Joelle Peters

Protégé, 2020

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Selected by Tara Beagan

Joelle Peters is an award-winning Indigenous (Anishinaabe) actor and playwright working in theatre, television, and film. She is the current Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts. Her plays include Niizh, Frozen River (co-written with Michaela Washburn and Carrie Costello), and do you remember? Joelle has performed at theatres and festivals across the country, including the Stratford Festival, SummerWorks, Thousand Islands Playhouse, Western Canada Theatre, and more.

She appears in the hit TV show Shoresy (Crave/Hulu), the film In Her City (Raven West Films Ltd.), and Web of Lies (Discovery+). Joelle has also narrated multiple audiobooks for Penguin Random House Canada.

In 2020, she was selected as the playwriting protégé for the Siminovitch Prize by laureate Tara Beagan. In 2021, Frozen River received the Sharon Enkin Plays for Young People Award at the annual Tom Hendry Awards. In 2023, the premiere production of Niizh was nominated for four Dora Mavor Moore Awards.

Keep up with Joelle at joellepeters.ca.

Acceptance Speech

Boozhoo. Wow, what a rollercoaster this year has been. There’s no way any of us could have known how much our lives would change in 2020. I remember reading memes about how “2020 is gonna be our year!” and now actual 2020 memes are about masks, hand sanitizer and how the world is ending. This time last year I had just closed a show and was working box office at Native Earth Performing Arts.

This year I mostly stay home and for that my dog is thankful. There are no box office shifts because everything is online, gigs have either been cancelled or pushed back to Who Knows When and occasionally I get a swab shoved up my nose. So when Tara phoned me and said she had selected me as her protégé, I was surprised, shocked…I think I still am. What a wild year.

I met Tara in 2015 at the Debajehmujig Creation Centre in Manitowaning Ontario. Since then, I’ve been such a huge fan of hers, not just as an incredible playwright, director and mentor but as a fellow human. Tara is so insightful and kind, and smart, and funny, and the way she approaches storytelling is something I deeply admire. She fights for what she believes in and lifts people up, and I’m excited to see what the future holds for both of us.

Chi miigwetch to Tara for believing in me and my stories, to the Siminovitch Prize team, and the Siminovitch family for this incredible honour. Miigwetch to my past teachers and my mentors for their generosity and sharing of knowledge. Miigwetch to my parents Clint and Julie and my brother Dylan for their endless love and support. Miigwetch to my friends, and to the land, for holding me and inspiring my stories. I hope someday I can inspire younger generations of artists, just as Tara has done for me and countless others. Thank you.