Austen Brauker

About Austen

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Austen Brauker is a tribal member of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians located in Manistee Michigan. He is the author of the novels “Homunculus” and “Penny Yarrow.” He currently works for the Tribal Court at the Justice Center as a Peacemaker and Probation Officer. He practices the expression of tribal sovereignty by exercising his guaranteed treaty rights to spear for fish as well as collecting medicinal herbs and mushrooms from traditional hunting and gathering grounds. Austen is a musician and has played guitar for almost thirty years in several different bands and as a solo performer. He has home-recorded several CD’s of original music. He also plays the bass guitar, mandolin, banjo and the Native American flute. His artwork is on display in many places, including a large mural at the entrance of the Willows restaurant at the Little River Casino.

“HOMUNCULUS" a screenplay by Austen Brauker

“1st Place, Best Overall Script” Los Angeles Movie Awards 2012
“Grand Prize, Best Overall Screenplay, All categories” Oregon Film Festival 2011
“Best Horror Screenplay” Love Unlimited International Film Festival 2011
“Official Finalist” Hollywood Screenplay Contest 2011
“Official Finalist” Newport International Film Festival 2011
“Semi-finalist” PAGE Awards Screenplay Competition 2011
“Official Finalist” STORY PROS Screenplay Contest 2011
“Fifth Round Winner” The Golden Brad Awards Movie Script Contest 2011
“Honorable Mention” Chicago Screenwriters Network Contest 2011
“Honorable mention” Great Lakes International Film Festival 2011
“Best Fiction Writer Award” Dark Matter Magazine 2011

Honorable Mention: 2011 Chicago Screenwriters Network Contest and 2011 Great Lakes International Film Festival.

Screenplay, “White Buffalo” was picked up in 2011 for production by Wild Horse Films, through Inktip.

Both “Homunculus” and “White Buffalo” have received positive coverage feedback from several sources.

Honorable Mention Award for Live Script Reading Performance, Beyond Baroque Theater, Love Unlimeted Film Festival, Venice Ca.

Austen is the author of two full length fiction novels, several theatrical plays, much poetry and regular newspaper articles at three separate publications in Michigan. Two of his short plays, “Crocophile” and “Look What the Cat Dragged In,” have been produced by West Shore College, where he has also was published in Dark Matter, as best fiction writer for 2008. His work has won several writing competitions and is posted at various places on the internet, on writer’s sites and bookselling sources. He has been printed in numerous hard copy anthologies. Austen currently works as a Peacemaker/Probation Officer at the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Tribal Justice Center and as an artist, painting murals, like the well known piece at the entrance of the Willows restaurant at the Little River Casino and Resort. He has been commissioned by the Mt. Pleasant Public Schools to create eight 5’x5’ stained glass windows for two of their elementary schools. He creates many different traditional native crafts and various other forms of visual art. His work was used by the National Congress of the American Indian for the N.C.A.I. conference logo in 2011 and the original hangs at their embassy in Washington D.C. Austen is a long time musician and has performed regularly since he started playing music over twenty eight years ago. Austen plays many different styles of music on acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, banjo, bass guitar, lap steel and slide blues. He plays the Native American flute and sings with a traditional Odawa drum group in Manistee, Michigan. He recently scored the soundtrack for an educational sturgeon documentary that was filmed locally, spotlighting the L.R.B.O.I. sturgeon rearing program. He has numerous CD’s of different styles of original music, most of it available online. Austen is a tribal member of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. He hunts and fishes as an expression of tribal sovereignty and to feed his family, physically and spiritually. In 2011 he was the first L.R.B.O.I. tribal member in recent recorded history to harvest a lake sturgeon, caught on hook and line, weighing 108 lbs. and measuring 6 ft. 1 in. (Which he shared with the tribe.) In 2009 he was gifted with an 8 pt. bull elk.(Which he shared with the tribe.) At 17 yrs. old, he brought home a 350 lb. black bear. He shares these special gifts with elders and other tribal members whenever possible. For Austen, hunting provides a direct connection to nature, builds deep reverence and respect, and ties him directly to the web of life. He is an advocate of spiritual unity among all of earth’s peoples and seeks to focus on our similarities as brothers and sisters, rather than arbitrary and divisive differences, hoping for acceptance and sharing as we evolve together in our collective world consciousness, as human beings. Austen is married to his beautiful love and best friend, his wife Victoria.

His short stories, poems and articles appear in numerous publications and two of his plays were produced by West Shore Community College. Austen is a skilled wood worker and has learned many aspects of home construction, especially doing log work, rustic furniture and trim and custom tile work. Other jobs he has had in the past include being a Librarian at the Fremont Public Library, the Herd Manager at Wild Winds Buffalo Preserve, a Dark Room Technician and Pre-Press Graphics Stripper at the Herald Republican Newspaper, a Substance Abuse counselor at Ojibwe Substance Abuse, a counselor for youth sex offenders at Pegasus School, worked for the Boy Scouts of America at Camp Rotary BSA in Clare Mi. as their Voyager, Waterfront Director and Native American Cultural Consultant, was a camp counselor at High Hope Camp in Clear Lake IN., a counselor for the Y.M.C.A, as a parent-teacher-student liaison for the Mt. Pleasant Public Schools, as a counselor for the King Chavez Parks summer youth program at CMU, as a counselor at a culture camp for youth called Apache Lodges, as a junior high teacher for the alternative school at the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, as an Ice Skating Rink Supervisor for Mt. Pleasant Parks and Recreation Dept. , a printer for Astro-Graphics specializing in high tech. screen printing, as a dry wall hanger and then hanging siding and doing finish work, as a dishwasher, a Christmas tree bailer, and as an award certificate calligrapher.

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Joined on April 12, 2011 and posted 0 comments, 0 replies and started 0 discussions

Musical Instruments

Anything with strings.

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Austen Brauker uploaded "Siam Sam" by Austen Brauker