March 06, 2009

2009 Aboriginal Achievement Awards

Winnipeg hosts National Aboriginal Achievement Awards galaThe 2009 National Aboriginal Achievement Awards will be presented Friday night at a gala evening in Winnipeg, hosted by actors Adam Beach and Tina Keeper.

The awards honour the contributions of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in a variety of fields including the arts, business, law, medicine and politics.

Among this year's 15 recipients is Candace Grier-Lowe, a Norway House Cree Nation member who grew up in Thompson, Man.

After ignoring her high school counsellor's advice to not consider university, she became the first aboriginal person to be accepted into the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon. She graduated in 2005 and now teaches in the college's veterinary dentistry department, the only program of its kind in the world.
And:Two other Manitobans are also set to receive the achievement awards, including 17-year-old Chelsea Lavallée, the youngest-ever recipient, and Alan C. MacLeod, president and CEO of Tribal Councils Investment Group of Manitoba (TCIG).

Lavallée, a Grade 12 student from St. Ambroise, is a master of the Red River jig and member of the St. Ambroise Youth Steppers Square Dance Team. She said she uses dance as a means of promoting Métis culture across Manitoba.

She has won numerous honours, including the title of Métis Miss Teen Manitoba in 2005, the National Métis Youth Role Model Award in 2006, the National Aboriginal Role Model Award in 2006-07 and a Manitoba Aboriginal Youth Achievement Award in 2007.

MacLeod's award is based on his guidance of the TCIG, which has returned nearly $17 million in dividends to the tribal councils in the past 10 years, a cumulative return of nearly 1,000 times initial investments.
Comment:  For more on the subject, see Aboriginal Achievers Recognized.

1 comment:

  1. I am a long time admirer of Adam Beach’s work. I am in no way an expert on the subject, but his work feels honest and insightful. He seems to choose roles that are better suited to enlightening us on what it is like to be Indian from the Indian perspective in everyday life. My favorite works of his are the shows from PBS’s Skinwalker Series. I also liked the movie Windtalkers. :)
    The others certainly sound deserving of the awards. A good example to all of us not to allow others to hold us down.

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