Diane Redsky
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Diane Redsky
Public Service (2025)
Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, ON
“Investing into Indigenous-led strategies to care for our own and to ensure our families are supported on the path of healing from colonization…This is a model where everybody wins, and it’s a model rooted in Indigenous values — where family and community is leading in the care and protection of children. Our Ancestors protected our teachings and it’s our individual and collective responsibility to move our people from surviving to thriving.”
Caring and compassion – and making sure that those things are embedded in the community – is Diane Redsky’s life’s work. A proud mother of three children and a Kookum (grandmother), she has strengthened the well-being of Indigenous communities in Winnipeg and across Turtle Island.
She spent most of her career leading the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre – the largest non-mandated, non-profit, urban Indigenous-led organization in Manitoba and is a community-based, community-led, Indigenous-driven family resource centre that is a leader in community-based care for Indigenous children, youth and families in Winnipeg.
From 2011-2015, Redsky was Project Director for the National Task Force on Human Trafficking of Women and Girls in Canada, working with national and international experts to address the sexual exploitation/trafficking of Canadian women and girls. This work resulted in a National Task Force Report with 34 recommendations to end sex trafficking in Canada. She is currently the CEO of Kekekoziibii Development Corporation which leads the economic development for Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.
Redsky has received numerous accolades for her work, including an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Law from the University of Winnipeg, the Order of Manitoba, King Charles III Coronation Medal, Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal, Governor General’s Awards in Commemoration of the Persons Case, the Senate of Canada Medal, the YMCA-YWCA Women of Distinction Award, and the 150 Manitoba Trailblazer Award. In her current role, Diane leads Economic Reconciliation for Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.
