Biography
Dr. Lolly de Jonge is the Chief Executive Officer of IndigeKin Productions Inc., a 100%-owned Indigenous media arts production company. Lolly is an accomplished Indigenous producer of television, film, music and podcast projects. She is a skilled director, host and interviewer. Lolly is also an accomplished writer and editor whose work has spanned visual, audio, and print media, as well as comedy (under the stage name of DJ Goulet) and academic publications.
Dr. Lolly is a provocateur and change agent who has extensive business experience, over three decades of community leadership involvement and is recognized as a notable Indigenous person in Canada. Lolly went from being a high school dropout and teenage, unwed mother who placed a child in a closed adoption in the 1970s to spending years as a Chief Executive Officer. She is an owner and Chief Experience Officer of Marda Loop Brewing Inc. Previously, she was the Director, Global Business Practices for a multi-national energy company (including ten years managing its ethics function that was widely recognized including by the Canadian government and United Nations). Lolly was named to the 2016 Diversity 50 by the Canadian Board Diversity Council.
Lolly's interest in visual media arts began over 25 years ago as she tinkered with two VCRs (an obsolete electro-mechanical device that revolutionized home entertainment) to cut training films just for fun. She dabbled in various projects while raising her family. In 2004, she participated in the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers' (CSIF) How to Make A Film program. Says Lolly, "On the first day, the instructor referred to us as 'artists'. I remember thinking, 'Who me?' What a delight it was to discover and express the artist within and unlock my creative faculties! I was grateful to participate in the program under an Indigenous bursary. Through the excellent instruction of the How to Make A Film teachers and mentors, and the support of the CSIF staff, I transformed the words on paper in a letter that I had written 25 years earlier to my baby who I was placing for adoption into my short film that was screened and acclaimed."
In 2013, Lolly entered a new season of life when her nest emptied, she graduated from doctoral studies and left the business world for the non-profit sector. With a PhD in Human & Organizational Systems and Master's degrees in Human Development and in Environment & Management, every project in which Lolly involves herself is rooted in bringing out the best in people, the fulfillment of dreams and making the world a better place.
If you work with Dr. Lolly, you won't simply be working. You can count on seeing people be transformed. She has an uncanny ability to touch people's hearts by having them home in on their lived experiences, limiting beliefs and barriers so that they can find their own answers to rise and achieve their dreams. For many, Lolly's facilitation and gentle, wise interviewing moves them deeply when they come to the realization that, "You've always had the power, my Dear," (Glinda, The Wizard of Oz).
Lolly lives, works and plays in Mohkínstsis (Calgary) and Gold Canyon, Arizona and is a proud member of the Otipemisiwak Métis Government of the Métis Nation.
