Anishinaabe playwright Ian Ross rose to fame as ‘Joe from Winnipeg’

Ian Ross burst onto the Canadian theatre scene in 1996 with his first play fareWel, at the Prairie Theatre Exchange in Winnipeg. He was only 27 years old. Mr. Ross, who was Anishinaabe, would go on to be the first Indigenous playwright to win the Governor-General’s Award for English Drama the following year when his play was published.

On Nov. 18, Mr. Ross died suddenly from a heart attack at his home in Winnipeg. He was 57 years old. He was doing one of many things that he loved – playing World of Warcraft, as he had done for the past two decades.