Rasunah is a returning NEC board member after 2009-2010. She has a wide range of experience having worked as aboriginal access coordinator at the University of the Fraser Valley, as the aboriginal digital filmmaking coordinator and then as Associate Dean for Educational Outreach at the Native Education College for 8 years; and at the En’owkin Centre as Creative Writing instructor for 5 years. She has also been awarded for her contributions to literature and education by Mississaugas of Scugog First Nations.
She has held postings overseas as technical writer, ESL instructor and adult and high school language instructor in Jakarta, Brisbane, and Sydney, Australia, where she obtained a post graduate diploma of design at the University of Technology.
Former coursework and degrees were completed in the fields of Master of Fine Arts and professional teacher training at UBC and BA (Eng) from SFU. Currently Rasunah is enrolled in Masters of Education courses in the Centre for Cross-Faculty Inquiry at the University of British Columbia.
She is also an established, widely anthologized native poet, prose writer, and editor of Crisp Blue Edges, Canada’s first collection of creative non-fiction, published by Theytus Books. The publication release date of her latest collection of poetry, Dancing the Rounds, is August 2011.
Of Anishinaabe and French ancestry, Rasunah has four grown children and three grandchildren. Her areas of interest include aboriginal research, Aboriginal education, First Nations literature, and cooking.
