Shelley Niro (Mohawk) was born in Niagara Falls, New York and is a member of the Turtle Clan. She grew up on the Six Nations Reserve and is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art, where she received an Honors Fine Arts degree in painting and sculpture. Niro began working in video several years ago and her first film, It Starts With a Whisper, co-directed with Anna Gronau, has screened around the world. Storytelling through film and installation art, Shelley creates roles for Native women that give them a voice of strength and community. She has exhibited widely and her work often addresses questions of identity and its construction by the self and others. She has recently completed an MFA at the University of Western Ontario and currently lives in Brantford, Ontario.