Originally from the community of Ekuanitshit (Mingan) in the Lower North Shore region of Quebec, Cousineau-Mollen was adopted at a very young age by an urban family as part of what is now known as the Sixties Scoop. Although Cousineau-Mollen did not grow up in an Indigenous community, her adoptive family maintained contact with her biological family, ensuring she remained connected to her culture and identity. Having faced adversity and rejection during her studies at Laval University due to her Indian Status, she has since worked to build and support community initiatives, through Aboriginal student associations and involvement in the Wolf Pack Street Patrol, for the Indigenous homeless people of Montreal. In The Liturgy of Savage No. 082, Cousineau-Mollen reclaims, honours, and makes space for herself and the rights of Indigenous women. A powerful and emotional poetry collection, The Liturgy of Savage No. 082 explores the realities facing Indigenous women in Canada and the emotional impact of homelessness, intergenerational trauma and systemic racism, all through a feminist lens as she considers the implications of femininity and identity in relation to the unceded land of her people.

Maya Cousineau Mollen is an established voice in Innu poetry. She is the author of Bréviaire du matricule 082 (Éditions Hannenorak, 2019), which was awarded the Indigenous Voices Award in the Published Poetry in French category. Her work has been published in Amun, a literary collection of Indigenous writers, Mots de neige, de sable et d'océan [Words of Sand, Snow and Ocean], an anthology of Indigenous writing (Éditions du CDFM, 2008), and Languages of Our Land/Langues de notre terre (Banff Centre Press, 2014). In 2020 she participated in a TEDxMontreal presentation called “Diversité : la richesse qui nous unit” (“Diversity: the richness that unites us”). She worked at EVOQ Architecture in Montreal as an Inuit and First Nations community development advisor, and volunteers with the Wolfpack Street Patrol to provide aid to those who are homeless. Cousineau Mollen also served as an executive assistant to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Now she is the project manager, First peoples relations, at Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

Maya Cousineau Mollen's profile page

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“Cousineau-Mollen’s poetry embodies resilience, and how the impact of colonization has affected Indigenous peoples, and First Nation women in particular.”

—Shannon Webb-Campbell, Muskrat Magazine on Bréviaire du matricule 082 (Éditions Hannenorak, 2019)