FORT MCMURRAY (660 NEWS) – The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo aims to highlight Indigenous voices with the launch of a new virtual speaker series called ‘It’s Time to Talk’.
Jesse Thistle, national bestselling author of ‘From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless and Finding My Way’, is the first to be featured on the Indigenous Speaker Series.
His book is not only a #1 best seller and finalist for CBC Canada Reads, but it also won several awards including the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Nonfiction, an Indigenous Voices Award, and a High Plains Book Award.
Thistle is also the National Representative for Indigenous Homelessness for the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, an Indigenous activist, Métis-Cree Ph.D. Candidate, and an Assistant Professor at York University.
Residents can participate in the interactive discussion with Thistle on May 27 at 7 p.m. There will be a Q&A session as well. To register and submit a question, email participate@rmwb.ca.
“The free, interactive series seeks to highlight voices of Indigenous artists, writers, activists, and leaders to provide powerful examples of strength and the positive impacts that one individual can have,” reads an RMWB press release. “The Speaker Series is an opportunity to learn, understand and engage on important issues like homelessness, addiction, intergenerational trauma, and reconciliation.”
