Michaela Washburn hails from Alberta and is a proud Métis artist of Cree, French, Irish, and English ancestry. Now based in North Bay, Ontario, she feels blessed to be grounded in ceremony and community based arts in her work with Aanmitaagzi and Big Medicine Studio. An award winning actor and writer, Washburn also has multiple nominations including the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, the Ontario Arts Council Indigenous Arts Award and the K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Theatre. A published author, Michaela’s performance and written work has been shared internationally at festivals and theatres in Wales, Aruba and across Canada and the United States. Upcoming she looks forward to the publication of the award winning play she co-wrote with Joelle Peters and Carrie Costello titled ‘Frozen River/nîkwatin sîpiy', and to continuing her mentorship with Dan Commanda on their project Mino Bimaadiziwin.