Donations are welcome.
With Generous Contributions From
Festival Guests
Festival Guests
Festival Guests
Bridget George
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Bridget George is an Anishinaabe author-illustrator and graphic designer. She was raised on the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation and now lives in London, ON. George is the author of the 2020 book It’s a Mitig!, an acclaimed introduction to the Ojibway language for young readers. In her latest creation The Animal People Choose a Leader, Bridget George lavishly illustrates the well known Richard Wagamese story.
Christa Big Canoe
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Christa Big Canoe is an Anishinabek woman, mother and lawyer. She is from Georgina Island First Nation. She has been the Legal Director of Aboriginal Legal Services since 2011. She took a 2.5 year leave of absence to be senior and then Lead Commission Counsel to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Christa has been before all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada. She represents families at Inquests and has been before various tribunals providing Indigenous perspective and representation. She passionately advocates for Indigenous women and children.
Christa Couture
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Christa Couture has had a remarkable life. A queer Indigenous woman and mother, and a self-described “cyborg” with a high-tech robotic leg, the award-winning musician, author and broadcaster has weathered an astonishing number of extreme experiences. Her stories link themes of hopefulness and hopelessness, and how they make life meaningful. Her memoir How to Lose Everything is now an Indigenous series of animated short films that explore personal stories of loss. The five films’ stories span nations, languages, and perspectives on heartache.
Julie Pellissier-Lush
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Julie Pellissier-Lush is a Mi’kmaw storyteller, photographer, actor, drummer, best-selling author, and the first Indigenous Poet Laureate for PEI. Through her books, songs, poetry and other creative pursuits, Julie celebrates and shares the powerful stories of the Mi’kmaq on PEI. Amongst her many accomplishments, Julie helped script the play ‘Mi’kmaq Legends’, which has been performed countless times over the past 12 years across the Island.
Keesic Douglas
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Keesic Douglas is an Ojibway artist from Rama First Nation. His practice utilizes photography, video and performance focusing on themes of exploring history, identity, representation, and the environment through an Indigenous perspective. Keesic’s work has been exhibited both across Canada and internationally. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions in Winnipeg, Toronto and recently the Orillia Museum of Art & History as well as group exhibitions in Budapest, Prague, Mexico, Vancouver, Montreal,Toronto and New York City. In 2009 his video War Pony screened at the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany. His short film The Vanishing Trace won best short documentary at the imagineNATIVE Film Festival in 2007. In the summer of 2014, his work was exhibited as part of Before and After the Horizon: Anishnabek Artists of the Great Lakes at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Keesic graduated with a BFA from OCAD in 2008 where he won the medal for photography and completed his MFA at UBC in Vancouver BC in 2010.
Lynda Partridge
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Author Lynda Partridge is a member of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation. She grew up in the child welfare system and spent her childhood in numerous non-Indigenous foster homes. She is a 60s scoop survivor/thriver. At a later age she obtained an Honours Bachelor of Social Work (Native Human Services), followed by a Masters of Social Work Degree. It was while obtaining her undergraduate degree that she found her birth family and reconnected to her Indigenous culture She is author of the award winning and nominated books in the Lillian Mystery Series: Lillian & Kokomis: The Spirit of Dance, Why Are You Still Here, and Spirit Rider.
Sherry Lawson
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Sherry Lawson grew up on Rama Reserve near Orillia, Ontario in the lean 50’s and 60’s. Her father and his mother were a wealth of knowledge on topics of Native People, history, language and culture, and she thrived under their tutelage. Sherry never meant to be an author but turning fifty convinced her to leave a record for her children and grand-children. Sherry’s stories take us through a chaotic childhood and instances as a young adult of outright racism. There are tears and laughter, just like in real life. Sherry’s professional life took her from the halls of justice to helping deliver a breakfast program in area schools, from improving library and literacy services to First Nations communities, to speaking to audiences large and small, about how things used to be B.C. (Before casino). She was fortunate to travel the world with her late husband Rob and has two accomplished, grown children. Sherry likes to describe herself this way: wife, mother, community member and Nookomis (Grandmother). She is at work on the fourth collection of her Stories From My Life series.
Thomas King
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Thomas King is an award-winning writer and photographer. His critically acclaimed, bestselling books include Medicine River; Green Grass, Running Water; One Good Story, That One; Truth and Bright Water; A Short History of Indians in Canada; The Back of the Turtle (winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction); The Inconvenient Indian (winner of the RBC Taylor Prize); Indians on Vacation; Sufferance; and the poetry collection 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin. A Companion of the Order of Canada and the recipient of a National Aboriginal Achievement Award, Thomas King lives in Guelph, Ontario.