Join MNBC's Ministry of Culture, Heritage and Language (CHL) with host Jónína Kirton as she shares her journey of reclaiming her identity as a Métis person through writing poetry.

The link to this workshop will be sent out to registrants 24 hours before the event. If you did not receive an email, please check your spam/junk folder.

About Jónína Kirton:

Jónína Kirton is a Red River Métis/Icelandic poet. Born in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, the homeland of the Métis, she currently lives in New Westminster, British Columbia, the unceded territory of the Qayqayt, S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), sc̓əwaθenaɁɬ təməxʷ(Tsawwassen), šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmaɁɬ təməxʷ (Musqueam), Sḵwxwú7mesh, səl̓ilwətaɁɬ təməxʷ (Tsleil-Waututh), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm, Stz’uminus, sq̓əc̓iy̓aɁɬ təməxʷ (Katzie) and Kwantlen.

She graduated from the Simon Fraser University's (SFU) Writer's Studio in 2007. Since graduating she has been an active alumna taking on various volunteer and paid positions including two years as Betsy Warland’s Mentor Apprentice and two years as their BIPOC Auntie. She has presented and taught at UBC, SFU, Douglas College and a few literary festivals. In 2017, she was the Writer-in-Residence at LA Matheson Secondary School and in 2019 she was one of the mentors at the Vancouver Public Library’s Teen Writing Bootcamp.

In recent years she has been working as a book coach and manuscript consultant and is one of the solo mentors at the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive. She is a past board member of the Indigenous Editor’s Association and is committed to building capacity as there is growing understanding of the need for Indigenous editors. She just completed the SFU Community Capacity Building program. Much of her work in the literary world has been around equity and inclusion.

Her first collection of poetry, page as bone ~ ink as blood, was published with Talonbooks in 2015. Two years later she brought us her second collection, An Honest Woman, again with Talonbooks. The book was a finalist in the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. She was sixty-one when she received the 2016 Vancouver’s Mayor’s Arts Award for an Emerging Artist in the Literary Arts category.

Jónína's third book, Standing in a River of Time, will be released in the Spring of 2022, again with Talonbooks.

Learn more about Jónína's work:

Honest Woman

MéTV Episode 4

SFU Community Capacity Building: Jonina Kirton

Jonina Kirton, Denman Island Readers & Writers Virtual Mini-Fest 2020

This workshop is open to Métis Citizens and self-identified of all ages living in BC only.

For any questions, please email CHL@MNBC.CA