Poundmaker Cree Nation artist Floyd Favel. (submitted photo/Floyd Favel)

By Angela Brown

Promoting diversity

Poundmaker artist honoured with 2020 Saskatchewan Multicultural Leadership Award

Nov 28, 2020 | 8:58 AM

A local Indigenous artist has just been named the recipient of the 2020 Saskatchewan Multicultural Leadership Award.

The Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan (MCoS) announced Floyd Favel of Poundmaker Cree Nation was selected for the award based on his many years promoting Indigenous cultural and multi-cultural diversity in his works.

Favel is thrilled to be recognized.

“I am very honoured and humbled by this award,” he said. “I’ve always believed in humanistic values that I learned in my home life here.”

Favel is the founder and director of the Poundmaker Indigenous Performance Festival, a multi-cultural event that includes diverse performers and guests, and has an international scope.

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“I’ve always viewed theatre as a global, multi-cultural art,” he said.

He is also the curator of the award-winning Chief Poundmaker Museum.

As well, Favel is an accomplished essayist, journalist, playwright, cultural activist and Cree traditionist.

His essays, inspired by his life’s work, are also being published and translated into the Polish language.

Favel is also an active organizer of cultural and artistic events in his community.

In addition to the MCoS award, Favel will receive a $500 gift that he will donate to a charity of his choice. He said he is giving the funds to the Regina Open Door Society, a non-profit supporting newcomers to Saskatchewan.

MCoS Executive Director Rhonda Rosenberg said some of the initiatives Favel has been involved in include producing theatre in the Plains Cree language, among many other projects.

“Those are all aspects of cultural continuity that are really important,” she said. “We know that they are particularly important for a lot of Indigenous communities.”

The 2020 award recipients were announced in a recent online presentation.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW