‘I hope some young Indigenous storytellers are encouraged by this!’: Calgary playwright Tara Beagan wins Governor-General Award

Calgary-based playwrights Tara Beagan (above) was named the winner of the 2025 Governor-General Award for her drama Rise, Red River.

Calgary playwright, actor and director, dramaturg, workshop facilitator and producer Tara Beagan won the Governor-General’s Award for Drama Thursday for her drama Rise, Red River.

The drama was inspired by the grassroots organization Drag the Red, a group that searches for missing Indigenous women, girls and two spirit people in the Red River of Treaty One.

“Told in Anishinaabemowin, English, and French, Tara Beagan’s prophetic play draws a direct connection between the treatment of Indigenous peoples and the abuse inflicted on the land,“ says a synopsis on Strongnation.com.

“Fluid and majestic like the river itself, Rise, Red River is an invocation, a revelation, and a call to action."

Rise, Red River premiered in Winnipeg in March, 2024 in a co-production between Prairie Theatre Exchange, Article 11 and Theatre Cercle Moliere.

Beagan’s drama Honour Beat had its world premiere at Theatre Calgary in 2018 and her drama The Ministry of Grace was produced by Making Treaty 7 in 2023.

“Tara’s voice, her vision, her commitment to truth and storytelling shine so brightly,” said Theatre Calgary artistic director Stafford Arima.

“This is a milestone moment, one richly deserved!”

She also won The Siminovitch Prize in 2020.

Late Thursday, Beagan said in an email to CTV News that she was sitting in the airport in Newfoundland waiting for a flight back to Alberta when she got the news on her phone.

“It is enormously humbling, and bolstering at the same time,” she said. “This year alone I was rejected for two separate project grants by Calgary Arts Development, so this was a much-needed boost.

“Along with the Siminovitch Prize in 2020, this is a major honor - maybe the two biggest in theatre in this country, and I feel very proud to represent my ancestors in this way.

“I hope some young Indigenous storytellers are encouraged by this!”

Other winners

Other Governor-General Award winners included Anishinaabe journalist Kyle Edwards’ novel Small Ceremonies which won for fiction.

Small Ceremonies, which is Edwards’ debut, is a coming-of-age story about Indigenous brothers finding their way in the world.

The Canada Council for the Arts announced the seven winners this morning, each of whom receive $25,000.

The non-fiction winner is Claire Cameron for How to Survive a Bear Attack, in which she draws parallels between a fatal bear attack that captured her attention in 1991 and the rare genetic mutation that led to her cancer diagnosis.

The poetry award goes to Karen Solie for Wellwater, while Jessica Moore’s translation of Uiesh/Somewhere by Joséphine Bacon won the French-to-English translation award.

Tig by Heather Smith won the young people’s text award, while Tonya Simpson and Delreé Dumont won the young people’s illustrated books category for This Land is a Lullaby.

There are separate French-language categories for francophone writing.

With files from The Canadian Press