Richard Wagamese is Ojibway and a member of the Sturgeon Clan. Separated from his people by foster care and adoption he effectively disappeared for twenty years. When he reconnected with his people, elders told him that his role was to be a storyteller. What resulted was an award-winning career of thirty-two years as a journalist in radio, television and newspapers and then beginning in 1994, as a published and award-winning author. He has published eight titles in non-fiction and fiction. He lives with his wife, Debra Powell, in the mountains outside of Kamloops.