Meet SMOKII

Smokii Sumac (Ktunaxa) is a poet and PhD Candidate in Indigenous Studies at Trent University, where his work centers on the question: how do we come home?

As an Indigenous adoptee, intergenerational residential school survivor, and two-spirit person, Smokii's lived experiences are deeply embedded into his art and research.

His first poetry collection, you are enough: love poems for the end of the world, (Kegedonce Press, 2018) won an Indigenous Voices Award for published poetry, and Smokii has recently been named as a finalist for the Dayne Ogilvie Prize.

Smokii is grateful and happy to have returned home to ʔamakʔis Ktunaxa where he lives near the banks of the Kootenay River—the river his ancestors have lived with/on and near for millenia. Smokii lives with his partner, their cats and chickens and his "big 'ole rez dog" named Kootenay Lou.

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