Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer,
Parliamentary Poet Laureate 2021-2022
(Photo credit: © Kimball V Regier / CHELphoto)
Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer was raised on Saddle Lake Reserve and attended Blue Quills Residential School. She graduated with a Bachelor of social work from the University of Regina and completed two years of Nechi Training in St. Albert’s Nechi Institute. Ms. Halfe serves on various committees throughout Canada and provides services with Opik, an Elders circle that works with apprehended children and their families. In 2005, she served as Saskatchewan’s second Poet Laureate. She is widely recognized for weaving Cree language and teachings into her works.
Her books, Bear Bones and Feathers (1994), Blue Marrow (2004), The Crooked Good (2007), and Burning In This Midnight Dream (2016) have all received numerous accolades and awards. Sôhkêyihta features selected poems and was published in 2018. Her latest work awâsis – kinky and dishevelled was released in the spring of 2021. Ms. Halfe has received honorary degrees from Wilfred Laurier University, the University of Saskatchewan and Mount Royal University. She is married and has two adult children and three grandsons.
Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer