Alanis Obomsawin, a Canadian documentarian who has made 56 films focusing on the lives and concerns of First Nations peoples, was the first female filmmaker to be awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal on Sunday during the MacDowell artist residency’s annual Medal Day.

MacDowell is an artist’s retreat in Peterborough that is closed to the public almost year-round, with the exception of Medal Day, where it awards the Edward MacDowell Medal – named for the composer who along with his wife, Marian MacDowell, founded the retreat. The medal is awarded to a single honoree each year who has made an outstanding contribution to American culture and the arts. Past awardees include Thornton Wilder, Georgia O’Keeffe, Leonard Bernstein , Stephen Sondheim and Toni Morrison. 

The day includes the medal ceremony and a picnic lunch, complete with picnic baskets reminiscent of the lunch baskets delivered to resident artists for lunch during their stays, a tradition which stretches back to the founding of the retreat. The afternoon concludes with a two-hour window in which the public can tour the resident artist studios and view the work being done there. MacDowell residents include architects, composers, filmmakers, interdisciplinary artists, theater artists, visual artists and writers.

In accepting the medal, Obomsawin remarked that she had not expected such honors in her lifetime, although she has already been acknowledged with several awards for her work. Her 2022 film “Bill Reid Remembers” was named to the short film program of Canada’s Top Ten, which honors the best in Canadian cinema. She has also been awarded the Jeff Skoll Award in Impact Media by the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, and the Rogers-DOC Luminary Award at the DOC Institute Honours.

Obomsawin was introduced Jesse Wente, a Canadian author and member of the Serpent River First Nation, who spoke about the influence she has had on Indigenous filmmaking over the course of her 65-year career.

“It is my great honor and privilege to be with you today to present this award to Alanis Obomsawin. I can think of no one more deserving than Alanis,” Wente said. 

Wente first met Obomsawin 30 years ago, at a screening of her landmark documentary “Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance,” a 1993 documentary of the 1990 Mohawk uprising in Kanehsatake and Oka. While that was their first meeting, it was not the first time Wente had encountered Obomsawin’s work. He first saw her film “Incident at Restigouche,” a documentary on the Quebec police raids on a Mi’kmaq reserve, on television in Canada when Wente was about 10.

He said “Incident at Restigouche” was formative in how he viewed the role of Indigenous voices in media.

“Never before had I seen an Indigenous woman, who looks a lot like my mom, on TV, let alone challenging a government official over First Nations rights. That moment changed my perception of cinema, its potential and my potential place within it. Alanis has inspired countless people in the exact same way. Hers was a voice, a face, that was often singular in the media in Canada, and for so many of us, she was a beacon of what could be done,” Wente said.

Wente praised the work Obomsawin has done over the years in providing a voice for her people and acting as a trailblazer for Indigenous cinema, crediting her as one of the genre’s founders.

“Across over 50 years and 56 films, Alanis has held a mirror up to Canada and colonialism. She’s provided the microphone for many to speak truth to power. Her cinema is of the people in a way most documentaries never even attempt,” Wente said.

Obomsawin gave a short acceptance speech, in which she did not talk about her own career or accomplishments, but focused on her people and their history on the land that stretches from New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine and into Quebec, with archeological records showing their presence stretches back at least 11,000 years.

Obomsawin said that when the Abenaki people lost the land, tribes were instructed to preserve what culture they could.

“Each one of you, individually, try to keep and remember something of your language, or your tradition, your culture,” Obomsawin said. “Because several generations from now, the descendants will meet again, and make a circle with the memories that they saved, and our people will be one again. And I think – I’m an old lady, I’m 90 years old – and I have lived long enough to see this. And I want to tell all our people that have passed, how dignified and how beautiful they were and still are.”

Obomsawin thanked the crowd after accepting the MacDowell Medal.

“Thank you so much for being here. I just didn’t know I could feel so much love. This is such an honor, thank you so much,” she said.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter@AshleySaariMLT.