Uashat-born novelist Naomi Fontaine is one of five winners of the 2022 Library and Archives Canada Scholar Awards. These awards, co-presented by the LAC Foundation and Library and Archives Canada, recognize outstanding contributions to the creation and promotion of Canadian literary heritage and historical knowledge.
Fontaine, a graduate of Laval University, published her first book, Kuessipan, to critical acclaim in 2011. The 2019 film adaptation, directed by Myriam Verreault, was nominated for numerous Canadian film awards. Her third book, Shuni, won the Prix littéraire des collégiens 2020 and the Prix de création littéraire du Salon du livre de Québec 2020, adult literature category.
Other winners:
- Performer, composer, activist, and musicologist Jeremy Dutcher, who studied music and anthropology at Dalhousie University in Halifax. After graduating, Dutcher worked in the Canadian Museum of History archives, transcribing Wolastoq songs from century-old wax cylinders, which inspired his debut album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa. Dutcher won the 2018 Polaris Music Prize for Best Canadian Album of the Year, and in 2019 he won the Juno Award for Indigenous Music Album of the Year.
- Ottawa-based photojournalist, visual artist and author Jean-Marc Carisse, whose photographic legacy bears witness to Canada’s collective history. Carisse has been an accredited photographer at several global events, including Francophone summits, the Summit of the Americas, and the G7 and G8 summits. In 2002, he won a Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for his outstanding contribution to Canada.
- Visual and conceptual artist and photographer Stan Douglas who was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and studied at Emily Carr College of Art. His work is held in museum collections all over the world. He is a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France and has won the 2019 Audain Prize for the Visual Arts, the 2016 Hasselblad Award, the 2013 Scotiabank Photography Award, and the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography (2012). He will represent Canada at the 59th Venice Biennale.
- Toronto-based filmmaker Deepa Mehta graduated from the Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi, with a degree in Philosophy. Her films, which include the Elemental Trilogy: Fire (1996), Earth (1998), and Water (2005), focus on issues of human rights and social injustice and have earned her an international reputation. Mehta received the 2012 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal. In 2013, she received both the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada.
Image: Gülfer ERGİN – Unsplash
Catherine Fisher, bloguer
