Conference speakers

Alanis Obomsawin, a member of the Abenaki Nation, is one of Canada’s foremost documentary filmmakers. The many films that she has directed with the National Film Board of Canada explore the lives and concerns of Canada’s First Nations. Her 50th and most recent film, Our People Will Be Healed, reveals how a Cree community in Manitoba has been enriched by an adequately funded school that nurtures Indigenous culture. Obomsawin originally launched her career in 1960 as a professional singer in New York City. In 1967, NFB producers Joe Koenig and Bob Verrall invited her to act as a consultant for a film on Indigenous people. Obomsawin quickly fell in love with the camera and never looked back. Obomsawin was inducted into the Playback Canadian Film and Television Hall of Fame in 2010 and honoured during the inaugural Birks Diamond Tribute to the Year’s Women in Film at TIFF in 2013. In 2014, Obomsawin also received the Humanitarian Award for Exceptional Contributions to Community and Public Service from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.

Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel graduated from Concordia University in May 1990 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Major Studio Art. She began her public activism during the 1990 Siege of Kanehsatà:ke (1990 “Oka” Crisis) and was chosen by the People of the Longhouse and her community of Kanehsatà:ke to be their spokesperson. The 1990 Kanehsatà:ke Siege transpired when the Municipality of Oka and private developers decided to appropriate the common lands in Kanehsatà:ke to expand their 9-hole golf course. The community of Kanehsatà:ke exercised their sovereign right to defend their lands by creating a barricade on a secondary dirt road to protect the Pines from illegal development on Kanehsatà:ke common lands. Since 1990, Ellen has worked consistently and diligently as a human rights and environmental advocate for the collective and individual rights of Indigenous peoples. She has continuously worked to sensitize the public and their institutions, on the impacts of colonization upon Indigenous peoples, Canada’s colonial history, and the richness of Indigenous peoples’ culture and identity as well as, their human rights. Ms. Gabriel was elected president of the Quebec Native Women’s Association from 2004 to 2010, a position she held with great honour. Ms. Gabriel has presented at numerous parliamentary committees, as well as, the national assembly in Quebec, and at the international level, participated in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues as well as the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. She currently works as a cultural consultant for the Kanehsatà:ke Onkwawén:na - Niión:kwarihoten (Language and Cultural Center) and is a board member of Kontinonhstats—the Mohawk Language Custodians Association. She remains a vigilant advocate for gender equity, justice for murdered and missing Indigenous women; the revitalization of Indigenous languages, culture, traditions, Indigenous peoples’ rights to self-determination and Climate Change. In 2005, Ms. Gabriel received the Golden Eagle Award from the Native Women’s Association of Canada and in 2008, the International Women’s Day Award from the Barreau du Québec/Québec Bar Association. In August 2008, Ms. Gabriel was the recipient of the Indigenous Women’s Initiative “Jigonsaseh Women of Peace Award” for her advocacy work.