ALANIS OBOMSAWIN Vancouver Art Gallery - Vancouver Biennale.

By Vancouver Biennale

Some of our team were pleased to make one final visit to the Vancouver Art Gallery to see THE CHILDREN HAVE TO HEAR ANOTHER STORY: ALANIS OBOMSAWIN before the exhibition closes on August 7, 2023. The films and artworks on display chronicle Obomsawin’s nearly sixty years of fighting indefatigably for Indigenous people—particularly children—to engender better understanding, dignity, and authenticity. [In 2019, the Vancouver Biennale presented Obomsawin with its Artist of Distinction Award for her contributions to art, film, and education.]

“Abenaki filmmaker and activist Alanis Obomsawin was born into a dark period of Indigenous history when options for social and political agency were radically and systemically foreclosed. Despite this, she managed to consistently access public platforms to advance Indigenous concerns and tell Indigenous stories. Her integrity and commitment have made her a revered and beloved figure within Indigenous communities and celebrated in Canada and internationally.

“Over the course of five decades, she has created a model of Indigenous cinema that privileges the voices of her subjects and challenges core assumptions of the world system created by colonialism that we all now inhabit and contend with. THE CHILDREN HAVE TO HEAR ANOTHER STORY reveals how Obomsawin achieved what she did and what it has meant for her to do so. In a survey of the breadth of her lifework from the 1960s to the present, this exhibition demonstrates her remarkable achievements in education, music, documentary cinema and activism that have mobilized Indigenous voices and ideas to transform society.” - @vanartgallery

This compelling exhibition will next run at The Art Museum at the University of Toronto from September 7 to November 25, 2023.

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