Mentor Of

Julia Christensen, Trudeau Scholar 2008

Profile

Maria Campbell is a writer, playwright and teacher. She started her career in 1973 when she published her first book Halfbreed. That book has become a literary classic and continues to be one of the most widely taught texts in Canadian literature. She has also written four children's books and her last book Stories of The Road Allowance People, which translates oral stories into print is being re-published.

Maria Campbell's first professional play, Flight, was the first all Aboriginal Theatre production in Canada. Flight brought together modern dance, storytelling and drama together with traditional Aboriginal practices.  She went on to write and direct other plays, some of which toured Canada and abroad. In 1984, she co-founded a Film and Video Production Company with her brother and daughter where she produced and directed seven documentaries and produced with CTV the first weekly Aboriginal Television series entitled "My Partners, My People".

She has received numerous awards among the National Aboriginal Achievement Award, The Gabriel Dumont Order of Merit, Chalmers Award for best new play, a national Dora Mavore Award for playwriting. She has also been inducted into the Saskatchewan Theatre Hall of Fame and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2008.

Maria Campbell has recently retired from the University of Saskatchewan where she taught Native Studies, Creative Writing and Drama. She holds four Honorary Doctorate degrees and has served as Writer and Playwright in Residence at numerous universities, public libraries and theatres.

She has worked as a volunteer with women and children in crisis for over 40 years and is co-founder of a Halfway House for Women in Edmonton as well as an Emergency Crisis Centre for Women and children and until several years ago, Maria Campbell's home was a safe house for youth.

She is a mom, grandma and great-grandma.