Biography
Suzanne Shawbonquit, Waabshki Miigwaani Kwe (White Feather Woman) is a member of the Crane Clan. A business leader, entrepreneur, design thinker and change agent.
She is the Visionary and founder of three corporations and owner of two small businesses, Crafty Chix, a craft service provider for film and television and Sage Management Solutions. As a leader in bringing positive change to organizations and programs, she has worked in the media and broadcast industry for Canada’s largest broadcaster, CTV, establishing successful media programs targeting youth engagement and diversity initiatives. Suzanne also participated in the world television and film market in Cannes, France as a Business Affairs consultant for four Indigenous film makers and has edited for TVO. She currently works on television and movie sets as part of their technical unit working with over 100 cast and crew members and with producers for the Hallmark Channel, NBC, Universal, Sony Network, Women’s Network, Bravo and other production companies. She is also an actor who recently played the character “Martha Kelly” on the theatrical release of “Indian Horse”. Based out of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek, Suzanne’s work in the region and province spans over 29 years working in both the private and public sector. She is a moderator for various film and music panels as well as a speaker on issues relating to business, education, entrepreneurship, and innovative learning environments. Suzanne is the founder and curator of the first TEDx event in the Greater City of Sudbury in the spring of 2012 to 2015, which was highly successful, having over 500,000 people viewing videos produced from the Sudbury event. As a go-getter and a forward thinker who is not afraid of change, she made history in 2015 by being the first Aboriginal woman in Ontario to run in a provincial by-election for the Ontario NDP and is the co-author of “Pathways to Mino Biimadiziwin in the City”, a profile of Urban Aboriginal Economic Success in Sudbury. She is also a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, Volunteer Service Award and has also been nominated for a Premiers Award. Suzanne is married to her college sweetheart and mother of two now full-grown children and a Nokomis to one granddaughter.
We’re Indigenous, and the thing that we get to show is our human-ness, but not only that we’ve been caught in the morning when we go to set, we smudge our truck... They [crew on set] know that the place that the come to is a good place and it’s a safe place and it’s nothing like any other craft, and that’s what we are proud of.
—Suzanne Shawbonquit