Paul Seesequasis is a Canadian writer and journalist.[1] He is a member of the Plains Cree First Nation from Saskatchewan.[2] The founder of Aboriginal Voices magazine,[3] he is best known for his three-year social media project of posting images of Indigenous peoples of Canada.[4]
The Indigenous Archival Photo Project was initially inspired by his mother, an Indian residential school survivor who once commented that she wanted to see more stories about the strength and resilience of indigenous communities.[4] With that in mind, he began searching various archives and museums to locate photos of indigenous people, choosing and posting images which conveyed positive and empowering and affirming messages about indigenous community life.[2] In some cases, his posts have led to successful identification of the people depicted in the photographs, whose names were not always recorded in the archives.[5]
In January 2017, Seesequasis signed a deal with the Canadian division of Penguin Random House to publish the photographs in book form.[6] The book, titled Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun, released in October 2019,[7] will include a written component documenting the context of the photographs, the subjects and the photographers.[5]
Paul was a founding editor of Aboriginal Voices, an award-winning magazine founded in 1993, and was an editor at Theytus Press, the longest Indigenous publishing house in Canada.[8] He was also a recipient of the Maclean-Hunter journalism award.[7]
