The Children Have to Hear Another Story: Alanis Obomsawin

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"Alanis Obomsawin at Mariposa Rock Festival," 1970

Courtesy York University Libraries, Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, Toronto Telegram fonds, ASC05824

Abenaki filmmaker and activist Alanis Obomsawin was born into a dark period of Indigenous history when options for social and political agency were radically and systemically foreclosed. Despite this, she managed to consistently access public platforms to advance Indigenous concerns and tell Indigenous stories. Her integrity and commitment have made her a revered and beloved figure within Indigenous communities and celebrated in Canada and internationally.

Over the course of five decades, she has created a model of Indigenous cinema that privileges the voices of her subjects and challenges core assumptions of the world system created by colonialism that we all now inhabit and contend with. The Children Have to Hear Another Story reveals how Obomsawin achieved what she did and what it has meant for her to do so. In a survey of the breadth of her lifework from the 1960s to the present, this exhibition demonstrates her remarkable achievements in education, music, documentary cinema and activism that have mobilized Indigenous voices and ideas to transform society.

The Children Have to Hear Another Story: Alanis Obomsawin is made possible by a partnership between Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin; the Art Museum at the University of Toronto; and the Vancouver Art Gallery, in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada, and through the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and CBC/Radio-Canada.