Boyce Richardson

Early Days

Boyce Richardson was born in the small town of Wyndham, New Zealand, in March 1928. He was raised in the nearby city of Invercargill, on the southern tip of the country’s South Island. He excelled in sports and developed an early love for writing. At 17, Richardson became a proofreader with the local newspaper. He moved to the city’s other newspaper as a reporter, then to a larger paper in Dunedin.

It was there that he met Shirley Norton. They were married in June 1950 and would have four children: Ben, Robert, Thom and Belle. They worked in Australia, then joined a group of volunteers in India, helping a small community recover from violence resulting from the partition of India in 1947.

They moved to England in 1951. Three years later, they moved to Canada. Richardson worked as a reporter in Ontario and Manitoba before settling in Quebec in 1957 with the English-language Montreal Star. From 1960 to 1968, he was the paper’s London correspondent covering Britain and Europe.

The James Bay Hydroelectric Project

In April 1971, Quebec premier Robert Bourassa announced the building of the James Bay Hydroelectric Project. The project would flood the homes and traditional lands of the Cree and Inuit. The Quebec government and Hydro-Québec did not consult the Cree or Inuit about the project. Cree leaders, including Philip Awashish, learned of the project through an article in the Montreal Star. When Cree leaders formed the Cree Regional Authority (now Cree Nation Government) to fight the project through a series of court actions, Richardson wrote detailed reports of the struggle and wider-ranging books and documentaries addressing Indigenous rights across Canada. In 1971, he left the paper to become an independent journalist.

Documentary Films

Boyce Richardson and filmmaker Tony Ianzelo co-directed a National Film Board documentary film entitled Cree Hunters of Mistassini that was released in 1974. Through the stories of three families, it explored the history, way of life and beliefs of the Cree people. It won Canadian and British awards.

Richardson worked on 37 more documentary films for the National Film Board. Many of the films, such as Flooding Job’s Garden (1991), told the story of First Nations’ histories, cultures and fights for rights.

In 1978, Richardson wrote and directed Anthony Mazzocchi Talks about Chemicals and the Workers. It brought attention to the exposure to dangerous chemicals in the workplace and was one of a series of films he made advocating regulatory changes to protect workers.

Richardson wrote the 1984 documentary The Children of Soong Ching Ling. It explored the work done by Soong Ching Ling in China to help orphaned children. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. This was one of six films Richardson worked on addressing issues in China.

Richardson was co-wrote Moving Pictures with Colin Low in 2000. Moving Pictures looked at Low’s collection of etchings and woodcuts that depicted images of war. This was the last film upon which Richardson worked.

Books

Boyce Richardson’s second of seven books was James Bay: The Plot to Drown the North Woods (1972). His third and most successful book was Strangers Devour the Land (1974). It quoted extensively from court proceedings to demonstrate how Indigenous rights were trivialized or ignored by the Quebec and Canadian governments. He added material and had it republished in 1991 to explain how the flooding affected the Cree people and their culture.

Working with the Assembly of First Nations, Richardson edited Drumbeat: Anger and Renewal in Indian Country (1989). His other books were The Future of Canadian Cities (1972), Time to Change: Canada's Place in a World in Crisis (1990), and People of Terra Nullius: Betrayal and Rebirth in Aboriginal Canada (1994).

In 1996, Richardson began posting articles on the internet in what became a regular blog. In the last months of his life, Richardson wrote a blog supporting the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs’ anti-pipeline blockade. He wrote, “Here we are with our many universities and civilized agencies, threatening, and not only threatening, but actually unleashing violence against unarmed people who are defending land that our Supreme Court has recognized as belonging to them.”

Death

Boyce Richardson died in Montreal in March 2020. He was 91. At his 2002 investiture for the Order of Canada it was stated, “He has captured and recorded diverse ways of life on film and in print.... he has taught us that values can be shared and the differences which make us unique become cause for celebration.”

Honours and Awards

• Robert Flaherty Award (Feature Length Film, Documentary in Content) (Cree Hunters of Mistassini) – BAFTA Awards (1975)
• Member, Order of Canada (2002)
• Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee Medal (2002)
• Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012)