Duke Redbird

In 2019, he collaborated with Myseum of Toronto on an indigenous history project at Ontario Place.

With Bonnie Devine and Robert Houle, he also cowrote The Drawings and Paintings of Daphne Odjig: A Retrospective Exhibition, the guidebook to the National Gallery of Art's 2009 retrospective exhibition of artist Daphne Odjig.

After leaving Citytv in 2009, Redbird joined OCAD University as a mentor and advisor in the institution's indigenous visual culture program until 2012. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the institution in 2013.

From his spoken word work, two CD's Duke Redbird the Poet (1994) and In Other Words (1999) have been released. In 1999, indigenous rapper TKO persuaded Redbird to work together on his next album, asserting that "Duke Redbird is the old master of the spoken word and I'm the new master."

He began working in television and film during the 1990s. He wrote the teleplay Four Directions: A Canoe for the Making for CBC Television, was an associate producer on the feature film Dance Me Outside, and produced a multimedia documentary on indigenous art for the National Film Board. He has also worked in television as a news producer and First Nations issues reporter for Citytv.

In the 1990s he was co-owner of a downtown Toronto pub, the Coloured Stone, and played a pivotal role in reuniting Mitchell with Kilauren Gibb, the daughter she had given up for adoption in the 1960s. He also launched Native Blend Coffee, a line of fair trade coffee, in 1999. In 2000, he opened a restaurant, Eureka Continuum, to specialize in indigenous cuisine.

His collections of published poetry includes I Am Canadian (1978) and Loveshine and Red Wine (1981). He has also done other commissioned work for various public events in Canada, including the official opening of the Canadian Museum of Civilization and Expo 67. A project of musical theatre primarily based on his poetry was performed for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh during the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 1977, and Redbird represented Canada at the Valmiki World Poetry Festival in Delhi, India in 1985.

"Silver River", a song Redbird recorded in 1975 in collaboration with musician Shingoose, appears on the 2014 compilation album Native North America, Vol. 1. The song originally appeared on Shingoose's four-song EP Native Country.

Marty Dunn published a biography of Redbird, Red on White, in 1971.

He collaborated with musician Winston Wuttunee in the 1970s, including a joint appearance at the Mariposa Folk Festival and the album See the Arrow.

During the 1970s, Redbird was the then vice-president of the Native Council of Canada. After earning a master's degree in political science from York University, his academic thesis We Are Metis was then published in 1980. He subsequently served as president of the Ontario Métis and Non-Status Indian Association.

During the mid-1960s, he started his career as a spoken word artist on folk festival, coffeehouse and theatre tours across Canada, he then became editor of a native newspaper named The Thunderbird, and was a determined organizer of protests and spoke on native rights issues.

Dr.Duke Redbird (born 1939) is an Indigenous Canadian poet, journalist, activist, businessman, actor and administrator, best known as a key figure in the development of First Nations literature in Canada.