Suzi Bekkattla's Profile
Suzi was born in Ile A La Crosse, and raised in St. George's Hill near Buffalo Narrows, Saskatchewan – a Dene Métis village of 150 souls in remote Northern Saskatchewan. Suzi is a status Native Indian and fluently speaks Dene, her mother tongue.
Her great grandfather's Métis Scrip giving him a land claim in exchange for extinguishing his Indian title is held at the Hudson's Bay archives, Journals of Fur Trading, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Suzi pursued Western education at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon and the University of Victoria in British Columbia. She also attended the International Writing School for Aboriginal People at the En’owkin Centre in Penticton, B.C.
Influenced by her parents (both artists who incorporated creativity and design into canoe making, beadwork and sewing), Suzi became a filmmaker to pursue a modern type of storytelling which conveys messages very powerfully. Her goals are to preserve the knowledge, cultures and language of First Nations peoples.
In 2002, Suzi attended the Aboriginal Film and Digital Production at the Native Education Centre in Vancouver. In addition to her filmmaking activities, Suzi has been an Aboriginal Education Enhancement Worker for Vancouver School Board for over 12 years. Her role is to address the multifaceted hurdles to success in education faced by inner city Aboriginal children. She is part counselor, crisis manager, mentor, cultural interpreter and advocate.
Suzi has nurtured the artist in each child through visual, multimedia and storytelling projects. She developed a live ongoing co-op radio program for her students and has produced several successful videos.