(supplied/ Doris Jeanne MacKinnon)

By Ian Gustafson

Truth and Reconciliation

Red Deer’s Doris Jeanne MacKinnon awarded King Charles III Coronation Medal

May 28, 2025 | 12:40 PM

Red Deer County’s Doris Jeanne MacKinnon was recently honoured with the King Charles III Coronation Medal for her work on Truth and Reconciliation.

Her work has been shared and told through multiple books she’s written but her passion for it really started in her hometown of St. Paul in northeastern Alberta, which was one of the province’s first Métis settlements.

“It inspired the curiosity I had about some of the racial conflicts that we still see sometimes in Canada,” she said. “I just wanted to know more about the history of my area… When I went back to school as a mature student I was drawn to learn more about Indigenous history so I could understand the history of my area.”

She achieved a doctoral degree in Canadian Indigenous studies and has focused primarily on telling the stories of Métis women, including another book coming out in the fall about how Indigenous women established themselves as pioneers after the fur trade.

Her books were primarily the driving force to her being awarded the medal.

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“I’ve also wanted to share my own story through reconciliation just getting to know the stories and history of Indigenous people and their contributions to our country,” she said. “The books have reached a far wider audience than I could in one single classroom.”

She currently works as the director of education for the National Association of Career Colleges, who nominated her for the medal. She’s also a contracted instructor at Yorkville University.

She was presented the King Charles III Coronation Medal at a ceremony in Edmonton.

“It was a real honour to me because it just validated all of the work that I’ve done. I went back to school 35 years ago and I’ve focused so much energy on that. These Truth and Reconciliation projects has been a passion project.”