Citizen Spotlight - Matthew Wishart MacKenzie
Posted on: May 01, 2026
Matthew Wishart MacKenzie is a Métis father, husband, playwright, and creative mentor for Métis and Indigenous people across Canada and the globe in theatre and arts spaces.
His lifelong journey in theatre began as a young child actor, where he learnt he wasn’t a fan of acting on stage, but he loved the medium. In his 20’s, Matthew was accepted into the playwriting program at the National Theater School of Canada, which only accepts two people per year. Now, the accomplished playwright creates spaces for other Métis and Indigenous artists through avenues such as the Punctuate! Theatre in Edmonton, where he is the Artistic Director, and the Pemmican Collective, “Which I believe is the largest Indigenous playwriting cohort in the country, presently,” he says. He is also a Dramatic Arts faculty member at Brock University.
“My people originally come from Red River before they made their way to Red Deer and then Rosebud, Alberta,” says Matthew. As Matthew has navigated academic and theatre settings that have the potential to commodify identity, many leaders and mentors have been by his side to help him move forward in a good way. “My mentor, Christine Sokaymoh Frederick, she’s been a huge influence for me as an artist, but also as a person.” Matthew also highlights Christine’s mother, Jo-Ann Saddleback, the Resident Elder for Punctuate! Theatre, and her husband, Elder Jerry Saddleback.
Every day, Matthew Wishart MacKenzie’s passion for building spaces with and for his community, rather than trying to Indigenize settler spaces, is centre stage. As he puts it, “…to build our own boats and support one another.” For example, the Pemmican Collective builds community as emerging and established Indigenous artists work and learn from each other. When the Indigenous artists share their experiences, they see how the challenges they all face are not personal but rather point to systemic issues.
The first play he wrote with an overtly Indigenous character was Bears. “Every settler company or director that read it said it wasn’t a play,” he says. He did not accept it as a failed experiment, and with help, like from the lead actor Sheldon Elter, Bears has been on several tours and been seen by around 25,000 people. “I think I can safely say it’s a play,” he says, “But if I had listened to all those non-Indigenous folks, I don’t even know if I’d be a playwright still. Because we have, I think, a lot more flexible idea of how storytelling can function.”
“The theatre holds a lot of magic for me…” says Matthew. His plays are inherently collaborative and engage Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences, geared towards a variety of ages, in discussions of contemporary issues. For example, he says, “My wife is from Ukraine, Odesa originally, and we wrote a play about my son. It’s called the First Métis Man of Odesa, about our meeting and getting married during Covid in Ukraine.” He wrote his play, The Métis Nutcracker, to create something for his son that would leave audiences feeling joyful and excited about his land and culture. In the play, the Rat King and metaphorical sword bearer of colonization, is vanquished. This April, he was in Toronto for the premiere of his play, Strife, in which he says, “I really wanted to show the different Indigenous folks that are out there that you don’t necessarily see represented on stage in Canada too often.”
You can look forward to Strife coming soon to Edmonton. Stay tuned until September, when you can watch First Métis Man of Odesa in Calgary and Kohkom’s Babushka in Edmonton.
Matthew knows he will never stop learning. Are you an Indigenous artist, playwright, and/or creative interested in connecting with Matthew? You can reach him by email through ad@punctuatetheatre.com
From left to right: Teneil Whiskeyjack (Cree), Matthew MacKenzie (Métis) and Christine Sokaymoh Frederick (Métis). Picture taken in Santiago in January, where Punctuate! Theatre and the Pemmican Collective co-produced a new work with Mapuche Indigenous artists in Chile.