Here are some of the most outstanding Indigenous audiobook narrators you should be listening to, from award-winners to up-and-comers.
Erin Tripp
Erin Tripp, Tlingit of the Deisheetaan clan, was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska. A theater performer and voice actor, she was one of the narrators for AudioFile Earphones Award-winner The Smell of Other People’s Houses.
Bronwyn Szabo
A proud half-Inuk, Bronwyn Szabo is an actress, writer, dancer, producer, and director based in Toronto. She made her audiobook narrator debut in Marlowe Granada’s Happy Hour.
Gary Farmer
Gary Farmer was born in Ohsweken, Ontario into the Cayuga Nation and Wolf Clan of the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois Confederacy. In his narration of The Round House by Louise Erdrich, Farmer “introduces the listener to the Coutts family, members of the Ojibwe tribe who reside on a reservation in North Dakota in the 1980s” and is “perfectly cast due to his own Native American background” (AudioFile).
Rainy Fields
Rainy Fields was born in Claremore, Oklahoma, and is a registered member of the Muskogee Creek Nation and is of Cherokee descent. When she’s not narrating audiobooks, she works with The Mayflower Welcoming Committee, an all-Native improv troupe, as well as the Native Voices at the Autry, the USA’s only Equity theater company dedicated to new works by Native playwrights. She also cohosts the podcast Hollywood Ndnz, exploring what it’s like to be Native in the entertainment industry.
Cara Gee
Born in Alberta and raised in Ontario, film, television, and stage actress Cara Gee is Ojibwe. When she’s not acting for the TV series The Expanse, she lends her talents to voice acting and audiobook narration. In The Light Brigade, Gee “perfectly evokes the weary drawl of a battle-hardened soldier in this intricately constructed science fiction audiobook” (AudioFile).
Isabella Star LaBlanc
Based in Minneapolis, Isabella Star LaBlanc is a Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota stage, screen, and voice actor. Her performance in Firekeeper’s Daughter “brings an authentic-sounding narration to this powerful audiobook . . . . Dialogue, including words in other languages, is handled with effortless transitions and clear depictions between characters” (AudioFile).
Darrell Dennis
Darrell Dennis is an Indigenous comedian, actor, screenwriter and radio personality from the Secwepemc Nation in the interior of British Columbia. His extensive audiobook narrations include the acclaimed There There by Tommy Orange.
Kyla Garcia
Kyla Garcia is an Indigenous actor, director, poet, and artivist raised on unceded Lenape land. Her people are the Taíno Nation of Borikén. Narration accolades include 13 AudioFile Earphones Awards and two Audie Award nominations for her work on Tommy Orange’s There There and Alan Gratz’s Refugee. Like fellow narrator Rainy Fields, Kyla is a proud ensemble member of Native Voices at the Autry. She is also the creator of the critically acclaimed one-woman show The Mermaid Who Learned How to Fly. Learn more at her website.
Tanis Parenteau
Tanis was born and raised in Peace River, Alberta; she is a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta from Region VI and is of Plains Cree descent. Outside of narrating audiobooks, Tanis is an actor on both the stage and television, as well as the founder and owner of the production company TDEP Productions.
Kinsale Hueston
An enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, Kinsale Hueston is an award-winning writer and poet, actress, audiobook narrator—all while enrolled at Yale University. Kinsale was named a new “rising star” within the audiobook world by BookRiot: “Hueston narrates these stories in such a way that captures the youth and vibrancy of the stories’ protagonists. They’re spunky and self-assured, and Hueston delivers their dialogue with all of the characters’ vibrant personalities.”
T’áncháy (Tunchai) Redvers
T’áncháy (Tunchai) Redvers, known to spirit as White Feather Woman, is a two-spirit social justice warrior, writer, and wanderer belonging to Deninu K’ue First Nation. They work as a writer, speaker, creator, performer, and advocate and are based in southern Ontario.
Kaniehtiio Horn
Kaniehtiio Horn a Canadian actress from Kahnawake, the Mohawk reserve outside of Montreal. The award-winning actress, who has worked on Letterkenny, Man in the High Castle, and Hemlock Grove, has also lended her skills to audiobook narration.
Billy Merasty
Much like many audiobook narrators, Billy Merasty is also an actor, both on stage and on film. He was born on Brochet, Manitoba, Canada and is of Cree descent.
Meegwun Fairbrother
Meegwun Fairbrother is Ojibwe and Scottish origin, from Treaty 3 territory. Growing up, he lived up on many First Nations communities across Northern Ontario where he he enjoyed hunting, fishing, and taking part in many Ojibwe cultural practices. Meegwun is an accomplished actor, as well as an Okichitaw Indigenous martial artist, personal trainer, and yoga teacher.
Wilton Littlechild
Wilton Littlechild took a break from his work as a Canadian lawyer and Cree chief (who served as Grand Chief of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations and as a member of Parliament) to narrate Fred Sasakamoose’s powerful memoir Call Me Indian. He is a survivor of residential schools, the harmful network of mandatory boarding schools in Canada from 1894 to 1947; these were intended to isolate Indigenous children and assimilate them into Canadian culture.
Self-Narrated Audiobooks by Indigenous Authors
Is there another Indigenous audiobook narrator you’ve listened to and loved?
Let us know in the comments below!
I’m surprised not to see Robin Wall-Kimmerer here, as she read her own book Braiding Sweetgrass. But I’m very glad to have found your website! Thank you for assembling this collection of Indigenous Audiobook Narrators. You’ve given me a good place to do some of my homework as a settler, trying to learn reciprocity.
Thank you Betty! That was our mistake—just added Braiding Sweetgrass to our section of author-read audiobooks.