Christi Belcourt - 2016 Governor General's Innovation Awards Winner
This article was originally written and submitted as part of a Canada 150 Project, the Innovation Storybook, to crowdsource stories of Canadian innovation with partners across Canada. The content has since been migrated to Ingenium’s Channel, a digital hub featuring curated content related to science, technology and innovation.
Christi Belcourt
Christi Belcourt is a Métis visual artist with a deep respect for the traditions and knowledge of er people.
Ms. Belcourt uses cutting-edge applied arts and design and new technologies in an effort to raise awareness and to create momentum toward innovative societal change while respecting traditional protocols and ancestral cultural traditions. Her initiatives relate to a wide range of social issues and she champions forward-looking collaborations that are models of respectful partnerships and principled adaptation of indigenous cultural influence. The majority of her art explores and celebrates the beauty of the natural world. Her work has been commissioned by the Gabriel Dumont Institute, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, the Centre for Traditional Knowledge / Museum of Nature, and the Indian and Inuit Art Collection, and is found in the permanent collections of the Thunder Bay Art Gallery and the First People’s Hall of the Canadian Museum of History. Ms. Belcourt is a past recipient of awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Chalmers Family Fund and the Métis Nation of Ontario.
On May 18, 2016, Ms. Belcourt was one of the first six individuals to receive the inaugural Governor General’s Innovation Awards.
Announced in June 2015, the Governor General’s Innovation Awards inspire Canadians to embrace innovation and to emulate innovative, entrepreneurial risk-takers who have developed new or better ways of creating value and who are having a meaningful impact on our quality of life. For more information, visit https://innovation.gg.ca/.
Transcript
Christi Belcourt uses cutting-edge applied arts and design and new technologies in an effort to raise awareness and to create momentum toward innovative societal change while respecting traditional protocols and ancestral cultural traditions. Watch this video to find out why winning an award isn’t as important to Ms. Belcourt as asking herself “What comes next?”
Governor General's Innovation Awards
Innovation is one of the primary driving forces behind Canada’s prosperity, standard of living and quality of life. While Canadians are some of the world’s most accomplished innovators, we seldom recognize ourselves as such or celebrate our outstanding contributions to our society.
