News Releases - 2004
Maria Campbell, Richard Tremblay win Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes
Ottawa, May 18, 2004 - Maria Campbell, Métis author, playwright, filmmaker and professor and Richard Tremblay, professor and researcher in the field of child development have been awarded this year’s Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes.
Two Molson Prizes worth $50,000 each are awarded every year to distinguished Canadians, one in the arts and the other in the social sciences or humanities. The prizes recognize the recipients’ outstanding lifetime contribution to the cultural and intellectual life of Canada. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Molson Prizes.
In awarding the Molson Prize in the Arts to Maria Campbell, the jury stated: “For her contribution to Canadian and Aboriginal literature and significant impact on the cultural evolution of Canada, the jury was unanimous in its choice of Maria Campbell for the 2004 Molson Prize in the Arts. The brilliance of her breakthrough memoir, Halfbreed, which changed perceptions of the Métis experience forever, has been followed by other significant work, making a profound contribution to Canadian theatre, film, television and radio. Her status as a teacher, mentor and inspiration to Aboriginal people and all Canadians is unparalleled.”
In awarding the Molson Prize in the Social Sciences and Humanities to Richard Tremblay, the jury wrote: “The jury unanimously selected Professor Richard Tremblay for the 2004 Molson Prize in the Social Sciences and Humanities for his research on the development of violent behavior from early childhood to adulthood and for his contribution to our understanding of education and its role in moral and social development. Considered one of the world’s most accomplished developmental psychologists, his contributions to research on education through the creation of large longitudinal studies on human development have provided stunning insights into the development of violence during early childhood, leading the way for future generations studying human development.”
Established in 1964, the Molson Prizes are funded from the income of an endowment given to the Council by the Molson Foundation and now valued at some $2 million. The Council administers these awards in cooperation with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and, following a nomination process, both laureates are selected by a joint peer jury. The winner of last year’s Molson Prize in the Arts was musician and composer Walter Boudreau, while the Molson Prize in the Social Sciences went to international affairs specialist Janice Gross Stein.
This year’s Molson Prizes were co-chaired by Canada Council Acting Chair Nalini Stewart and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council President Marc Renaud. The jury consisted of Joanne Morrow, Senior Vice-President of Programming, Banff Centre for the Arts (Banff, AB); contemporary visual and media artist Irene Whittome (Montreal, QC); Armand Ruffo, poet and Associate Professor in the Department of English, and former Director of the Centre for Aboriginal, Education, Research and Culture, at Carleton University (Ottawa, ON); James Walker, Professor, Department of History at University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON); Patrick McGrath, Professor, Department of Psychology at Dalhousie University (Halifax, NS); and Céline Saint-Pierre, Directrice du développement, Chaire Fernand-Dumont sur la culture, INRS Urbanisation, Culture et Société (Sainte-Foy, QC).
Representatives of the media are invited to attend the presentation of the Molson Prize in the Arts to Maria Campbell at 12:30 p.m. on May 30th at the Wanuskewin Heritage Park in Saskatoon. The Molson Prize in the Humanities and Social Sciences will be presented to Richard Tremblay during the European Society for Social Pediatrics annual meeting in Montreal in late September.
Maria Campbell
Maria Campbell is one of the first Aboriginal writers, playwrights, theatre producers and filmmakers in Canada. She started her career in 1973 when she published her autobiography, Halfbreed. The book has become a literary classic and continues to be one of the most widely taught texts in Canadian literature. She has also written four children’s books and Stories of the Road Allowance People, which translates oral stories into print.
Maria Campbell’s first professional produced stage play, Flight was the first all-Aboriginal theatre production in Canada. Flight brought modern dance, storytelling and drama together with traditional Aboriginal art practices. She went on to write, direct and produce six other plays, some of which toured in Canada and abroad. From 1985 to 1997 she founded and operated her own film and video production company where she wrote and directed seven documentaries and produced the first weekly Aboriginal television series entitled My Partners, My People.
Awards she has received include a National Aboriginal Achievement Award, Chalmers Award for Best New Play (Jessica), a national Dora Mavor Moore Award for playwrighting and Woman at the Top, City of Saskatoon. She has been also been inducted into the Saskatchewan Theatre Hall of Fame.
Ms Campbell is finishing a M.A. in Native Studies from the University of Saskatchewan, holds three honorary doctorates and has served as writer in residence at libraries and Universities throughout the prairies for two decades. She speaks four languages and is a sought-after guest speaker in Canada, the U.S. and Australia. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan and lives in Gabriel’s Crossing, Saskatchewan.
Richard E. Tremblay
Richard Tremblay is professor of pediatrics, psychiatry, and psychology and Canada Research Chair in Child Development at the Université de Montréal. For the past 20 years he has conducted a program of longitudinal studies on the physical, cognitive, emotional and social development of children from conception to adulthood. One of his major focuses has been the study of the development and prevention of antisocial behaviour.
As founding director of an interdisciplinary research centre funded by three universities (Laval, McGill and Montréal), his main goal is to integrate genetic, environment, brain and behaviour research to understand the socialization process. With partners from across Canada he has recently been funded by Health Canada to create the Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development. The mandate of this centre is to disseminate the best available knowledge on early social and emotional development, especially to policy makers and service providers.
Professor Tremblay is a member of the Sainte Justine Hospital Research Centre, and a Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology, the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Dr. Tremblay is also a member of its new Experienced-Based Brain and Biological Development program. Widely published, he has authored more than 200 articles, 70 chapters and edited 11 books on children’s education and development. His works have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian and French.
General information
The Canada Council for the Arts, in addition to its principal role of promoting and fostering the arts in Canada, administers and awards prizes and fellowships to over 100 artists and scholars annually in the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural and health sciences, and engineering. Among these are the Killam Prizes, the Killam Research Fellowships, the Governor General’s Literary Awards, the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts and the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts.
For more information about these awards, including nomination procedures, contact Janet Riedel Pigott, Acting Director of Endowments and Prizes, at (613) 566-4414, or 1 800 263-5588, ext. 5041, or janet.riedel@canadacouncil.ca or Danielle Sarault, Endowments and Prizes Officer, at (613) 566-4414, or 1 800 263-5588, ext. 4116, or danielle.sarault@canadacouncil.ca.
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Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Public Affairs Division
Andrea Budgell
(613) 944-4347
andrea.budgell@sshrc.ca
Visit our web site at http://www.sshrc.ca/.
Tous les documents du Conseil des Arts du Canada sont offerts en français et en anglais.