Heather Bishop has dedicated her life to making a difference in the world.

From fighting to save the environment, to struggling against racism, to fighting for women's rights and against homophobia, she has never been afraid to stand up for what she believes.

In the late 60's, Heather was among the first women to form an independent feminist movement in this country. Following in the footsteps of the suffragettes, she began to champion equal rights for women.

In the early 70's, she went on strike with the United Pressman's Union and spearheaded the first ever effort in Canada to seek equal pay for work of equal value. Although that effort only netted the women a small gain in closing the gender pay scale gap, equal pay for work of equal value legislation was passed federally a few years later.

Prior to the passage of that legislation. Heather was instrumental in having the first CUPE contract ratified in Canada that not only included equal pay for work of equal value, but also included a clause banning discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation along with race, gender, ethnic origin and religious affiliation .

Also in the early 70's, Heather helped organize the first Aboriginal women's caucus of the Metis Society of Saskatchewan. The MSS crushed this first attempt at organizing Aboriginal women. Shortly thereafter, the first Saskatchewan Organization of Aboriginal Women formed independently,

Again in the early 70's, Heather Bishop appeared on various radio shows and at many public speaking engagements to try to eradicate homophobia. She spoke to medical students, psychiatric students and the police force in an attempt to change archaic attitudes towards the homosexual population. In 1975, Heather was a founding member of the first Lesbian organization in Manitoba.

Heather has, over the years, developed a broad set of non-traditional skills. She is a carpenter, plumber, electrician and auto mechanic. With these skills in hand, she helped initiate and then taught the first Pre-Trades Training for Women courses in the country at Red River Community College in the late 70's. She was a founding member of the Women in Trades organization which has grown to become a national organization of stature.

With an eye to walking softly on this earth, Heather built her own solar home in 1979 in rural Manitoba. At the time, it was, and still is, a state of the art solar passive home with separate gray water disposal systems. She has been involved in the construction of several solar buildings since then.

Heather is perhaps best know for her work as a musician. Her career has spanned 3 decades and taken her around the world. She performs to both children and adults and has garnered numerous awards including JUNO nominations and Parent's Choice Gold Awards.

In 1976 Heather formed her own recording company. Mother of Pearl Records, Inc. She was one of the first Canadian musicians to make their own album and helped to start the trend of independent labels in Canada. The Canadian independent recording industry has become one of the most vibrant parts of the Canadian music business. She has gone on to record 13 albums, selling close to 150,000 copies world wide from her rural based company in southern Manitoba.

Heather Bishop is a well known name at all the major Canadian Folk Festivals as well as all the Children's Festivals in this country. She has performed with almost every major symphony orchestra in Canada as well as a few in the USA. Heather was a regular guest performer on the internationally acclaimed Fred Penner Show.

Heather has dedicated an equal part of her career to touring in the United States, again for both adult and children's audiences. Since their inception, she has been a regular performer at the two largest Women's festivals in the USA.

Internationally, Heather has toured Scotland, Wales, and Australia. She has done well in Australia, touring there several years in a row and appearing at all their major folk festivals including their largest,  the Woodford Folk Festival.

Heather has always believed that music is one of the most effective tools for change and has dedicated her career to addressing the issues facing our society that need changing. She has been a champion of women's rights and gay rights, sacrificing gain in her own career to stand behind her truth and her beliefs. Heather was the first publicly "out" Lesbian to perform at major Canadian Folk Festivals, thereby breaking down the barriers for Gays and Lesbians in the music industry.  Through her music, she is recognized and honoured in both Canada and the United States as one of the pioneers who opened doors for gays and lesbians to come out and take their rightful and equal place in society.

To try to record the sheer number of benefit performances Heather has given and the diversity of the causes that she has generously supported with her music would be an impossible task. Suffice it to say that she is always called upon and readily gives her time to any worthy cause needing her talents.

In her spare time Heather donates her energy to numerous worthy causes:

• She recently joined Shirley Douglas, Keifer Sutherland, and Mary Walsh in Alberta to rally that province in an attempt to impede the privatization of health care.
• She gave a month of her time driving her own support vehicle for Habitat for Humanity's Bike Atlanta trip which raised over a quarter of a million dollars towards building homes for low-income families.
• Heather was a founding member of the Manitoba Audio Recording Industry Association and, as board president, helped build it into the powerful industry voice in Canada that it is today.         
• In addition, Heather sits on the board of Manitoba Film and Sound  and   on the Ministerial Advisory Council of Manitoba's Sound Recording Industry. 
  Heather spent five years Heather studying American Sign Language in summer immersion courses.

Heather's current adventure is in straw bale construction, an ecologically alternative building technique. She offered a workshop to teach women how to build with this environmentally friendly, super efficient technology.

Heather Bishop still lives happily on the land in southern Manitoba feeding her family and friends from her organic garden and waiting on her two dogs and four cats.

AWARDS

Heather Bishop has been awarded the Order of Canada, the country's highest honour, in 2005 and the Order of Manitoba, the province's highest honour, in 2001.  In 2006 she was awarded the Western Canadian Music Awards Industry Builder of the Year and in 2005, the Above & Beyond Awards for the Arts.  On the occasion of the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Winnipeg, Heather was awarded the Golden Jubilee Medal (2002) by Her Majesty.  She has also received the Women in Trades Join Us At the Top Award (2001),  the Spirit of Smith Street Award for Outstanding Community Service to the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgendered Communities (2000), the prestigious YWCA Woman of the Year Distinction Award (1997), and the Manitoba Award for the Gay Community(1992). 

In the music industry, Heather Bishop received two Parent's Choice Gold Awards for Chickee's on the Run (1997) and A Duck in New York City (1989), two of her children's recordings.  This is the highest honour awarded to children's product in the United States.  Also in that country, she received the National Association of Parenting Publications Awards, Gold Award (1997), again for Chickee's on the Run.  

In Canada, Heather received two JUNO nominations, the first in 1987 for Most Promising Female Vocalist for A Taste of the Blues and again in 1997 for Best Children's Album (Chickee's on the Run).  She received a Prairie Music Award nomination for Best Roots & Traditional Album in 2000 for her album Heather Bishop Live.