A Metis poet and author who was born in Olds will be one of three Alberta artists honoured at the 2019 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Awards.
Poet and writer Marilyn Dumont, who now lives in Edmonton, is of Cree/Metis ancestry.
Her first collection of poetry, A Really Good Brown Girl, won the 1997 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award from the League of Canadian Poets.
Dumont will share the stage with two other award recipients, Edmonton printmaker Walter Jule and Calgary abstract artist Katie Ohe.
The ceremony will be held Saturday in Maskwacis. This year’s gala marks the first time the awards have been regionally co-planned and hosted on a First Nation.
Lt.-Gov. Lois Mitchell will present the awards at a celebration that runs from 2 to 4 p.m. at Nipisihikopahk Secondary School.
The deep connections of the land, its people and the arts across the region will be celebrated, say gala organizers.
Dumont also wrote green girl dreams mountains (2001), that tongued belonging (winner of the McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year) and The Pemmican Eaters (which won the 2016 Writers’ Guild of Alberta’s Stephan G. Stephansson Award).
She will be awarded for helping create “profound, progressive changes to the writing landscape in and beyond Alberta.”
Jule is called one of Canada’s most important printmakers who has made global contributions in teaching and through his own creative work. He helped develop Canada’s first printmaking studio master’s program at the University of Alberta.
Ohe is considered one of Alberta’s pioneers of abstract art. Her six-decade sculpture career, using a range of materials including steel, concrete, epoxy and chrome, has helped spearhead abstract art in Alberta.
The artists will each receive a handcrafted medal, a $30,000 award and a two-week residency at the Banff Centre’s Leighton Artists’ Studios.
Tickets to the gala are available at camroselive.com.