Waltzing with the Angels: documentary about Métis Ironworkers building Edmonton’s CN Tower.
Métis Ironworkers: CN Tower (1)
Métis Ironworkers: CN Tower (2)
Ramon Antipan
After coming to Canada as a refugee of the Chilean coup, Ramon Antipan, whose roots are among the Mapuche Indigenous people, worked for Canada Post and became President of CUPW Local 730.
Tyler Bruce
A young Indigenous Ironworker, unionist and health and safety advocate, Bruce Tyler is studying to provide counselling to traumatized and marginalized Indigenous communities.
Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse
Elected NDP MLA for Edmonton Rutherford in 2023, Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse has had a varied career that includes trapping, community rehabilitation for Indigenous people, hosting a radio show, founding a production company, organizing festivals, and serving as Executive Director of the Yellowhead Indigenous Education Foundation.
Cecil (Cec) Cardinal
Cecil Cardinal is an Indigenous corrections officer and a dedicated trade unionist who advocates against governments’ austerity measures.
James (Jim) Cardinal
Jim Cardinal was raised in a Cree-speaking Indigenous family in Owl River. After several years working in construction in Fort McMurray, he became a welder at Suncor and a union activist. As vice-president and then president of his local of his union local (part of today’s UNIFOR), Cardinal fought discrimination against Indigenous workers.
Lewis Cardinal
Lewis Cardinal is a lifelong Indigenous educator and communicator whose recent project has been creation of a unifying cultural site for Indigenous peoples in Alberta and beyond.
Collette Cullen
Collette Cullen is an Indigenous woman who has served in the Canadian military, and has also worked as an emergency medical technician, a cementer, a police officer, a prison guard, and a vehicle salesperson, among other jobs.
Shawna Estis
Shawna Estis, a member of the Little Grand Rapids First Nation in northern Manitoba, describes work in the service industry in Edmonton, including a case in which she and a fellow worker were denied pay they were owed when the employer declared bankruptcy.
Angela Fiddler
Angela Fiddler, a member of the Waterhen Cree Nation, faced racism in oilsands’ work camps and was able, as a shop steward for UFCW Local 401, to bargain for Indigenous rights to worship in the camps.
Charles Fox
Charles Fox is a residential school survivor from the Blood reserve who has worked as a rancher, a probation officer, a Native-school liaison for all Lethbridge schools, and as a counsellor for the Blood Tribe Health Department.
Dan Fox
Dan Fox, survivor of the St. Mary Residential School, later became a high school counsellor and football and basketball coach there before beginning a 24-year stint as a counsellor at the on-reserve Kainai Correctional Centre.
Vicki Gillingham
Vicki Gillingham is an Indigenous woman and union activist who works as a process operator at Suncor.
Angela Grandbois
Dene Albertan and journeyperson with over 10 years of experience as a pipefitter-steamfitter; member of UA Local 488; recently completed her certification in Power Engineering.
Ronald Klassen
Ronald Klassen, a Métis worker who heads up an Indigenous members’ committee for Local 401 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, explains how the union movement and the Indigenous community are both guided by core principles that are crucial to achieving the aims of truth and reconciliation.
Stanley Knowlton
Stanley Knowlton is a member of the Blackfoot First Nation who has served as an interpreter at Head Smashed-in Buffalo Jump since 2006.
Mike Mearns
Mike Mearns, RN, played a key role in the creation of UNA and served as one of its initial labour relations officers.
Serena Nelson
Serena Nelson is a proud Indigenous woman who serves as a workplace steward at the Safeway store in Lloydminster and who deals with racism both in the community and among fellow workers.
Dwayne Nemlander
Dwayne Nemlander, a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, is an Edmonton bus driver and union activist who teaches a course for City employees about the residential schools and their impact on generations of Indigenous children.
Roy Piepenburg
Roy Piepenburg was a lifelong social and political activist who fought the racism and injustice facing Indigenous people, while serving in various positions with the Alberta government.
Lindsay Poll
Lindsay Poll is a Métis WestJet flight attendant, and a member of the National Indigenous Council of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
Doris Proulx
Doris Proulx is an Indigenous nurse with experience across emergency and ICU/CCU who mentors new Indigenous nurses and challenges culturally inappropriate and outright racist treatment of Indigenous patients.
Wayne Provost
Wayne Provost, born on the Piikani reserve, ranched with his family and parlayed his ranching skills into an 18-year career with a construction company before pursuing university training and becoming a program consultant to Service Canada.
Katie-Jo Rabbit
Within a varied history of education and work, Katie-Jo Rabbit found an important niche as an assistant manager of Saamis Aboriginal Employment and Training in Lethbridge.
Katie Rabbit-Young Pine
Katie Rabbit-Young Pine (Tsikinaakii in Blackfoot) is a Blackfoot woman who has worked 7 different jobs and participated in many volunteer roles in efforts to help her people deal with many challenges.
Linda Robinson
Linda Robinson is an Indigenous polio survivor, determined to fight for improvements for Indigenous people.
Heather Shillinglaw
Indigenous artist Heather Shillinglaw employs animal hides and other articles to convey a ‘Metis Ecological Arts Message’ about the continuing colonial destruction of Indigenous lands.
Trevor Stace
Trevor Stace’s diverse employments include instrument technician, paralegal, and historian.
Muriel Stanley Venne
Muriel Stanley Venne is a lifelong fighter for human rights and justice for Indigenous people.
Mary Strong
Mary Strong is the pseudonym for an Indigenous woman, a Sixties scoop survivor, who has become a leader in her AUPE local of homecare workers.
Desmond Thomas
Desmond Thomas is an Indigenous member of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union, Local 488, who benefited from an Indigenous-run program that works with the trades unions to provide an entry into the trades for Indigenous people.
Karen Three Persons
Karen Three Persons is a veteran Indigenous nurse and UNA local president, who has managed training programmes for Elders’ care and home care.
Vincent Venne
Vincent Venne had spent 34 years as an insulator by 2017, and his interview provides many examples of companies that employ insulators suppressing accident reports.
Doreen Wabasca
First woman hired by the City of Edmonton in a road construction job; foreperson for the City; truck driver.
Dallas Young Pine
Dallas Young Pine, who was born and raised on the Blood Indian Reserve, became a professional rider in top rodeo competitions across North America, as well as a stunt rider in ‘big name’ movies.