TEMAGAMI - Sandra Laronde of Temagami First Nation has won the 2023 Indspire Award for the Arts.
The Indspire Awards are presented by the Indigenous community as its highest honour for professionals and youth for outstanding career achievement on a national level.
Laronde, who is the executive and artistic director of Red Sky Performance, stated in a press release that she is "proudly Teme-Augama Anishinaabe and grateful to have grown up on a land with such incredible beauty, spirit, and imagination."
She was among 12 recipients of the 2023 Indspire Awards which were celebrated on May 11 in Edmonton, Alberta.
See: Temagami artist receives Order of Ontario
This is the 30th year that the Indspire Awards have been recognizing individuals for outstanding achievements in the arts, business and commerce, culture, heritage and spirituality, education, health, law and justice, public service, sports, and lifetime achievement.
Laronde has been founding arts organizations, including Red Sky Performance, throughout her career. Red Sky, which is a leading company in contemporary Indigenous performance, has won numerous awards.
Laronde also founded Native Women in the Arts, the Temagami Artistic Collective, an Associate Artist Program for next-generation Indigenous leaders, and she was the director of Indigenous Arts at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity for nine years.
She has collaborated with numerous arts and cultural organizations, bringing Red Sky's performances to Venice, Beijing, Vancouver, Toronto, Regina and Winnipeg.
She has also participated in international trade and diplomatic missions.
The Indspire Awards will be aired on APTN, APTN lumi, CBC TV and CBC Gem on Sunday, June 18, at 8 p.m. The ceremony can also be heard on CBC Radio One and the CBC Listen app.
Darlene Wroe, is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with the Temiskaming Speaker. LJI is funded by the Government of Canada.
