Gabriel becomes 1st Indigenous artist to win Conseil des arts grand prize [Video]

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The Conseil des arts de Montréal has awarded its 38th Grand Prix — including a $30,000 grant — to Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel.

It’s the first time the prize has gone to an Indigenous artist.

Gabriel’s 2021 documentary — Kanatenhs: When the Pine Needles Fall — highlights “the overlooked and sometimes ostracized voices of Mohawk women” during the 1990 Oka crisis, the Conseil des arts said in a press release.

“Produced in a spirit of light and kindness,” the documentary won Best Canadian Short Film during the Montreal First Peoples Festival in 2023 and was nominated or awarded prizes at about 30 festivals in a dozen countries.