For 56 years, Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin has created documentaries that illuminate the lives and rights of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people in Canada, becoming one of the most acclaimed Indigenous filmmakers in the world.
Alanis Obomsawin's Beatty Lecture was presented on October 16, 2023. Nahlah Ayed, host of the CBC Radio One program Ideas, emceed the event. A former parliamentary reporter and a veteran foreign correspondent, her work has garnered numerous awards including from the UK Foreign Press Association and the Canadian Association of Journalists. Ideas featured excerpts of the lecture in an episode that broadcast on November 7, 2023, titled, "Alanis Obomsawin: The Art of Listening", listen .Ìý
Using film as a medium for social justice, Obomsawin has addressed critical First Nations, Inuit, and Métis issues, including land and reaty rights and the profound and lasting impacts of the Canadian residential school system. Her extraordinary body of work includes landmark films such as Incident at Restigouche, released in 1984, about the Quebec police raids on a Mi’kmaq reserve, and Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, released in 1993, which documents the 1990 Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) uprising in Kanehsatake and Oka. Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance won more than a dozen international awards. Obomsawin has worked at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as a writer, director, and producer since 1967 and released 55 films that have served as powerful tools for education, advocacy, and promoting a more inclusive and equitable society.
In addition to a prolific filmmaking career, Obomsawin is a celebrated singer-songwriter, visual artist, and activist. Her engravings and prints have been exhibited internationally, including in retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2008 and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2019. As a singer-songwriter, Obomsawin has toured Canada, the United States, and Europe and is best known for her 1988 album Bush Lady, which features traditional songs of the Abenaki people, as well as original compositions. In 1965, Obomsawin led a campaign to build a pool in Odanak, an Abenaki reserve northeast of Montreal, raising awareness of the discrimination First Nations children experienced when they were banned from swimming in the pool located in a neighbouring community. That year, she was named Outstanding Canadian of the Year by ²Ñ²¹³¦±ô±ð²¹²Ô’s magazine.
For her achievements, Obomsawin has received more than 35 awards and honours including the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, the Canadian Native Arts Foundation National Aboriginal Achievement Award, and the Glenn Gould Prize. She was named a Grande Officière of the Ordre national du Québec in 2016 and a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2019 – the highest distinctions for both honours. In July 2023, Obomsawin received the prestigious Edward MacDowell Medal, recognizing individuals who have made significant cultural contributions. She is the first woman filmmaker to receive this award in its 63-year history. She is also the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, including an Honorary Doctor of Letters from ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ's School of Continuing Studies.
Image: Owen Egan and Joni Dufour