Sarah Abbott

Contact Info

Research Interests

• Environment, climate crisis
• Human and nonhuman knowing and rights
• Trees
• Ethics
• Experiences of being
• Ethnographic inquiry
• Community engagement
• Indigenous methodologies, cultures, and knowledge systems
• Decolonization

Sarah Abbott's research, community projects, films, and artist works have focused on experiences of being, human and nonhuman knowing and rights, ethics and the environment for over twenty years. Her film work (documentary, narrative, experimental, and dance) has received national and international attention through film festivals, television broadcasts, awards, and funding. Sarah received the 2012 Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governor’s Arts Award for Arts and Learning, and the 2009 Regina Mayor's Arts and Business Awards for Innovation in recognition of her filmmaking endeavours, innovative teaching, ability to bridge cultures, commitment to empowering people, and passion for communicating hard-hitting issues. Her work has largely focused on Indigenous issues and culture since her film Tide Marks (2004). At the University of Regina, Sarah developed a teaching model wherein film production students work alongside film industry experts on a professionally-run set. She produced two dramatic films through these classes: Out In The Cold (30:00, 2008), inspired by the freezing deaths of Indigenous men, allegedly at the hands of Saskatoon police; and This Time Last Winter (25:00, 2010), which explores violence in young relationships, interracial relationships, and the healing potential of talking circles. Following the Saskatchewan premiere screenings of these films, Sarah held panel discussions on the topics of Indigenous/police relations and violence in young relationships with Regina and Saskatoon police chiefs and local experts participating. From 2005 to 2010, Sarah was the consistent energy that led to the founding of mispon – A Celebration of Indigenous Filmmaking film festival and advocacy collective in Regina. In 2013, she developed a media literacy course for Indigenous youth held at a Regina community centre, Engaging Media and Indigenous Youth. In 2020, Sarah taught the first course in climate change for the Faculty of MAP, Engaging Climate Change: Creativity, Community, Intervention. She will be offering this multidisciplinary course again in Fall 2020.

Sarah is currently completing her doctorate (ABD) in interdisciplinary social sciences at Royal Roads University. Through ethnographic inquiry and Indigenous Research Methodologies, her dissertation research and resulting film aim to understand and share knowledge of the sentience, intelligence and relationality of trees with public and academic audiences. Sarah received a Vanier Canada Scholarship to support her doctoral studies.