Indspire award winners

Four of the 14 Indspire 2013 recipients hail from Saskatchewan. Winston Wuttunee, of Red Pheasant, Eagle Hills, received the Culture, Heritage and Spirituality award. Wuttunee, a renowned Cree entertainer and respected Elder, performs songs that carry messages of cultural pride in order to help his people through difficult situations such as suicide, lost identity and drug and alcohol abuse. Metis Theoren Fleury, born in Oxbow, was the recipient of the Sports award. Fleury’s National Hockey League career spanned 10 years and included stops with the Calgary Flames and New York Rangers. His 2009 autobiography “Playing with Fire” detailed his difficult past and recounted his stories of troubled home life, sexual abuse, the use of drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism and overcoming addiction. Two of the three youth awards went to Saskatchewan products:  Gabrielle Scrimshaw, First Nations recipient from Hatchet Lake, and Graham Kotowich, Metis recipient, from Regina. Scrimshaw graduated from the Edwards School of Business at the University of Saskatchewan in the top five per cent of her class and was chosen as an associate in the Graduate Leadership Program with the Royal Bank of Canada. Kotowich is a professional ballet dancer, who has trained at the National Ballet School and the Royal Ballet School in London, England. A special Indspire Awards gala event will be held on Feb. 15, 2013, at the Sid Buckwold Theatre in Saskatoon.