Weengushk Film Institute’s Shirley Cheechoo receives King’s Coronation Medal
M’CHIGEENG—Actor, artist, filmmaker, producer, educator, Indigenous rights activist and Order of Canada recipient, Dr. Shirley Cheechoo has worn many hats during her lifetime. This past week, Dr. Cheechoo was the recipient of a King George III Coronation Medal, courtesy of Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP Carol Hughes in one of her last official acts before retiring.
Dr. Cheechoo received her medal during a ceremony held at the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation in M’Chigeeng.
The citation for her medal read by Ms. Hughes goes as follows: “Dr. Shirley Cheechoo C.M., a trailblazing Cree filmmaker and playwright, was the first Indigenous woman in Canada to direct a feature film. Founder of the Weengushk Film Institute, she empowers Indigenous voices through media arts. Honored with numerous awards, including the Order of Canada, her work champions storytelling, education and cultural preservation.”
Ms. Hughes commended Dr. Cheechoo on her outstanding contributions to Canada and her communities.
“It’s a great day,” said OCF Executive Director Glen Hare.
The event was attended by M’Chigeeng acting Chief Ross Armstrong, who also was effusive in his praise of the work and contributions Dr. Cheechoo has made during her life.
Dr. Cheechoo was born in 1952 in Eastmain, Quebec and grew up in Moose Factory and Hearst. She spent her early life on traplines with her parents and brothers, but at the age of nine she was sent to Shingwauk Indian Residential School. While at the school Dr. Cheechoo, like many other residential school survivors, experienced violence and abuse and was told that “her parents would die if she ran away.”
After leaving school at 15, Dr. Cheechoo experienced problems with substance abuse, before eventually turning her life around—working in film and theatre to explore themes of healing and survivance post-trauma of which her experiences at a residential school gave first-hand knowledge.
She went on to found both a theatre company, Debajehmujig Storytellers, that still thrives today developing Indigenous live theatre players and training youth for careers in the industry, and Weengushk Film Institute, which offers students land-based training in film industry occupations infused with Indigenous traditions.
Her introduction to the arts came about in large part through her attendance at art classes at the Manitou Arts Foundation during the summer of 1970. She would go on to marry fellow artist Blake Debassige and settled in M’Chigeeng where they raised son Nano and established Kasheese Studio Art Gallery to promote Indigenous artists.
Dr. Cheechoo documented her road to healing in her 1991 stage play ‘Path with No Moccasins,’ a nationally acclaimed production that was just first among many accolades.
Her directorial debut was the short film called ‘Silent Tears,’ which won several film festival awards for Best Short Film and was screened at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.
Dr. Cheechoo’s first feature length film ‘Backroads’ was the first in Canada to be written, produced, directed and acted in by an Indigenous person.
In addition to her Order of Canada and this most recent accolade, Dr. Cheechoo has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award in 2013 in recognition of her commitment to education and also received the Anishinabek Nation Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.
