Authors & Headliners

Francine Merasty is a Nehithaw Iskwew, Opawikoschikanek ochi, a reserve in Northern Saskatchewan. She is a member of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation and a fluent Cree speaker. She is a mother to one son, Benjamin Clarke, and is part of a large family consisting of two sisters and eight brothers. Francine began writing poetry in the winter of 2017 while working for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls as both a statement taker and legal counsel. The intense emotional work needed an outlet, and poetry became her means of expression. Francine writes about contemporary Indigenous social issues, memories from childhood, the women that influenced her life and nature, among other things. Her poetry is written in English and translated into her first language, Woodland Cree.