Kanien’kehá:ka artists Star Horn and Courtney Montour team up on a unique honour to the courageous Kahnawà:ke woman who fought for the rights of First Nations women and children. Mary Two-Axe Earley’s life and legacy celebrated with a Google Canada Doodle on June 28.
PRESS RELEASE
28/06/2021
June 28, 2021 – Toronto – National Film Board of Canada
With June 28 marking the anniversary of the passing of Bill C-31 into Canadian law in 1985, Google Canada is recognizing this historic day with a Google Canada Doodle collaboration by Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) artists Star Horn and Courtney Montour honouring Mary Two-Axe Earley—the subject of Montour’s National Film Board of Canada short documentary Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again.
Doodles are the fun, surprising and sometimes spontaneous changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries and the lives of famous artists, pioneers and scientists. Today’s Google Canada Doodle is visual artist Star Horn’s vibrant and richly symbolic portrait of Two-Axe Earley, a key figure in Canada’s women’s rights movement who fought against sex discrimination in the Indian Act, which had stripped First Nations women of their Indian status if they married non-Indian men. The Doodle links to a Google Canada Blog post about Two-Axe Earley written by filmmaker Montour, which also premieres a making-of video about her new film, currently screening on the festival circuit.
Two-Axe Earley, Horn and Montour are all from the Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Territory in Quebec, situated on the southern shore of the Saint Lawrence River across from Montreal.
Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again is produced by Kat Baulu and Ariel Nasr and executive produced by Annette Clarke for the NFB’s Quebec and Atlantic Studio
More about Mary Two-Axe Earley
- “Mary Two-Axe Earley [October 4, 1911—August 21, 1996] helped lead First Nations women from all over Canada in a movement to demand sex equality for First Nations women and their children, and to have their Indian status restored. After successful legal challenges to Canada’s discriminatory legislation by First Nations women inspired by Mary, amendments have since been made to Indian registration, including Bills C-31 (1985), C-3 (2010) and S-3 (2017). However, full sex equality has not yet been achieved and many cases are still before the courts. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls found sex discrimination in Indian registration to be a root cause of violence against First Nations women. This is why Mary’s life story and the equality movement she inspired are still relevant today.”
Dr. Pamela Palmater, Mi’kmaw Lawyer and Professor
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Related Products
Electronic Press Kit | Synopsis, biographies, images: Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again
Associated Links
Bill C-31
Google Canada Blog Post
Star Horn
Courtney Montour
Dr. Pamela Palmater
French version here | Version française ici.
Media Relations
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About the NFB
The NFB is Canada’s public producer and distributor of award-winning documentaries, auteur animation, interactive stories, and participatory experiences. Since 1968, the NFB has produced over 300 works by First Nations, Métis and Inuit filmmakers—an unparalleled collection that pushes past dominant narratives and provides Indigenous perspectives to Canadian and global audiences. The NFB is implementing an action plan with commitments that include devoting a minimum of 15 percent of overall production spending to Indigenous-led productions and making these works more accessible via Indigenous Cinema, a destination on NFB.ca.