SASAH Speakers' Series - Jeff Thomas & Bear Witness
- Jeff Thomas – Photographer and Governor General’s Award Winner
- Bear Witness – DJ Musician, A Tribe Called Red
Jeff Thomas is an urban-based Iroquois, self-taught photo-based storyteller, writer, pubic speaker, and curator, living in Ottawa, Ontario. Jeff has works in major collections in Canada, the United States, and Europe. In 1998, he was awarded the Canada Council’s Duke and Duchess of York Award in Photography, Royal Canadian Academy of Art (2008), and The Karsh Award in photography (2008). He is a recipient of the REVAL Indigenous Art Award (2017), and the Canada Council Governor General Award in the Visual and Digital Arts (2019).
DJ Bear Witness (Ehren Thomas), along with DJ 2oolman (Tim Hill), make up the internationally acclaimed electronic group, A Tribe Called Red (ATCR). The group emerged from an Ottawa club party called, Electric Pow Wow, which began in 2007. ATCR has described its “powwow step” music as “the soundtrack to a contemporary evolution of the powwow.” The group was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize in 2013 and 2017, and has won three Juno Awards, including Breakthrough Group of the Year in 2014, and Group of the Year in 2018.
