Cree rock band Miigwin has been enjoying a resurgence this year. After a triumphant performance at Nomad Entertainment’s Empowwowment Festival in Whapmagoostui on October 28, they won the $10,000 first prize at the Nikamuusuu/Niimuusuu Kaschihuwin music competition in Mistissini on November 20.
The Cree Native Arts and Crafts Association (CNACA) held their fourth annual Eeyou Istchee Achievement Awards on November 11 in a virtual ceremony, recognizing Cree artists in a variety of mediums.
For the past five years, women – and a few men – have been joining Louise Coonishish’s Sewing Project to help deal with their problems, and to find a sense of community.
A new program long wished for by the Cree Trappers’ Association (CTA) started in Waskaganish on September 27 called Eeyou Ituun (Cree Land Stewardship), which aims to teach fundamental bush skills and traditional knowledge to younger generations.
Changing the lives of young people through the power of film has been Shirley Cheechoo’s vision since 2002, when she founded the Weengushk Film Institute on Manitoulin Island, Ontario.
Building upon last year’s successful virtual presentation, the 22nd Annual imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival returns with expanded digital programming October 19-24. The 2020 online version allowed the festival to reach far beyond its Toronto base, attracting nearly 30,000 viewers across Canada and around the world.
Montreal’s First Peoples Festival once again delivered an impressive array of Indigenous films, live concerts, theatre and visual arts after going mostly virtual last year. The festival, which ran August 3-11, included a “daily occupation” of the Place des Festivals for five memorable evenings.
This year’s Miss Eeyou Eenou Iskwaau – Mistissini’s Geraldine Trapper – is using the crown won at last April’s pageant to spread an empowering message of acceptance for the Cree Nation’s non-binary, gender-fluid and LGBTQA2S+ community.
After a hybrid program of pop-up shows and online events last year, Montreal’s International First Peoples Festival is preparing larger shows for its 31st edition August 3-11 while planning for a big comeback in 2022.
A new book chronicles a young man’s first impressions of Waswanipi in 1963, two years before the Hudson’s Bay Company trading post closed and people dispersed from the community’s former location. Award-winning author Jean-Yves Soucy’s Waswanipi, posthumously published by Baraka Books, provides a vivid account of traditional Cree life with witty, touching prose.
