Ashley Callingbull is a 25 year old Cree First Nations woman from the Enoch Cree Nation in the province of Alberta. She is very devoted to her culture and people, and takes pride in her Native Cree heritage, and has shown this through her volunteer work with community elders and aboriginal youth. By the time Ashley reached 10 years old; she had consecutively won all Enoch’s princess crowns. She is a professionally trained dancer in tap, ballet, jazz, pointe and performed in the Nutcracker.
Ashley’s interest in acting led her to starring in a commercial for The Hudson Bay, and has appeared in television mini-series, acted in countless stage performances and has lent her voice for cartoons. She appears in Blackstone, a television show that airs on APTN, Showcase, Maori Television in New Zealand and Hulu Television in the United States. Ashley is also featured in CBC’s 8th Fire Series and the Catch The Dream Series. Her youth foreshadowed her young adulthood, as she continued with acting and dancing.
In June 2010, Ashley placed 2nd Runner up in the Miss Universe Canada 2010 Pageant. She is the first Cree First Nations Woman to achieve this goal. During her reign as a Miss Universe Canada 2010 finalist, she traveled to hospitals and schools speaking about her life and reaching out to others. The loss of some very close family members have led Ashley to also support the Stollery Children’s Hospital, Walk for the Cure, Run for the Lung and mentor underprivileged Aboriginal youth. Ashley is also currently the Youth Representative for the Stollery Family Centered Care Network for the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Ashley was chosen as Miss Canada in 2010 and represented her nation in international pageants in China, Europe and Barbados.
Ashley is also an international motivational speaker and role model for many educational institutions, workshops, conferences and award ceremonies. Ashley has spoken at Harvard University, Boston as the keynote speaker for an All Ivy Native Council, TED Talks and WE Day. Ashley’s hard work and charity work was recognized as she received the Role Model Award at the Dreamcatcher Gala and she also received the Top 20 Under 30 Award in Canada. Ashley also received a role model award from the United Nations in October 2015 for Global Dignity Day.
Ashley is currently the reigning Mrs Universe 2015 and a Canadian Activist for First Nations Rights and environmental causes in Canada. Ashley is also a spokesperson and model for the Nike N7 organization.