Announcing ECU’s 2025 Honorary Degree and Emily Award Recipients

A member of the Abenaki Nation and one of Canada’s most distinguished artists, Alanis Obomsawin has been a trailblazing champion of Indigenous storytelling and cinema over a legendary career that began at the NFB in 1967.

Companion of the Order of Canada, an Ordre national du Québec (GOQ), Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) and laureate of both the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award and the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, Ms. Obomsawin has received more than 50 lifetime and career accolades, as well as 13 honorary degrees.

She has directed 66 films to date that have amassed over 50 honours, including 15 awards for her 1993 landmark feature documentary on the 1990 Oka Crisis, Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance.

Six years before Oka, Alanis was present with her camera during Quebec police raids on the Restigouche Reserve to make Incident at Restigouche (1984), a film that she has said “encapsulated the idea of films being a form of social protest” and had a profound impact on her filmmaking practice.

Born in New Hampshire on Abenaki territory, Alanis was brought by her mother to live on the Odanak reserve northeast of Montreal at the age of six months. She first came to the attention of NFB producers Joe Koenig and Bob Verrall in 1966, when she was the subject of a film by Ron Kelly for CBC-TV’s Telescope series.

Also, an acclaimed singer and visual artist, Alanis is the subject of an exhibition on her life and work, The Children Have to Hear Another Story, which is touring Canadian cities.

“Much has been said and discussed about Alanis’s legacy, which, it’s vital to point out, is still unfolding with every new film in her remarkable—and remarkably long—career as a director, producer, writer, singer, artist and activist. She is many things to many people, as all great leaders are. Her body of work is astonishing. With over 60 films already complete and with more in various stages of development, Alanis Obomsawin is unlike most screen storytellers from any nation on Earth.” – Jason Ryle, International Programmer, Indigenous Cinema, Toronto International Film Festival.

Paul Larocque has had a career in the arts and cultural sector spanning more than three decades and continues to be committed to promoting the importance of the arts and arts education in our communities. Paul is currently the President & CEO of Arts Umbrella—an internationally recognized leader in the area of arts education for young people. He has led the 46-year-old non-profit organization through a period of significant growth, notably, with the recent opening of its 72,000 square-foot centre on Granville Island. Prior to his current role, Paul held the position of Associate Director at the Vancouver Art Gallery for more than a decade.

For several years, Paul has served as a mentor and a selection committee chair with the Loran Scholars Foundation, as well as volunteering with the McCall MacBain Scholars program. For more than 20 years, Paul has been an active member of Chor Leoni, an internationally recognized choral ensemble.

Chepximiya Siyam’ Chief Janice George graduated from Capilano University, North Vancouver, BC, and the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM, USA. She feels her education at these schools helped her excel as a teacher, adding to her most important and cherished traditional teachings. She is a hereditary chief, trained museum curator and educator. 

George most recently was artist in residence with the Indigo Arts Alliance in April 2023. George is a textile artist and, along with her husband, brought back almost lost knowledge of Coast Salish Weaving to Squamish people. Public art includes co-designer of soon to be new Vancouver Art Gallery facade, Arc’teryx Park Royal Art designer, N’Chkay new office art designer, Simon Fraser interior design with Urban Arts Architecture Vancouver, Squamish and Lilwat Cultural Centre.

Collaborations with Burritt Brothers for hand-knotted and commercial carpeting murals around Vancouver, weavings in Simon Fraser University, Arcteryx Park Royal, Squamish and Lilwat Cultural Centre, amongst others.

Michelle Fu and Brian McBay are Co-founders of 221A, a Vancouver-based cultural space and artistic research organization. Under their leadership, 221A operates a growing network of over 140,000 square feet across nine properties that provide space for artistic production and housing.

Started as a student collective at Emily Carr University in 2005, Michelle and Brian apply their training and experience in fine arts and industrial design to community governance and cultural space design and operations. Over the last twenty years, they have worked collectively with artists and designers to secure space and access resources, with a focus on reversing inequality, xenophobia and colonialism in Canada.