Wab Kinew

Originally from the Onigaming First Nation in Northwestern Ontario, he is the son of Tobasonakwut Kinew, a former local and regional chief and a professor of indigenous governance at the University of Winnipeg who died in 2012.

 He released his debut CD as a rapper, Live by the Drum, in 2009. The CD won an Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Award for Best Rap/Hip-Hop CD.

In 2012, the University of Winnipeg named Kinew its first director of indigenous inclusion

1. #IdleNoMore is about Democracy Democracy thrives when well-informed people are engaged and make their voices heard. Idle No More started with four young lawyers trying to inform the people in their communities about an issue they were passionate about. Now many people are engaged. Even more information is being shared, and even more voices are being heard. There is no one leader or “list of demands” attributable to Idle No More. While this may seem chaotic, this is what democracy is all about. Democracy is messy. Democracy is loud. Democracy is about hearing a wide ranges of voices and trying to build a path forward among them. It is not about shutting off debate or trying to rush things in through the back door.