She is a member of the Ockekwi Sipi (Fisher River) Cree First Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (northern Manitoba) with family origins in Gordon’s First Nations, Treaty 4 Territory (southern Saskatchewan). Winona has written and published widely. Her research focuses on Cree intellectual traditions and oral history methodologies, Indigenous knowledge, anti-colonial theory & approaches, history of Indigenous-settler relations, land claims & Treaty rights, community-based/engaged research, and history of First Nations education, Indian residential schools, missionary relations. She is active in the community in many ways, including contributing a bi-monthly column in the local Indigenous newspaper Eaglefeather News, working on an oral history of the Ockewi Sipi peoples and overseeing major research projects for the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba.