Posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2009.
News release: July 29, 2009
Canadian Aboriginal author
Richard Wagamese will address a select group of young Aboriginal adults who are graduating from the
NSI New Voices program on Thursday July 30 at the Fairmont Hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
NSI New Voices is a unique full-time training program run by the National Screen Institute — Canada (NSI). It's designed for young Aboriginal people, aged 18 to 35, who have a sincere desire to work in the film and television industry.
Richard Wagamese, an Ojibway from the Wabaseemoong First Nation in northwestern Ontario, is an award-winning author, newspaper columnist and radio and TV commentator.
“Richard’s book
For Joshua: An Ojibway Father Teaches His Son is inspirational reading for our NSI New Voices graduates,” says
Lisa Meeches, Program Manager for NSI New Voices. “His life and work demonstrate that there is a need for Aboriginal stories to be told by Aboriginal people. His career shows that our young people can pursue successful careers in the media industry.”
In 1991, Richard became the first Native Canadian to win a National Newspaper Award for Column Writing. In 1994 his debut novel
Keeper’n Me won the Alberta Writers Guild Best Novel Award and he won the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction for his third novel
Dream Wheels in 2007. His latest works, the novel Ragged Company and a non-fiction title
One Native Life, arrived in 2008. Currently, his series
One Native Life runs as a radio commentary and newspaper column in both Canada and the U.S. and as a weekly television commentary in Kamloops, BC.
NSI New Voices is run by the National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI). It connects young Canadian Aboriginal adults with film and TV industry professionals through six weeks of intensive training and an eight week full-time industry work placement. NSI New Voices 2009 would like to thank the following internship companies and mentors for hosting this year’s students:
NSI New Voices is funded by Presenting Sponsor Manitoba Culture, Heritage, Tourism and Sport; Program Partners NBC Universal, Centre for Aboriginal Human Resource Development (CAHRD), and RBC Foundation; Strategic Sponsors Rogers, Women in Media Foundation; Supporting Sponsors Mother of Red Nations Women’s Council (MORN), Aboriginal Media Education Fund (AMEF), The Winnipeg Foundation, The Suzanne Rochon-Burnett Fund; Provincial Sponsor MANITOBA FILM & MUSIC.
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