Indigenous leader.
Born at Pine Falls on 30 January 1950, son of David Courchene and Margaret “Marge” Fontaine (1926-2005), he became an Elder and Knowledge Keeper of the Anishinaabe Nation. He was an indepdent candidate for the Rupertsland constituency in the 1973 provincial general election. In 2002, he quit his job as a school superintendent to found the Turtle Lodge International Centre for Indigenous Education and Wellness on the Sagkeeng First Nation. He and wife Orianna Fenner (1954-2020) had two children and two adopted children. He died at his Sagkeeng home on 8 December 2021.
Obituary [Margaret M. Courchene], Winnipeg Free Press, 27 April 2005, page 25.
Obituary [Orianna Courchene], Winnipeg Free Press, 8 February 2020.
“‘Huge impact’: Turtle Lodge centre founder dead at 71,” Winnipeg Free Press, 9 December 2021.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 11 December 2021.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 12 December 2021
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