Wapikoni Mobile

Last updated
Wapikoni
Founded2004;19 years ago (2004)
Type Non-profit organization
Headquarters Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Key people
 Manon Barbeau, Council of the Atikamekw Nation and the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Youth Network
Staff
12 (60 contract workers)
Website www.wapikoni.ca OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Wapikoni Mobile is a Canadian non-profit organization based in Montreal, Quebec that hosts educational workshops and film screenings to raise awareness and educate the wider public about Indigenous cultures, issues and rights. [1]

Contents

Each year, an average of 300 youth participate in the workshops creating 50 short films and 30 musical recordings. [2]

Wapikoni Mobile has visited over 29 Indigenous nations in Canada and abroad (including Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Panama, and Finland). [3] [4] The program has produced over 1000 short films [5] and 600 music recordings [3] giving a voice to over 4,000 Indigenous youth.

History

In the early 2000s, filmmaker Manon Barbeau shot a feature-length film with 15 Atikamekw youths from the Wemotaci community in Quebec. [6] [7] Wapikoni is named after one of Barbeau's collaborators on the project, a young woman named Wapikoni Awashish, a young Cree woman who died in a car crash at the age of 20. [7] At the time of her death, Awashish was filming a feature-length film titled "La fin du mapris". [5]

In 2004 during the Montreal First Peoples Festival, filmmaker Barbeau along with the Council of the Atikamekw Nation and the Youth Council First Nations of Quebec and Labrador (currently known as First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Youth Network) founded Wapikoni Mobile and launched the first of the mobile studios that the organization operates today. [8] [9] The National Film Board of Canada was also a founding partner. [10]

A notable participant from the project's inaugural year was Samian, an Algonquin rapper from Pikogan in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, who is now a Wapikoni spokesperson and organizes fundraising concerts for the organization. [11] Other Wapikoni participants have gone on to work at Telefilm Canada as well as the CBC. [12]

In 2011, lost nearly half a million dollars in operating grants from Service Canada. [13] Thanks to a grant from Health Canada's suicide prevention strategy, the organization was able to visit Algonquin territory in October 2011. In 2012, Wapikoni Mobile received a three-year $520,000 grant from the McConnell Foundation. [14]

As of 2012, Wapikoni has two permanent studios: one each in the Kitcisakik and the Wemotaci First Nations communities. [15] In 2014, it hosted an international symposium with the goal of creating RICAA (Réseau International de Création Audiovisuelle Autochtone), a network of Aboriginal production companies. [16] [17] [18]

In 2017, Wapikoni Mobile became an official UNESCO partner to provide consultation services on the expression of Indigenous youth and the issues affecting them. [3]

Wapikoni Mobile employs a dozen people in its offices and 60 contractual field workers (a third are Aboriginal). [2]

Programming

The organization provides mentorship and training in audiovisual creation to Indigenous youth mostly in Canada in the hopes of creating jobs and educational opportunities, countering high rates of suicide, drop-out and addiction. [12] [19]

Participants accompanied by two filmmaker-mentor, an Indigenous assistant filmmaker-mentor, a local youth outreach worker, and a coordinator from the community. [20] Youth are trained on technical aspects of film making with professional equipment. The month-long workshops focus on documentary film making and musical recording, offering participants training in writing and directing, along with other behind the scenes work such as filming, sound recording, and editing. [21] [19]

Each mobile studio is an RV equipped with an editing station, a small sound studio, a projection and screening area, desktops with Final Cut Pro, and HD cameras and microphones to film with. [22] The organization has been credited with providing Aboriginal youth an outlet for expressing themselves, as well as the tools and skills to do so. [22] [23]

The films are screened in their communities of origin and often go on to be screened more widely to non-Aboriginal audiences. [4]

Awards and recognition

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nitaskinan</span> Ancestral homeland of the Atikamekw people of southwestern Quebec, Canada

Indigenous peoples in Quebec total eleven distinct ethnic groups. The one Inuit community and ten First Nations communities number 141,915 people and account for approximately two per cent of the population of Quebec, Canada.

A tribal council is an association of First Nations bands in Canada, generally along regional, ethnic or linguistic lines.

Manon Barbeau is a Québécois filmmaker, director, writer, and co-founder of Wapikoni Mobile, an organisation that helps First Nations youth learn the art of filmmaking. She has been Wapikoni Mobile’s general director since 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atikamekw</span> Cree ethnic group of southwestern Quebec, Canada

The Atikamekw are the Indigenous inhabitants of the subnational country or territory they call Nitaskinan, in the upper Saint-Maurice River valley of Quebec, Canada. Their current population is around 8,000. One of the main communities is Manawan, about 160 kilometres (99 mi) northeast of Montreal. They have a tradition of agriculture as well as fishing, hunting and gathering. They have close traditional ties with the Innu people, who were their historical allies against the Inuit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Obedjiwan</span> First Nations reserve in Quebec, Canada

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wemotaci</span> First Nations reserve in Quebec, Canada

Wemotaci is a First Nations reserve on the north shore of the Saint-Maurice River at the mouth of the Manouane River in the Mauricie region of Quebec, Canada. Together with the Obedjiwan and the Coucoucache Indian Reserve No. 24, it belongs to the Atikamekw First Nation.

Coucoucache was a tiny First Nation reserve, in Cloutier Township, on the north shore of Reservoir Blanc on the Saint-Maurice River in the Mauricie region of Quebec, Canada. It belonged to the Atikamekw First Nation of Wemotaci but had no permanent population in recent decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manawan</span> First Nations reserve in Quebec, Canada

Manawan, officially named communauté Atikamekw de Manawan, is a First Nations reserve on the south-western shores of Lake Métabeskéga in the Lanaudière region of Quebec, Canada. It belongs to the Atikamekw of Manawan band of the Atikamekw Nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samian (rapper)</span> Canadian rapper

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Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette is a Canadian novelist, film director, and screenwriter from Quebec. Her films are known for their "organic, participatory feel." Barbeau-Lavalette is the daughter of filmmaker Manon Barbeau and cinematographer Philippe Lavalette, and the granddaughter of artist Marcel Barbeau.

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The Conseil de la Nation Atikamekw (CNA), officially named Atikamekw Sipi - Conseil de la Nation Atikamekw, is a tribal council in Quebec, Canada. It is composed of the three Atikamekw bands: Manawan, Opitciwan and Wemotaci. Together, the three bands have a total registered population of 7,747 members in 2016. It is headquartered in La Tuque, Quebec. The role of the CNA is to officially represent all Atikamekw Nehirowisiw. In September 2014, the CNA declared its sovereignty on its ancestral territory, the Nitaskinan, covering approximately 80,000 km2.

Jacques Newashish (1958) is a Canadian film actor, filmmaker, painter, and sculptor. Newashish is a member of the Atikamekw nation and is from Wemotaci, Quebec. He was born in La Tuque, Quebec where he learned traditional values and ways of living. His father was a trapper and hunter and the language and culture of the Atikamekw people. Newashish incorporates elements of Atikamekw culture into his artistic practice and is concerned with the preservation of the Atikamekw language and culture in the community.

Kevin Papatie is an indigenous Canadian filmmaker of the Algonquin community of Kitcisakik, located in the Abitibi region of Quebec. Papatie is involved with The Wakiponi Mobile, a mobile media training and production studio that travels to Quebec’s Aboriginal communities offering audio-visual training internships for young First nation people.

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The Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL) is a political organization representing the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador. It represents these First Nations to the Secrétariat aux affaires autochtones du Québec and to the ministry of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs of Canada. The AFNQL is composed of representatives from 43 communities in the Abenaki, Algonquin, Atikamekw, Cree, Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Innu, Huron-Wendat and Naskapi nations, as well as from the Mohawks. The AFNQL does not represent the Inuit or any Inuit community; they are represented by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.

References

  1. ↑ "Ateliers de médiation et de sensibilisation - Wapikoni mobile". www.wapikoni.ca.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Wapikoni Mobile | Art for Social Change". icasc.ca. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Wapikoni Mobile becomes official UNESCO partner". News Wire. 9 November 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  4. 1 2 "Reconciliation on Film: Wapikoni Mobile". 13 December 2015. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  5. 1 2 Perreault, Amanda (2018-08-08). "NetNewsLedger - Wapikoni Mobile Trailer prepares Indigenous youth with empowerment and direction". NetNewsLedger. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  6. ↑ "InformAction - manon-barbeau". www.informactionfilms.com.
  7. 1 2 "History - Wapikoni mobile". www.wapikoni.ca.
  8. ↑ "Manon Barbeau : Le lien à l'autre - Gestion.eValorix". www.gestion.evalorix.com. Archived from the original on 29 September 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  9. ↑ "Welcome - AFNQL". www.fnyouthnetwork.com. Archived from the original on 30 October 2010. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  10. ↑ "Wapikoni Mobile: 10 years of mediation and intervention through audiovisual creation". Canada News Wire. Retrieved 2017-05-16.
  11. ↑ Péloquin, André. "Samian / Wapikoni mobile : L'allégorie de la hache". Voir.ca (in Canadian French). Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  12. 1 2 "Cinéma - Ottawa porte un coup aux jeunes créateurs autochtones". Le Devoir. 18 July 2011.
  13. ↑ "Wapikoni Mobile goes to Lac-Simon, Que". CBC. March 3, 2012. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  14. ↑ "Wapikoni Mobile". McConnell Foundation. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  15. ↑ "The Gazette" (PDF). www.wapikoni.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-18.
  16. ↑ "Symposium international sur la création et la diffusion du cinéma autochtone qu'organise le Wapikoni mobile, 30 juillet au 2 août". cdc-ccd.org. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  17. ↑ "Le Festival du nouveau cinéma souligne le 10e anniversaire de Wapikoni mobile". Le Devoir. 16 October 2014.
  18. ↑ "Quand le cinéma crée des ponts". www.pressegauche.org.
  19. 1 2 "Innovative approach - Wapikoni mobile". www.wapikoni.ca.
  20. ↑ "Wapikoni's 2018 Season Begins". www.newswire.ca. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  21. 1 2 "Wapikoni in short - Wapikoni mobile". www.wapikoni.ca.
  22. 1 2 Beeston, Laura. "Montreal Diary: Wapikoni mobile offers a creative outlet". www.montrealgazette.com.
  23. ↑ [ dead link ]
  24. ↑ "Weekly Indigenous Film Series: A series of short films by Wapikoni Mobile". Faculty of Education. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
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