Iconic artist Norval Morrisseau to be honoured at 2008 National Aboriginal Achievement Awards

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TORONTO, ON – Anishinabe artist and Canadian icon Norval Morrisseau will posthumously receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s gala presentation to be held at the Sony Centre in Toronto Friday March 7.

“We are honoured to know Mr. Morrisseau before his passing,” said NAAF President and CEO Roberta Jamieson."We are happy that Mr. Morrisseau was able to be with the other Achievement Award recipients in the gallery of the House of Commons when this recognition was announced in November 15, 2007 and to witness a standing ovation from all members of the House of Commons in honour of the 2008 recipients. He also was able to be present at the reception afterwards hosted by the Speaker of the House."

The Achievement Foundation has invited several of Mr. Morrisseau’s family members to be their guests at this year’s awards gala.

“He is one of the greatest painters Canada has ever produced. One day we were looking at the Group of Seven and he commented ‘They paint trees, I paint loons and they connect to the sky,’” said curator Tom Hill, author of the book, Norval Morrisseau and the Emergence of the Image Makers.

A member of The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts since 1970, Norval Morrisseau is the celebrated founder of the Woodland Indian School of Art which revitalized Anishnaabe iconography, traditionally incised on rocks and Midewiwin birchbark scrolls. A self-taught painter, Norval Morrisseau created an innovative visual vocabulary which was initially criticized in the Native community for its disclosure of traditional spiritual knowledge, previously passed down orally. He acquired his knowledge from his grandfather, who taught him about Midewiwin scrolls which provided him with a source of powerful images and meanings.

The 15th National Aboriginal Achievement Awards proudly announces Global Television and APTN as returning exclusive broadcast partners of the 15th annual National Aboriginal Achievement Awards. Both networks are set to broadcast the NAAA Gala ceremony at 8pm ET/PT on Saturday, March 22 on Global and Saturday, April 5 on APTN.

The National Aboriginal Achievement Awards were created in 1994 to celebrate and promote positive role models to Aboriginal youth. The awards are part of the work of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, a charitable organization that encourages and empowers young Aboriginal people in order to advance their educational and career opportunities. Since 1988, the Foundation has provided more than $27-million to more than 7,000 Aboriginal students across the country, with scholarship disbursements reaching almost $3.3-million this year alone.

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Source: NATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS (Go to "Press Room")

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*Photograph of Norval Morrisseau taken September 24th, 1977 - © Graham Bezant "Toronto Star"