Michael Laughing Fox Charette is a gifted Native American storyteller, poet, and member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (located in Northern Wisconsin). As a self-taught Native flute player he enhances his stories with hauntingly beautiful flute and drum performance. Growing up surrounded by the beauty of Lake Superior and the woods led him to dedicate his gifts as an artist to gently teaching about Native history, culture, and spirituality. His work as both a visual and performance artist is varied and tied together by the traditional wisdom of the Anishnaabe people, which is respectfully incorporated into his work. Michael captivates audiences with his authentic, relaxed style. Follow his work at talesoflaughingfox.wixsite.com.

Gwiiwizens Ricky DeFoe is a Graduate of a Federal Indian Boarding School, attended Flandreau Indian School in Flandreau, SD, and served in the United States Army National Guard. He is a retired Union Journeyman Ironworker, a Pipe Carrier and Sweat Lodge Keeper, and a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Minnesota Chippewa. He traveled to Honduras with Witness for Peace to observe firsthand the devastating effects of U.S. Foreign Policy on Indigenous Peoples and marginalized groups. Ricky has volunteered and brought the Ojibwe Language and Culture into the Arrowhead Juvenile Center, the Northeast Regional Correctional Center, the St. Louis County Jail, and into the Hospitals and Hospices in the community. He currently works as a Language and Curriculum Specialist within Fond du Lac Reservation's Ojibwe Language Revitalization Program.

Sharon Doolittle Shuck, an Ojibwe Elder from Fond du Lac Reservation in northern Minnesota, began writing Memories from the Tarpaper Shack. After reading her grandfather’s Leavenworth prison records, elders and writing groups inspired her to write her first book Grandfather’s Blood Memories and Unbroken Spirit. She resides in Duluth, Minnesota.

Augustin Ganley is an Irish-American writer, filmmaker, occasional actor, and multimedia teacher at Fond du Lac Tribal & Community College (FDLTCC). Augustin has been making documentary films for 20 years, most recently focusing on the Great Lakes basin and the people who call it home. Ask him about signing up for film school at FDLTCC.

Sylvia Houle is an emerging Anishinaabe contemporary artist who recently moved to Duluth, Minnesota from Rolette, North Dakota. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Born and raised far away from her Indigenous roots along the Northern California Coastline, she didn’t have the benefit of the traditional teachings of her father’s people and would often feel out of place but did not understand why until many years later. Sylvia’s work represents a visual map of various things that flow through her mind, influenced by colors, nature, people, thoughts, emotions, and cultural teachings; all these things she processes through different art mediums, mainly soft pastels. A couple of the main themes she likes to explore are reconnecting to her Anishinaabe heritage and portraiture.

Olli Johnson is a multi-disciplinary artist working in the vibrant puppetry community of Minneapolis. She has performed in the circus with Bread and Puppet (of VT), the local parades of In the Heart of the Beast and in the pageants of Barebones Puppets. Olli's creative practice is both individual and collaborative. She is perpetually adding new skills and tricks to her “tool box” from bookbinding and paper engineering to letterpress printing and upholstery. For the past 15 years she has worked as an arts educator in the fabulous arts organizations of the Twin Cities. Olli teaches for after school programs, MN Center for Book Arts, Mia, MN Institute for Talented Youth and Adventures in Cardboard. Olli is in the midst of getting her upholstery business start-up off the ground, loves to play her accordion, and spend time in the woods with her dog, Rudy. If she had to choose ONE job to do the rest of her life, it would be making PopUp books. Connect with her @ollimadethis on Instagram. Check out her work at ollimadethis.com.

Memegwesiikwe Diana Lawrey is a member of the Grand Portage Tribe of Ojibwe in Minnesota. She is a licensed teacher in Minnesota and has worked in education for over 10 years in various capacities from kindergarten through college. Ms. Lawrey is passionate about providing educational opportunities for students, teachers, and the general public to learn more about Ojibwe people and the history of this place.

Xander Ripley-Jaakola is from Fond Du Lac. He enjoys making music and acting. He has done six theatre productions. His favorite character on Sesame Street is Cookie Monster.

Thomas D. Peacock has authored or co-authored The Forever Story, Collected Wisdom, Ojibwe Waasa Inaabidaa: We Look in All Directions, The Good Path, The Seventh Generation, The Four Hills of Life, To Be Free, The Tao of Nokomis, Beginnings: The Homeward Journey of Donovan Manypenny, The Forever Sky, and The Dancers. Ojibwe and The Good Path were Minnesota Book Award winners. The Seventh Generation was multicultural children’s book of the year (American Association of Multicultural Education). Thomas is a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Anishinaabe Ojibwe and lives with his wife Betsy in Little Sand Bay, Red Cliff, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota where they run Black Bears and Blueberries Publishing.

Thomlin Swan is a queer, Jewish multidisciplinary artist who seeks to ‘heal haunted histories’ through art, media, and storytelling. Originally from New York City, Thomlin became acquainted with the Great Lakes in 2016 while touring an outdoor folk opera about environmental grief called The Wastelands. Moving to Nahgahchiwanong (Fond du Lac Ojibwe Reservation) in 2021, their theatre, collage, somatic therapy, parenting, and community organizing continue to center ways of unsettling and restoring this land and all its relations.

Pete Talbot, originally from Vermont, is an Add-Junk Professor at the Cardboard Teck Instantute & co-creator of the PinBox 3000 a cardboard pinball machine kit, and build teacher at Adventures in Cardboard. He loves creating with cardboard, paper and lasers. Also, he was a tour bus driver for a cat circus.

Alex Young is a Minneapolis based puppeteer/speech-language pathologist. Original work includes William Taylor (Minneapolis Crankie Fest 2022), Split (NYC International Shadow Puppet Slam 2021), On the Beach (Minneapolis Full Moon Puppet Show 2019), and Library of the Dreamless (Prague Quadrennial 2019). She is a participant in Open Eye Figure Theatre's Puppet Lab program, with performances coming April 2023. Follow Alex @alexfy.

Sam Zimmerman, a Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe direct descendant artist received his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Studio Art from the Rochester Institute of Technology. With his return to Minnesota, specifically the Arrowhead region and Grand Portage reservation, his work explores his Ojibwe heritage, his learnings and experiences in nature while preserving shared oral histories, and celebrating the natural landscape of Lake Superior's North Shore. He has completed public art works for the Voyageurs National Park, Chikwauk Museum and Nature Center, and the Duluth and Grand Marais communities as a means to celebrate and preserve Ojibwemowin. He has been the recipient of grant awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board, Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, and Duluth Superior Community Foundation. His first Ojibwemowin/English bilingual coffee table book, a collection of paintings and stories from his first year of creating along the northern shore of Lake Superior, titled Following My Spirit Home was recently published by Blackbear and Blueberries Publishing. Follow his work on Facebook & Instagram @CraneSuperior.