Tina Keeper

Who is Tina Keeper?

Tina Keeper, OM, is a Cree activist, producer, former actress and former member of the Canadian House of Commons.

Keeper is best known for her role as RCMP officer Michelle Kenidi in the CBC Television series North of 60, about the fictional aboriginal community of Lynx River. She also hosted a relief concert for the 1997 Manitoba flood. In 1993, she starred in the Canada Award-winning short docudrama For Angela, dramatizing Rhonda Gordon's response to racist taunting on a Winnipeg city bus.

Keeper was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is the granddaughter of Olympic long distance runner Joe Keeper and daughter of Joseph I. Keeper, member of the Order of Canada and Rev. Dr. Phyllis Keeper. Her siblings, Joy, Lorne and Barry are involved in the arts, media and education fields. Her maternal uncle is Anglican Bishop Gordon Beardy.

Keeper is a member of the Norway House Cree Nation, and has been involved in a variety of social issues, such as suicide prevention and violence against women. She has produced initiatives in public education to build bridges between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the province of Manitoba.