Shirley Bear is a multimedia artist, writer, activist, feminist, and tradtional herbalist from Negootkook (Tobique First Nation), New Brunswick. Her work has been exhibited in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Her art is included in numerous private and public collections, including the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the National Arts Centre, the New Brunswick Art Bank, Carleton University, First Nations House of Learning at the University of British Columbia, and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. She has been profiled for film and television by CBC, the National Film Board, and independent producers in such films as Minqwon Minqwon and Kwa'Nu'Te by Cathy Martin and Keepers of the Fire by Christine Welsh. Her writing is featured in several anthologies and a recent book of poems, Virgin Bones, appeared in 2006. A long-time activist for the rights of Indigenous women, she received a New Brunswick Arts Board's Excellence in the Arts Award in 2002 and was named to the Order of Canada in 2011.