Eli Hirtle

Eli Hirtle is a filmmaker, beadworker, and curator of nêhiyaw (Cree) and mixed european ancestry, based on Lekwungen Territory in Victoria, BC, Canada. His maternal nêhiyaw family come from the Bigstone Cree Nation in Wabasca, Alberta. His practice involves making films about Indigenous cultural resurgence and language revitalization, as well as investigating his nêhiyaw identity through beadwork. Current areas of interest are learning how to speak his ancestral language of nêhiyawêwin and mentoring emerging Indigenous curators.

Eli is currently the Director of Programming at the Indigenous Curatorial Collective / Collectif des commissaires autochtones (ICCA). He previously worked at Open Space Arts Society in Victoria as Curator, Indigenous and Contemporary Art. Film projects include RESIST: The Unistoten’s Call to the Land (2013), Voices on the Rise (2016, 2019, 2021), and Lekwungen: Place to Smoke Herring (2018).