Catherine Martin
MEd, Videographer, Aboriginal Women's Leadership

Catherine Martin is an independent producer, director, writer, drummer and the first Mi'kmaw filmmaker from the Atlantic Region as well as a member of the Millbrook First Nation in Truro, Nova Scotia. She has a BA from Dalhousie University in Theatre Arts and a Masters of Education from Mount St. Vincent with a focus on Media Literacy. She has been making award-winning documentaries about her nation since 1989, producing several films with her independently owned company, Matues Productions, and also for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). Catherine Martin is the past Chairperson of the Board of Directors for Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) and served on the board since its inception in 1999; first Co- chair of Dalhousie Indigenous Black and Mi’kmaq Law Program; as well as the past chair of Society for Canadian Artists of Native Ancestry.  She has been part of the development of many of the policies and programs within the Canadian Cultural and Arts Institutions to advance First Nations Artists in their respective disciplines.

Catherine’s recent credits include an on line documentary “Bringing Annie Mae Home”, (NFB 2006  http://www.nfb.ca) producer of the past four Annual Atlantic Aboriginal Entrepreneur Awards Shows, (2005 -2008), CBC award winning animation  “Little Boy Who Lived with Muini’skw” (2004), the NFB film The Spirit of Annie Mae, (2002), which has received many awards in the U.S. and Canada; international award winning SpiritWind, telling the story of a Mi’kmaq Chief Misel Joe and his crew building a birchbark canoe, and retracing an ancestors’ journey from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia by canoe; Mi'kmaq Family: Migmoei Otjiosog ( NFB 1995); Kwa'Nu'Te: Mi'kmaq and Maliseet Artists (NFB 1991), and Shirley Bear: Minqon Minqon, for Five Feminist Minutes (NFB 1990). She works with Nations In A Circle, an Atlantic Aboriginal Arts Organization as the interim director.

In addition to the above documentaries, Catherine and her company have worked with several Mi’kmaq and Maliseet organizations over the years to produce corporate promotional videos which help to tell the story of individual initiatives such as the Mi’kmaq Rights Initiative/ KMK overview 2005, MACS Tourism Study Overview Video; KMK Framework Agreement Video; Bedford Barrens Petroglyphs Overview for Tripartite; MMAYC Youth Gatherings Video; Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN) Public Service Announcements / Social Marketing Campaign 2005 & 2008 among others.

Some of her published works include: Mi’kmaq Music Curriculum for World Music Project ( In Progress) Aboriginal Oral Traditions Contributor/ 2008; Journals of Knud Rasmussen / Contributor/2007; Remembering the Old Mi'kmaq/ Curator/ Writer/ Book 2000; Mi'kmaq Maliseet Nation News/ Regular Contributor; Kelusitek: Mikmaq Anthology / Mt. St. Vincent Healing Our Nations Conference Report / AFATF/1995; Recognition of Being: Reconstructing Native Womanhood by Kim Anderson

Catherine is a lecturer/ teacher of Mi’kmaq and Aboriginal History and Culture at universities and in communities across Canada and US. She has presented at numerous conferences regionally, nationally and internationally for over the past 30 years. Catherine herself has been featured in recent documentaries and television shows such as APTN’s Storytellers In Motion, 2008; Democracy 250 Years / Eastlink 2008; NFB Perspectives Aboriginal Directors Series, NFB 2007.