Description
Born on the traditional territory of the Michif Piyii (Métis), Dënéndeh, and Denendeh (Dënësųłinë́ Nëné), otherwise colonially known as Uranium, Saskatchewan, Morningstar Mercredi is a dedicated social activist, day school Survivor, and creator across many different art forms. With a background in multimedia communications, she is known for her work as an author, poet, film writer, oratory storyteller, producer, actor, and researcher. A member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (Treaty 8 Territory) and person of the Wolf Clan, she has made her home in many places and currently resides in the city colonially known as Edmonton, Alberta. Mercredi has served as a fierce advocate for over 40 years standing with the LGBTQIA2S+ community, raising awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and girls, and calling for criminalization of coercive forced sterilization of Indigenous, Métis, and Inuit women in Canada.
Mercredi is highly active in advocacy efforts towards exposing and criminalizing ongoing coercive forced sterilization practices aimed at Indigenous women in the Canadian healthcare system. She has been publicly open about her own experience of forced sterilization, detailing the event and its impact in her 2004 memoir Morningstar: A Warrior’s Spirit, her 2021 book Sacred Bundles Unborn, as well as various interviews and articles. At 14 years old and in her seventh month of pregnancy, Mercredi sought assistance at a hospital in Saskatchewan while experiencing bleeding. Without her consent or knowledge, a doctor at the hospital terminated her pregnancy as well as removed one of her fallopian tubes and ovaries. Though she was able to have a child at 16, this procedure resulted in an inability to have children after the age of 19. Mercredi has expressed that she only became aware of the removal of her fallopian tube and ovary decades later while trying to conceive again. She brought forward her truth 40 years later to encourage other Survivors with similar experiences to come forward. Mercredi acted as a plaintiff for a class action lawsuit that was filed in 2017 in connection with over 100 women’s reports to lawyer Alisa Lombard of non-consensual or coercive sterilization. As of 2022 the lawsuit is in the certification stage. Though Mercredi welcomed this movement towards retroactive accountability, she continues to fight for outright criminalization of forced and coercive sterilization.
An active author, Mercredi’s catalogue of written work includes Fort Chipewyan Homecoming (a finalist in the 1998 Silver Birch young reader’s choice award), Morningstar: A Warrior’s Spirit (2003), as well as her most recent work Sacred Bundles Unborn (2021), which features voices of women who have come forward about their experiences with forced coercive sterilization. Other published works include co-authored book Footprints on the Land: Tracing the Path of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (2003), poetry in the anthology Gatherings: Volume V (1994), as well as various articles.
Mercredi has also created in the areas of film, radio, and storytelling. She produced, wrote, and directed the documentary Spirit of Scared Water, which premiered at the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Peoples in New York, NY in June 2013. Within the film The Unforgotten (premiere in Canada June 22, 2021), Mercredi contributed the voice over in the first of the five segments, entitled “Birth.” She is also the producer and host of the weekly radio program “First Voices” that aired through Edmonton, Alberta CKUA Radio and centered on Indigenous artists throughout Turtle Island. As a storyteller, Mercredi has spoken of her work, activism, and experiences for various symposiums and classrooms.
