“The producers have taken the time to bring unheralded and unknown Indigenous actors to the screen and the 52 Indigenous speaking parts are a testament to their devotion to the integrity of the story. I'm proud to have worked with them on this vital project.”
Richard Wagamese, author of Indian Horse, the novel.
"Changing the world one story at a time."
www.richardwagameseauthor.com
Sladen Peltier is based in Ottawa, Ontario, and is a proud Ojibway from Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve located on Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario. Sladen's initial interest in Indian Horse (2017), which is his feature film debut, was due to the hockey storyline. Sladen has been playing hockey in Ottawa since he was four years of age, and every March represents his First Nation in the Little Native Hockey League Tournament, which brings together First Nation hockey players from across Ontario. With the completion of Indian Horse, Sladen is now looking forward to a future that includes other acting opportunities.
Edna Manitowabi, Anishnaabekwe, is Bear Clan, a Grandmother, and Great-Grandmother, of Ojibway/Odawa ancestry originally from Wikwemikong, Manitoulin Island. A fifth degree Midewewin teacher and seeker of Indigenous knowledge, Edna is one of the founders and teachers of Minwaywaygaan Midewewiwin Lodge, Rosseau River, Manitoba. Her role within the Lodge includes translation/interpretation of stories, direction, teachings, and songs - Ojibway to English.
Though recently retired, as Professor Emeritus, Edna Manitowabi, maintains her connections to the Indigenous Studies Department at Trent University. Here over the years, she has developed and taught courses in Tradition and Culture, Aboriginal Knowledge, Indigenous Theatre, Aboriginal Women, and has been instrumental in the development of, as well as teaching, components of this university’s PhD program in Indigenous Knowledge.
While at Trent University, Edna was the driving force behind the creation of Nozhem Theatre, Trent University’s dedicated Aboriginal Performance space, and The Indigenous Studies Departments biennial Native Women’s Symposium.
Always a strong and appreciative supporter of Aboriginal Arts over the years she has also served as the Traditional Cultural Director for The Native Theatre School, The Centre for Indigenous Theatre, the Banff Aboriginal Dance Program and acted/performed in several theatrical productions beginning in 1994 with her first role in Drew Hayden Taylor’s play Someday, in which she was able to incorporate her experience as a Residential School Survivor.
For the past fifty years Edna has been a strong advocate for Aboriginal Women and at the forefront of the revitalization of Aboriginal Traditions, Ceremonies and Spirituality, in Ontario and Manitowabi. During the last 20 years this work has grown to include the study of Anishnaabe traditional medicine plants their preparation and uses. Working with her close friend Kathy Bird, Peguis First Nation, these two Anishnaabekwe grandmothers have established medicine lodges: Aki Mashkiki Nandewewewin in many First Nations communities across Ontario and Manitoba wherein they shared this traditional medicine knowledge.
Edna Manitowabi currently lives in Wikwemkong First Nation and the Peterborough area.
Johnny Issaluk is from the small arctic hamlet Igluligaarjuk (also known as Chesterfield Inlet), on the coast of Hudson’s Bay in Nunavut. He grew up traditionally, out on the land, hunting, fishing and camping with his elders, as Inuit have for centuries. Traditional life was juxtaposed with conventional education through Residential Secondary School and Nunavut Arctic College in tourism, guiding and environmental technology.
Johnny works with various organizations that address mental health, suicide prevention and healing through counseling and traditional activities. Johnny is also developing a small consulting business, Nurraq Outfitting, which involves public speaking, motivational counseling, land trips, arctic sports demonstrations and all manner of activities that grab his interest.
Among those many interests Johnny is a keen volunteer and youth mentor, teaching arctic games and traditional activities at a local daycare and coaching arctic sports at a local gym are regular appointments for him. One of the youth projects closest to Johnny’s heart is the internationally renowned educational program “Students on Ice” where he has worked with youth from all over the world as an arctic ambassador and spokesman for arctic stewardship.
Kajutaijuq, is a short film that is part of Inuit legend and part thriller. A hunter attempts to survive in the Arctic wilderness by following teachings passed on to him by his late grandfather. It premiered at the Tiff 2014 and is Johnny’s first dramatic acting role.
As an athlete Johnny has been practicing, competing, performing, coaching and teaching Inuit Games for more than 20 years. Johnny’s athletic career has yielded more than 200 medal finishes in regional and national competitions. Recently, he competed at the first ever Beringia Arctic Games, in Chukotka, Russia where he was awarded three gold medals. He is one of the most successful Inuit Games athletes of his generation. Johnny is a recipient of the Diamond Jubilee Medal, and one of the first sixty Canadians to receive the honour. Johnny was recognized for his ongoing contribution to the health and wellbeing of Nunavummiut. Johnny has five children, and lives with his wife a son and a dog in Iqaluit, Nunavut. Currently in Stratford theatre for the summer playing in a play called Breathing Hole.
Forrest Goodluck made his big screen debut appearing opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domnhall Gleeson and Will Poulter in FOX’s epic drama, The Revenant. Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, the movie centers on legendary hunter, Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), who is left for dead by his compatriots following a bear mauling. Goodluck plays Hawk, the son of DiCaprio’s Hugh Glass. The film won three Academy Awards in 2016.
While The Revenant marked his burst onto the scene, Goodluck has since starred in two other independent films. In 2016, Forrest starred in Indian Horse which was directed by Stephen S. Campanelli. The film follows Saul, a great native hockey player who overcomes racism in the 1970's. He then starred in The Miseducation Of Cameron Post directed by Desiree Akhavan. The film follows a young girl (Chloe Mortez) who is forced into a gay conversion therapy center. In addition to his film work, Forrest also starred in two television pilots, Citizen for Hulu and Scalped for WGN.
Prolific behind the camera as well, Goodluck is an award-winning youth filmmaker whose work has premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival, Taos Shortz Film Festival, LA Skins Festival, and had made him the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian and SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market Class X Youth Winner. Goodluck’s film work also led to him being chosen as one of Sundance Institute’s 2015 Full Circle Fellows.
He is a member of the Dine, Mandan, Hidatsa and Tsimshian tribes and is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Raised in Kansas, USA and Regina, Saskatchewan; Will found a duality and plenty of influences for his love of storytelling. Particularly - music.
Prior to entering the acting realm, Will was a member of the first nation - hip hop group: Reddnation.
For over a decade the group toured North America where Will first developed an interest in acting. After some thought, he auditioned for what would be his first role: Crazyhorse for Robert Redford's The American West (AMC) in 2015.
Will soon followed the success of the show by appearing in: Jamestown (Sky 1), Frontiersmen (History) and The Alienist (TNT) along with his role of Virgil Kelly in Indian Horse.
Studying Ojibwe language emphasis in college proved to be beneficial when Will was able to help develop translations for the Ojibwe language in the film. (Indian Horse).
Today, Will lives in New York where he works for a non-profit foundation: CANA Foundation. Their main objectives are to rewild horses and help sustain traditions, teachings and ecological gains for both habitat and humanity. He is an enrolled member of the Keeseekoose First Nation of Saskatchewan.
Vance Banzo is an award-winning actor and comedian based in Toronto. His sketch troupe, Tallboyz II Men, was a featured part of the OFF-Just For Laughs Festival. An alumnus of the Humber School of Comedy, he can be seen recently on The Beaverton. Banzo is a band member of Fishing Lake First Nation, Saskatchewan. Indian Horse (2017) is his feature film debut.
Born on January 23 1997 to his parents Rick Marty & Charity Marty. A Plains Cree and Nakota Stoney Canadian decent. Tristen is the second eldest child with 3 other siblings, one sister, two other brothers that are actors, and are known as The Marty Brothers.
In 2013 Tristen worked as an extra on Blackstone season 3 that ignited his new found passion in the arts as an actor. Tristen and his brothers then signed on to Darryl Mork Talent Agency. Then after studying his new acting craft and several auditions, in 2016, Tristen landed his break through role on Indian Horse as "Buddy Black Wolf". Tristen loved every minute working with the talented cast and crew on Indian Horse.
In 2017 Tristen worked as a Guest Star as "Justin" in CBC's Heartland "Decision Time" episode which airs this Fall 2017. In the summer of 2017 Tristen traveled to Budapest, Hungary where he worked on Sky 1/NBC's Jamestown.
In his spare time Tristen loves to play his Native American flute, shoot some basketball, road trips with his friends, and of course hockey a sport that he started in his jr years in the city of Edmonton Alberta.
As a dynamic actor dedicated to his craft, Michiel Huisman consistently captivates audiences in fan-favorite roles across film and television. Elevating his remarkable body of work in every character he takes on, Huisman’s powerful on-screen presence comes to life in thought-provoking narratives that powerfully reflect his artistic integrity and ability to transition between genres.
Huisman will next be seen in Gideon Raff’s The Red Sea Diving Resort, opposite Chris Evans, Sir Ben Kingsley, Greg Kenner, Michael Kenneth Williams and Haley Bennet. The film follows the true story of Israeli Mosad agents undercover running a beautiful African resort hotel while simultaneously sneaking out over 34,000 refugees.
Prior to that, Huisman was seen on Discovery Channel’s mini-series, Harley and the Davidsons, which followed the story of how neighborhood friends from Milwaukee started a company that would go on to become an American legend. Huisman portrayed Walter Davidson and co-stars opposite Robert Aramayo and Bug Hall, who respectively portrayed William Harvey and Arthur Davidson. The mini-series was the biggest premiere in more than three-and-a-half years for a single network miniseries on cable and was Discovery’s highest-rated rookie series ever among its target demographic. VARIETY called the series “a love letter to American motorcycling,” while CINEMABLEND said “It's an inspirational and adventurous journey to find the American Dream, with a hopeful tone absent from many cable shows these days.”
Huisman recently wrapped production on Stephanie Laing’s romantic drama, Irreplaceable You, opposite Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Steve Coogan, and Christopher Walken. The film follows Abbie (Mbatha-Raw) and Sam (Huisman), soul mates who were destined to be together until death got in the way. Prior to that, he filmed Meredith Danluck's State Like Sleep, alongside Michael Shannon, Katherine Waterson and Luke Evans, and Stephen S. Campanelli’s Indian Horse, based on Richard Wagamese’s award-winning novel by the same name.
Upcoming, Huisman will be seen on Mike Newell’s The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peer Pie Society opposite Lily James. The film is based on the best-selling book of the same name by Annie Barros and Mary Ann Shaffer. The story is set in the aftermath of World War II and follows journalist Juliet Ashton (James), who decides to write about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book club formed on Guernsey Island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy during wartime. It begins when she receives a letter from a resident named Dawsey (Huisman), a farmer on the island. She starts writing letters to the book club, and eventually travels to the island to meet the members and write a book about the group.
Huisman gained notoriety for his role on HBO’s popular fantasy drama series Game of Thrones as “Daario Naharis.” Since the fourth season, Huisman’s character has been the leader of a band of mercenaries and a love interest of “Daenerys” (Emilia Clarke).
Last year, Huisman was seen in Karyn Kusama’s critically acclaimed thriller, The Invitation, opposite Logan Marshall Green and Paul Currie’s romantic thriller, 2:22, co-starring opposite Teresa Palmer. In 2015, he was seen in Lee Toland Krieger’s turn of the century romantic drama, The Age of Adaline, starring opposite Blake Lively, Harrison Ford and Ellen Burstyn. The film tells the story of 29-year old “Adaline" (Lively), who stops aging after recovering from a near-fatal accident, and over the course of the 20th century she embarks on an epic, but isolated worldwide journey, keeping her secret, until she meets “Ellis,” (Huisman) who forever alters her life. Previous film credits include Jean-Marc Valiee’s Wild, a biopic drama in which he co-stars opposite Reese Witherspoon; Marc Forsters’s adaptation of Max Brooks' best-selling novel World War Z, opposite Brad Pitt; Jean-Marc Valiee’s The Young Victoria with Emily Blunt; Janusz Kaminski's American Dream; Otto Bathurst’s Margot for BBC Films in which he played "Rudolph Nureyev” opposite Ann-Marie Duff; and Alexis Dos Santos’ Unmade Beds. In the Netherlands, his film credits include Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book.
Previous television credits include BBC America’s breakout original sci-fi series Orphan Black, in the recurring role of “Cal Morrison,”; HBO’s hit series, Treme, starring as “Sonny,” the street musician with dreams of breaking into the New Orleans music scene(s); and ABC's musical drama series Nashville, in which he portrayed bad-boy country music producer, “Liam McGuinnis” starring opposite Connie Britton.
For over fifty years, Michael Murphy has performed on stage and television and in many notable films. Along the way, he has played major roles for some of the most respected directors of his generation. They include: Robert Altman, Woody Allen, Robert Aldrich, Paul Mazursky, Peter Weir, Tim Burton, Oliver Stone, Elia Kazan, Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Ritt, Orson Welles, John Badham, Paul Thomas Anderson, John Sayles, Roland Emmerich and Canada’s Sarah Polley.
Murphy has worked in over one hundred television productions including the classic Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (nine Emmy Awards), and the Robert Altman-Garry Trudeau Emmy winning series Tanner ‘88, in which he played the title role. (An updated Tanner was brought back in 2004 for the Sundance Channel.)
A partial list of Murphy’s more interesting feature credits include: Magnolia (SAG Nomination: Best Ensemble), Batman Returns, Salvador, The Year of Living Dangerously, Manhattan, The Front, An Unmarried Woman, Nashville, What’s Up, Doc?, Brewster McCloud, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, M.A.S.H., Silver City, X Men: The Last Stand, Away From Her, The Trotsky, White House Down, and most recently Fall, for which he received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role.
Murphy was twice awarded the Gemini (and was nominated for a third) for his role as the somewhat nutty, Judge Maxwell Fraser in George F. Walker’s This is Wonderland. He also co-starred with Michael Madsen in the Las Vegas series Tilt, co-starred in the CTV cop show The Bridge and in the third season of Direct TV’s Rogue. Some of the television movies in which Murphy has performed are: Live from Baghdad, The Day Reagan
Was Shot, Footsteps, with Candice Bergen, Altman’s The Caine Mutiny, The Path to 9/11, Chris Haddock’s The Quality of Life, Mayday and Mulroney: The Opera.
In and about New York theatrical credits include: Near the End of the Century, by Tom Dulak; Curse of the Starving Class, by Sam Shepard; Good-bye, Freddie, by Elizabeth Diggs; Playing in Local Bands, by Nancy Garrett; The Hotel Play, by Wallace Shawn; Rat’s Nest, (director) By Neil and Joel Cohen; Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, (starring and directed by Henry Fonda), and Three Hotels (San Francisco), by Jon Robin Bates.
Murphy has also narrated many award winning programs for PBS and the CBC. They include: The Irish in America, China Rising, Las Vegas, Mount Rushmore, Jesse James, The Trans Continental Railroad, The Tallgrass Prairie, The Gold Rush , Julia Child, and Depression: Out of the Shadows (Penn Award). For over 15 years, his narrations have been heard regularly on PBS’s American Experience, where he has told the stories of everyone from Billy the Kid to Space Men.
A relative newcomer to the world of acting, Ajuawak Kapashesit has been performing in film, television and theatre since the fall of 2015. Since then, he has written, directed, and starred in a number of productions both on-screen and onstage.
In early 2017, Ajuawak starred in the award-winning short, Shinaab, directed by Lyle Mitchell Corbine, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. This fall, he can be seen in two Independent films: Indian Road Trip and Ahockalypse. He also appears as the lead in the adaptation of Indian Horse based on the book by late author Richard Wagamese.
Outside of acting, Ajuawak is a trained linguist who focuses on language revitalization and documentation. He currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Martin Donovan is an award winning actor, writer and director. Donovan’s film career was launched when he began his long collaboration with Hal Hartley as Hartley gained notoriety as an iconic figure in the independent film movement in the 90’s including Sundance Film Festival winner Trust, Cannes Film Festival favorites Simple Men and Amateur starring opposite Isabelle Huppert as well as Surviving Desire, Flirt and The Book of Life.
Upcoming feature films include Fahrenheit 451 (HBO Films), Indian Horse (Screen Siren Pictures), premiering at TIFF 2017 and Rememory opposite Peter Dinklage and Julia Ormond which premiered at Sundance. In 2015 Martin appeared as Mitchell Carson in Marvel’s Ant-Man with Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lily. Martin shared the Robert Altman Award for ensemble acting at the 2015 Independent Spirit Awards for Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar nominated Inherent Vice with Joaquin Phoenix and Owen Wilson. He also appeared in Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist with Kate Hudson and Liev Schreiber, as well as Gregor Jordan’s Unthinkable opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Sheen.
Donovan’s past film credits include the Golden Globe nominated The Opposite of Sex with Christina Ricci and Lisa Kudrow; the Grand Jury prize nominated The United States of Leland with Kevin Spacey and Ryan Gosling; The Sentinel opposite Keifer Sutherland and Michael Douglas; the CFCA nominated Living Out Loud opposite Holly Hunter, Danny Devito and Queen Latifah; AFI winner In A Savage Land starring opposite of Rufus Sewell; BAFTA nominated Onegin opposite Liv Tyler; Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia opposite Al Pacino; Independent Spirit Award nominated Nadja and Oscar nominated Malcolm X. Martin also starred in wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Collaborator with David Morse and Olivia Williams which won the prestigious International Federation of Film Critics’ prize (FIPRESCI) at the 2011 Karlovy Vary Interntational Film Festival.
On television Donovan is best known as the corrupt DEA agent and Mary- Louise Parker’s love interest in Showtime’s Emmy Award-Winning series Weeds. Donovan had previously collaborated with Parker in the teen comedy-drama Saved! and Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady with Nicole Kidman for which he won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor. Donovan made his television series regular début in the critically acclaimed drama series Wonderland. Other TV credits include Masters of Horror: Right to Life and Unnatural History. Donovan has played major recurring roles on Starz Network series Boss with Kelsey Grammer, The Firm with Josh Lucas and Juliette Lewis. He recurred on Rogue alongside Thandie Newton, and directed two episodes of the series. He also appeared on five-time Golden Globe Award-Winning Homeland and on the CW’s superhero action-adventure television series DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Recent guest starring roles include Conviction, Hannibal, Motive and Beyond.
Wayne Baker, member of the Squamish Nation, Raven Clan, grew up on the North Shore in West Vancouver BC. He now resides in Squamish BC. Besides being an actor on both the big screen and small screen, Wayne also hosted his own show “Closer to Home” which ran on APTN for 3 Seasons. Wayne is a lifetime Lacrosse player with many championships under his belt, including 4 Presidents cup Rings. Married to Marlana Thompson Baker, Mohawk Nation and father to 7 children.