About Us
Prior to Lee's passing, we all operated an arts collective called "UnContained" from 2015-2021. With the loss of our Matriarch Lee, we also laid UnContained to rest. Now, with pride and responsibility, we move forward to create art, stories and conversations in her honor.
The name Lee Maracle Circle of Wisdom, Expression and Belonging is our way of honoring and continuing our late mother's legacy. She was an orator, a scholar, an artist, activist and an inspiration. In keeping her name on our breath, we are always reminded to walk forward the stories and teachings she gifted each of us.
Our mother was an award winning Author and Poet who started her career by pushing publishers to begin publishing Indigenous works in Canada, she was an Indigenous Activist, Environmental Activist, an Orator, a Scholar, a Professor, an Elder, an Actress, a Mentor to students and a friend of many.
Please see the links below for more details of Lee's legendary legacy:
Lee Maracle, The Canadian Encylcopedia
Remembering Lee Maracle, University of Toronto
Lee Maracle, Order of Canada
Lee Maracle, CBC Posthumous article
Lee Maracle (1950-2021)
"Daughters are forever" - Lee Maracle
Biographies:
Columpa Bobb
Artistic Director
Columpa Bobb is a producer, director, poet, a playwright with over 20 produced scripts and an acclaimed performer for over 35 years. She has performed and administered artistic empowerment programming all over the world. She is the recipient of a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Best Actress for the lead role in The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, and she was also nominated for Jessie Awards in the categories of Best Supporting Actress and Best Ensemble Cast for her work in Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth (Firehall Arts Centre). She was most notably nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Most Outstanding Production (Youth Category) for her play Jumping Mouse, co-written with Marion deVries, she was also Dora nominated for Best Actress for Sixty Below (Native Earth Performing Arts). Columpa is the founding Artistic Director of Aboriginal Arts, the founding Artistic Executive Director of Urban Indigenous, and a founding member of the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance.
Tania Carter
Managing Director
Tania Carter is a poet, playwright, performer and mother. She is Nlaka'pamux and Tsleil-Wauth with Irish, Basque and Chinese ancestry. She has a B.A. Degree in World Literature from The University of Toronto, and an M.A. in Theatre from The University of Guelph. Her thesis has deep roots in Salish and Euro-Canadian perspectives. During her studies, Tania found inspiration in serving the community, especially Indigenous women and youth. Tania’s writing has been published in several anthologies, and she has been performing poetry and vocals for over 30 years. Book*hug Press published Tania’s poems in Hope Matters, a collaborative book alongside her mother Lee Maracle and sister Columpa Bobb. In tandem Tania’s theatrical highlights are: the Vagina Monologues, Dinky and a Canadian theatre tour of Weaving Reconciliation. Tania is inclined to write from personal experience and is inspired by the mettle of the Indigenous community and the deep roots of the oral knowledge transmission that eclipses oppressive action and policy.
Kwanita Cohen
Program Manager
Kwanita Cohen is an administrative extraordinaire and the intergenerational witness of the artistic collective.
Like her Aunt Columpa, Mother Tania and Grandmother Siam Dr. Lee Maracle OC, she has a life long understanding of her peoples Salish systems of orality, Storytelling and Myth Making. She holds a Professional Makeup Artist certificate from George Brown College, and also enjoys painting and interior design. Kwanita worked with UnContained in the capacity of project administrative support, project administrator and intergenerational witness to the orally created works performed by the collective.
Kwanita assists with planning, strategy, budget management and project management to all projects and contracts of Lee Maracle Circle of WEB, and continues to learn about Salish Orality and performance art through her work.