Marilyn Dumont

Marilyn Dumont was born in Olds, Alberta of Cree/Métis ancestry and is descended from the family of Gabriel Dumont. This is the heritage that shapes her artistic practice and her drive to portray and celebrate the experience of Métis life.

Her first collection of poetry, A Really Good Brown Girl (1996), won the 1997 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award from the League of Canadian Poets. This first deeply resonant collection is often anthologized and taught, and it has led to her many important publications and numerous awards including: green girl dreams Mountains (2001); that tongued belonging (2007), winner of the McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year; and The Pemmican Eaters (2015), which won the 2016 Writers’ Guild of Alberta’s Stephan G. Stephansson Award. As a poet articulating the Métis experience, as a mentor and teacher, she has played a pivotal role in the flowering of Indigenous literature in Alberta and Canada. Marilyn Dumont’s support for a new generation of writers is leading to profound, progressive changes to the writing landscape in and beyond Alberta.

Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal 2022