[ windspeaker confidential ] - Waawaate Fobister

Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?
Waawaate Fobister: To be a best friend, there are plenty of qualities that are important to me. But if I had to pick one, I value honesty the most in a friend.

W: What is it that really makes you mad?
W.F.: Racism and homophobia.

W: When are you at your happiest?
W.F.: When I am in a room with all my family and we are just laughing our hardcore belly laughs.

W: What one word best describes you when you are at your worst?
W.F.: Scared, haha

W: What one person do you most admire and why?
W.F.: Rene Highway, because of what he has accomplished as an Aboriginal contemporary dancer in Canada with his circumstances coming from a tiny reserve in the north (and) who was a speaker of his native tongue.
W: What is the most difficult thing you've ever had to do?
W.F.: Overcoming my fear of who I actually was, but I am still figuring that out.

W: What is your greatest accomplishment?
W.F.: Leaving home, going to college in Toronto straight from my reserve and completing the theatre program.

W: What one goal remains out of reach?
W.F.: Reviving our languages.

W: If you couldn't do what you're doing today, what would you be doing?
W.F.: I don't know.

W: What is the best piece of advice you've ever received?
W.F.: Just keep going Waawaate

W: Did you take it?
W.F.: Yes, I did.

W: How do you hope to be remembered?
W.F.: A Sexy Mama, haha. One who really cares about his community and people and strived for better for everyone.

Waawaate Fobister is a proud Ojibwe from Grassy Narrows First Nation in Ontario. He is a graduate and winner of the "Distinguished Performance ­ Male" award from Humber College's Theatre Performance Program. He has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, and several from the Ontario Arts Council. Waawaate has had works presented at Native Earth Performing Arts Theatre and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre as both a choreographer and a writer. Credits include: The Rez Sister (Theatre North West); Schoolhouse (Blyth Festival); The Passage (Pu-Kawiss Productions); PrideCAB, (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre); Voices (Mixed Company Theatre); National Artist Program (Canada Winter Games 2007 ­ Whitehorse). Watch for his upcoming one man show 'Agokwe', opening the 2008/2009 season for Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto. He will also be in Native Earth Performing Arts Theatre's production of 'A Very Polite Genocide' written by Melanie Brouzes.