Vera Manuel

Who is Vera Manuel?

Vera Manuel was Secwepemc-Ktunaxa, daughter of cultural leader Marceline Paul and political leader George Manuel, Sr, born in 1949. She grew up on the Neskonlith Reservation in the interior of British Columbia, and lived for many years in Vancouver, Canada, where she died in January 2010. She worked as a playwright, poet, writer, healer and educator, in diverse communities across North America. She wrote and produced numerous plays about cultural oppression and genocide,as an independent artist and through Storytellers Theatre, including The Strength of Indian Women and Every Warrior's Song. Her poetry and short stories were published in journals and anthologies, and—like her plays—performed at a variety of venues across Canada and the US.

Her play, Strength of Indian Women was staged throughout North America and published in the book, Two Plays about Residential Schools. Her work was honoured with inclusion at the Native American Women Playwrights Program, housed at Maima University, in Oxford, Ohio.