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When the 1995 National Aboriginal Achievement Awards take place at Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre on March 31st, the attention of Canada's native community will be focused on the outstanding non-political achievements made by their peers.
Created in 1993 in recognition of the United Nations' International Year of Indigenous Peoples, the awards ceremony was held for the first time last year. 1994 achievers included singing sensation Susan Aglukark, Haida artist Bill Reid and filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin. Any aboriginal Canadian can be nominated by a Canadian citizen and members of a 21-member jury select 14 recipients (12 plus one lifetime achievement recipient and one youth award).
Mohawk conductor and composer John Kim Bell, from the Kahnawake Reserve near Montreal, is the man behind it all. As founder and chairman of the Canadian Native Arts Foundation which is dedicated to providing arts scholarships for aboriginal youth, the NAAA are Bell's latest undertaking in an impressive list of accomplishments.
Bell, pictured above, is a student of the piano, violin and saxophone and made a name for himself by conducting Broadway musicals in New York City at the age of 18. Conductor of the Toronto Symphony in 1980-81, Bell later co-wrote the first-ever aboriginal ballet, In the Land of the Spirits, which included 20 native ballet dancers.
Before Bell came up with the idea for an awards show, the possibility for a large Canadian commemoration of the U.N. celebration seemed somewhat bleak. "There were not substantive funds identified and nothing was happening on a national basis that would appropriately reflect Canada's tribute," he said. Because of this, the federal government asked Bell to attend a special meeting at the National Arts Centre in May, 1993 to discuss funding projects. Someone asked for...