Duke Redbird

Duke Redbird (born 1939) is an Indigenous Canadian poet, journalist, activist, businessman, actor and administrator, best known as a key figure in the development of First Nations literature in Canada.

An Ojibwe from the Saugeen First Nation in Southwestern Ontario, he became a ward of the Children's Aid Society at nine months of age after his mother died in a house fire. Raised predominantly by white foster families, he began writing as a way to deal with the anti-indigenous racism he faced in schools. and was a determined organizer of protests and spoke on native rights issues.

In this era, he was also the neighbour of Joni Mitchell during her early career on Toronto's Yorkville coffeehouse scene, A project of musical theatre primarily based on his poetry was performed for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh during the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 1977, The song originally appeared on Shingoose's four-song EP Native Country.

With Bonnie Devine and Robert Houle, he also cowrote The Drawings and Paintings of Daphne Odjig: A Retrospective Exhibition, the guidebook to the National Gallery of Art's 2009 retrospective exhibition of artist Daphne Odjig.

Activism During the 1970s, Redbird was vice-president of the Native Council of Canada. He subsequently served as president of the Ontario Métis and Non-Status Indian Association. was an associate producer on the feature film Dance Me Outside, He also launched Native Blend Coffee, a line of fair trade coffee, in 1999.

In this era, he described to the Toronto Star the ways in which his philosophy of activism had shifted: "I'm still a kind of activist, but it's on a different level. Now, I'm an elder, a wisdom-keeper, a sharer. I try to help people from community - aboriginal, indigenous people who may be Metis, First Nations or Inuit - who are assembling strategies to accomplish their goals. Wisdom is choosing the right goal. It's my job to ask: Is it wise?"

In 2019, he collaborated with Myseum of Toronto on an indigenous history project at Ontario Place.