Several First Nations artists among 2025 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards honourees
Recipients to be celebrated in June at Ottawa event
Three First Nations performers — an actor, a dancer and a singer — are among those being recognized this year for their contributions to performing arts in Canada.
The Governor General's Performing Arts Awards were announced on Feb. 20.
5 decades on stage and screen
Graham Greene is one of five recipients of the Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award for his work acting in television, movies and on stage. Greene is Oneida from Ohsweken on Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in southern Ontario.
Greene, an accomplished character actor, earned an Academy Award nomination in 1991 for his role in Dances With Wolves. Some of his other honours include the Order of Canada, Canada's Walk of Fame, the Earle Grey lifetime achievement award for television acting (Canadian Screen Award), a Grammy Award in 2000 for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for Listen to the Storyteller, and an honorary doctorate from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont.
"I am honoured and humbled to accept this most prestigious award," said Greene in a video message released by the Governor General's Performing Arts Award Foundation.
"It's so good to be working in Canada, and I don't have to go anywhere else but here and to be honoured for it. I'm walking in some pretty tall corn right now."
Contemporary Indigenous storytelling
Sandra Laronde is another Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award recipient for her work in dance. Laronde, who is Teme-Augama Anishinaabe and grew up in Temagami, Ont., is a multi-disciplinary artist, choreographer, producer and author.
Laronde founded Red Sky Performance in 2000, a contemporary Indigenous performance company. She was director of Indigenous arts at the Banff Centre from 2007 to 2016.
Some of her other honours include the Governor General's Meritorious Service Cross, the Order of Ontario, the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation, the Canada Council for the Arts Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award for Outstanding Artist in Dance, and an honorary doctorate from Trent University in Peterborough, Ont.
"I am forever grateful to have grown up on a land with such endless inspiration and beauty and spirit. I am surrounded by incredible collaborators," she said in a video message released by the foundation.
"This recognition means a lot to me. It makes me want to dig deeper to bring up that light and that which is meaningful, and that which is powerful and transformative."
Protecting language
Jeremy Dutcher is the recipient of this year's National Arts Centre Award, which recognizes work of an extraordinary nature by an individual artist or company in the past performance year.
A member of Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Dutcher is a singer and composer whose music incorporates classical elements with the traditional songs of his Wolastoqey community.
"I'm so proud of all the work that is being done to protect our language for the ones who are coming after us," Dutcher said in Wolastoqey in his video message.
"And I'm so happy to be here with all these amazing honourees! I'm so grateful to be included, and so I have to say 'thank you.'"
Mentorship program
Joshua Odjick, from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg in Quebec, was selected as this year's protégé for the foundation's mentorship program. Odjick will work with filmmaker Atom Egoyan to write, produce and direct his first short film.
The 2025 laureates will be celebrated at two events in Ottawa, including a show at the National Arts Centre in June.
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