Luana Shirt
Culture Keeper

Red Sky Performance

Luana Shirt is Plains Cree - Anishinaabe kwe. Born in Treaty 6 Territory in Alberta, Luana's family relocated east in her early years and she was raised in Toronto among her Great Lakes relatives, the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Nations.

In the 1980s, she graduated from Wandering Spirit Survival School, Canada’s first urban Indigenous school, founded by her parents on the principle of ‘Self-Determination through Native Way Education’. A visual artist, chartered herbalist, and Indigenous language curriculum developer, Luana is deeply committed to promoting Indigenous ways of knowing and being.

Her work centers on Indigenous language advocacy, women’s holistic health and wellness, the arts, and the revitalization of traditional medicines. A mother of two, she currently resides in the Simcoe County region.