John Brady McDonald
Just Stick Feathers On It
John Brady McDonald (Nehiyawak-Métis) is a survivor of Prince Albert Indian Student Residence, having grown up there from 1984-1989. “My generation is often the one that's kind of forgotten ... they're always showing black and white photographs from the '50s and '60s." McDonald’s children and his sister's children are the first of four generations of their family not to have known inside of a residential school and the trauma of the residential school system.
The title Just Stick Feathers On It came out of a conversation at a Truth and Reconciliation event during which McDonald pointed out to another attendee that they were veering off track and no longer focusing on reconciliation, nor anything whatsoever to do with Indigenous people. The response he received was, “Oh, just stick some feathers on it.”
Just Stick Feathers On It has been generously shared by First Nations University of Canada for the 2025 National Building Reconciliation Forum.
About John Brady McDonald
John Brady McDonald, MBFSA, is a Nehiyawak-Metis writer, artist, historian, musician, playwright, actor and activist born and raised in Prince Albert, SK. He is from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation and the Mistawasis Nehiyawak. The great-great-great grandson of Chief Mistawasis of the Plains Cree, as well as the grandson of famed Métis leader Jim Brady, John’s writings and artwork have been displayed in various publications, private and permanent collections, and galleries around the world, including the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. John is one of the founding members of the P.A. Lowbrow art movement and served as vice-president of the Indigenous Peoples Artists Collective for nearly a decade. John also served a term as vice-chair of the Board of Directors for Spark Theatre, and as a Senator with the Indigenous Council Committee of CUPE Saskatchewan.
John is the author of several books and has had his written works published and presented around the globe.
John has studied at England’s prestigious University of Cambridge, where in July 2000 he made international headlines by symbolically ‘discovering’ and ‘claiming’ England for the First Peoples of the Americas. John is also an acclaimed public speaker, who has presented in venues across the globe, such as the Anskohk Aboriginal Literature Festival, the Black Hills Seminars on Reclaiming Youth, The Appalachian Mountain Seminars, the Edmonton and Fort McMurray Literary Festival, the Eden Mills Writers Festival and at the Ottawa International Writers Festival. John was also included in the Aboriginal Artists and Performers Inventory for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, BC.
John’s artwork and writing have been nominated for several awards, and he is the winner of the 2024 Saskatchewan Book Awards Non-fiction Award and Indigenous People's Writing Award. He has been honoured with several grants from the Saskatchewan Arts Board.
A noted polymath, John lives in Northern Saskatchewan.
Photo courtesy CBC.
