Land InSights recognized

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It was another award-winning night for Terres en Vues/Land InSights on Nov. 17 as the Quebec-based cultural organization earned a Mishtapew Award for the second year in a row.

Last year Land Insights, which works to promote Native culture, was winner of the Mishtapew Award in the Culture category. This year, the organization received the award for Involvement in the French-Speaking Community.

As Andre Dudemaine, director of cultural activities for Land InSights and one of the organization's founders, explained, the name of the award loses something in the translation from French to English.

In French the award is Prix de la Francophonie, "which means more than the French community. It means French countries, actually. Francophonie refers to countries around the world where French is, if not the main, a very important language," he said. Dudemaine believes Land InSights won the award because of its work organizing last year's commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of the Great Peace of Montreal.

"It was signed between 40 nations from all over North America and the King of France, and of course France was involved in the ceremonies. We had the words from President Chirac and so forth," he said. The commemorations also attracted media coverage from all over the world.

The year-long celebration ran from September 2000 to Aug. 4, 2001, the anniversary of the actual treaty signing, which brought to an end a century of war between five Iroquois nations and the French and tribes allied with them.

Although it is the Great Peace commemoration that earned Land InSights this latest Mishtapew Award, the organization is probably best known for its annual First Peoples' Festival, held in Montreal each June. This year's festival will take place June 10 to 22.

Dudemaine described the event as "a multi-disciplinary festival involving art, dance, craft, movies, songs, music, tradition, avant-garde. We have a bit of everything."