Tamara Podemski

Tamara Podemski is an Anishnaabe/Ashkenazi multi-disciplinary artist born and raised in Toronto. For the past 30 years she has made a name for herself on stage and screen, amplifying under-represented and marginalized voices. She is passionate about telling authentic stories about Indigenous women, while fighting to correct the colonial narrative pervasive in the film and television industry. Having grandparents who are both Holocaust survivors and residential school survivors, Tamara speaks openly about issues of intergenerational trauma, reconciliation and inherited legacies of oppressed people.

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#ReconcileThis artist statement

I am the granddaughter of two residential school survivors – Tom Anaquod and Sophie McDonald. They met at LeBret Indian Residential School in the Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan. I wrote a song in honour of them called “Brand New Day,” which I performed at the inaugural event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Winnipeg back in 2010. Over a decade later, I’m still singing the song and yet, these past couple years, it seems to resonate now more than ever. Sharing this song with my family and singing it with my son, in particular, inspired me to explore how lyrics – heard or sung through music – can allow people to access complex emotions and ideas and maybe even experience them in a more supported and compassionate way. How can we carry the painful truths of our stories, while also celebrating our own existences in spite of everything? #ReconcileThis