In North Bay, Michaela Washburn led a collaboration with young artist Niganii Dokis to create a silhouette-style video combining spoken word, rhymes, and dialogue. The video presents two powerful conversations: one between a nun and a residential school student, and another between a young child and their parent or grandparent. This piece captures the emotional weight of intergenerational trauma, highlighting the role of storytelling in healing and remembrance.
Michaela Washburn hails from the prairies and is now based in North Bay, Ontario. A proud Métis artist of Cree, French, Irish, and English ancestry, Michaela’s pronouns are she/her/they/them, and he/him when they’re in drag. Washburn’s practice spans theatre, television, film, audiobooks, spoken word, writing, hosting, clown, improvisation, stand-up and workshop facilitation.
Select theatre credits include: This Is How We Got Here (Native Earth), Almighty Voice and His Wife (Soulpepper), Guarded Girls (Tarragon/Green Light Arts), Grace (Nightwood). Having won a Dora Mavor Moore award for her multifaceted performance as Métis leader Louis Riel in Confederation & Riel (VideoCabaret/Soulpepper), Michaela has also garnered multiple nominations including the 2023 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, the 2021 and 2018 Ontario Arts Council Indigenous Arts Award and the 2011 K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Theatre.
A published author, her performance and written work has been shared internationally; including festivals and stages in Wales, Aruba and across Canada and the United States. Select film and television credits include: Skymed, Pretty Hard Cases, Burden of Truth, Just One Word, The River You Step In.
After winning the The 2021 Sharon Enkin Plays for Young People Award for the play she co wrote with Carrie Costello and Joelle Peters titled Frozen River (nîkwatin sîpiy), Washburn is proud to say it is now available through Playwrights Canada Press. Currently, this collective is working on their next collaboration, Going Under, a play about teen suicide.
Originaire des Prairies, Michaela Washburn réside actuellement à North Bay, en Ontario. Cette fière artiste métisse d’ascendance crie, française, irlandaise et anglaise utilise les pronoms elle et iel, ainsi que le pronom il dans sa vie de drag. Véritable touche-à-tout, l’artiste excelle dans bien des domaines : théâtre, cinéma, télévision, livres audio, création parlée, écriture, animation d’événements et d’ateliers, humour, improvisation ou encore stand up.
Au théâtre, ses collaborations comprennent This Is How We Got Here (Native Earth Performing Arts), Almighty Voice and His Wife (Soulpepper), Guarded Girls (Tarragon Theatre, Green Light Arts), et Grace (Nightwood Theatre). Récompensée aux prix Dora Mavor Moore pour son rôle complexe du chef métis Louis Riel dans Confederation & Riel (VideoCabaret, Soulpepper), Michaela Washburn a été nommée pour plusieurs prix, dont le Prix Johanna-Metcalf des arts de la scène 2023, le Prix du Conseil des arts de l’Ontario pour les arts autochtones 2018 et 2021 et le prix K.M. Hunter 2011.
Auteure publiée, elle se produit et présente ses œuvres dans le monde entier, notamment dans le cadre de festivals au Pays de Galles et à Aruba, ainsi qu’au Canada et aux États-Unis. Au cinéma et à la télévision, on a pu la voir dans SkyMed, Pretty Hard Cases, Burden of Truth (Seule contre tous, en VF), Just One Word et The River You Step In.
Sa pièce, Frozen River (nîkwatin sîpiy) coécrite avec Carrie Costello et Joelle Peters, a remporté en 2021 le prix Sharon Enkin Plays for Young People et a été publiée chez Playwrights Canada Press. Le trio réitère l’expérience cette année avec Going Under, une pièce sur le suicide chez les jeunes.
North Bay
Niganii Dokis is a proud Nishnaabe youth residing in North Bay Ontario. A member of Dokis First Nation, Niganii is a voracious music lover and spends most of his time in the water as a member of his local swim team.
Niganii Dokis est un fier jeune anishinabe installé à North Bay, en Ontario. Membre de la Première Nation de Dokis, ce grand mélomane passe le plus clair de son temps dans l’eau avec l’équipe locale de natation.