Donna MacPhee

Donna MacPhee grew up in Alberta’s Drumheller Valley, but she has lived much of her life in Calgary, which is where I interviewed her. She was forced to navigate everyday racism as a child, and when her struggles took a collective turn as an adult, it was first into multi-issue anti-racism and solidarity with other indigenous people, and later global justice activistm and, at the time of our interview, anti-poverty work. A pivotal time for MacPhee was her participation in the indigenous occupation of West Bragg Creek Provincial Park. Her stories in Chapter 1 of Gender and Sexuality: Canadian History Through the Stories of Activists (which also includes stories from Doreen Spence) focus on her participation as an adult student, a volunteer, and a board member of the Plains Indian Cultural Survival School, the first school in an urban area in Canada controlled by and for indigenous people.

Material from MacPhee on this site:

• In this audio clip, she talks about her experiences as an urban ally in support of the Lubicon Cree Nation’s efforts to defend their land from colonial imposition and environmental devastation by resource extraction companies.

  [audio:macphee_lubicon.mp3]