Louise Profeit-LeBlanc

Louise Profeit-LeBlanc, was taught the craft of storytelling by her aunt Angela Sidney, who devoted her life to preserving the stories of the Tagish of Southern Yukon. Profeit-LeBlanc, who grew up listening to stories told by her Kookum, captivated the audience with a fable about jealousy."[8] Sidney emphasized the need to be cognizant of the needs of the audience, preface the telling with a prayer, and seek forgiveness before offense is taken.[9] Profeit-LeBlanc went on to become keeper of stories from the Nacho Nyak Dun First Nation.[8]

Profeit-LeBlanc[1]

...has come from a long line of storytellers and is now the keeper of many of these stories of the ancient and not so distant past. For 15 years she worked with her people all over the Yukon to ensure that the oral histories and stories of the First Nations people were recorded and transcribed for posterity. Cofounder of the Yukon International Storytelling festival, Yukon and the Society of Yukon Artists of Native Ancestry, Louise has attempted to ensure the voice of her people is heard and will be protected for the future generations. This voice and information is a gift that her people must share for the betterment of the world."

— Banff Centre for the Arts 2013

Profeit-LeBlanc identified four categories of Aboriginal storytelling in the Yukon; [10][2]

"The role of storytelling in Yukon Native Culture" classic stories, which include the creation story-for example, how crow made the universe, how man became a human being; regional stories, which resemble folklore stories from other cultures such as how the south wind came to be, and which talk about certain Yukon environmental characteristics and about relationships of people with actual places; familial stories are those that are specific to individual families; and communal stories are accounts of events that took place in the local community (usually kin-based)."

— Echevarria 2008 citing Profeit-LeBlanc nd

In the 1980s, Profeit-LeBlanc and storyteller Anne Taylor were cofounders [11] of the Yukon International Storytelling Festival,[1] in Whitehorse, Yukon which was held every summer generally in an outdoor setting. [11] Profeit-LeBlanc, from the Northern Tutchone Nation, was the niece of Angela Sidney CM (1902 – 1991), one the Yukon's last Tagish. Sidney had devoted her life to preserving the stories of the Tagish of Southern Yukon,[12] Profeit-LeBlanc and Taylor were motivated to found a more local venue for sharing Yukon stories when they realized that Sidney had had to travel in 1984 Toronto Festival of Storytelling to disseminate her peoples' stories to a world audience.[11] In 1987 interested parties came together to plan the first Yukon Storytelling Festival in 1988. It later grew beyond the scope of Yukon and Canada to attract storytellers from all over the world with an emphasis on native peoples storytelling and circumpolar countries.

Profeit-LeBlanc was cofounder of the Society of Yukon Artists of Native Ancestry.[1]

Profeit wrote a piece for the New Media Arts program at Banff in 2006.[1]

Profeit-LeBlanc worked as Coordinator of the Aboriginal Arts Office at the Canada Council for the Arts in Ottawa, Ontario where she served the needs of many Aboriginal artists of Canada and abroad.[1][13] The Canada Council for the Arts helped to bring the work of Rebecca Belmore to the Venice Biennale hip-hop electronica band A Tribe Called Red to the WOMEX World Music Expo in Thessaloniki, Greece in 2012 and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters in New York City in 2013.[14]