2023 Inductee
Graduated 1999
Inducted 2023
Jesse Gouchey, a 1999 LTCHS graduate, is a descendant of the Papaschase First Nation, a self-taught, award-winning Cree Métis muralist, painter, animator, filmmaker and Animation Concept Art graduate from Vancouver Film School. He now lives and works on the traditional, ancestral and unceded Coast Salish territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam Nations, commonly known as Vancouver.
Jesse mixes contemporary media with Indigenous culture with a focus on large-scale spray-painted murals and commissioned paintings. Jesse is best-known for bringing wild animals and nature to life through paint, and teaching mural and painting workshops with an Indigenous lens across Western Canada.
Combining mural skills and animation to make a unique style of stop motion, Jesse teamed up with Co-Director Xstine Cook to create a piece entitled, 'Spirit of the Bluebird', which screened at TIFF, Imaginenative, APTN and over 100 film festivals worldwide in 2011 and 2012, and won several awards. This short documentary featured the story of an Aboriginal woman that faced injustice and was murdered in 1999. Jesse’s most recent mural animation, in 2021 and 2022, titled 'Johnny Crow', again with Co-Director Xstine Cook, speaks to historical oppression and racial injustice to Indigenous peoples. The film was circulated at many international film festivals, also taking home several awards.
In June 2023, Jesse and sister Jenna Gouchey formed Miska Creative Society, an Indigenous-led not-for-profit which offers culturally-sensitive art workshops, mural workshops and painting workshops for all ages, with a focus on Indigenous and marginalized communities. Miska meets with groups where they gather to remove barriers for participation. Their workshops offer hands-on career and life education to advance equity for historically disadvantaged and often excluded individuals. In the future, Miska looks to focus on Indigenous culture-based animations, graphic novels, augmented reality murals, and cross-country, on-reserve community mural workshops.
In October of 2022, Jesse celebrated the birth of his daughter, Charlie Gouchey, with overwhelming love and gratitude. Then in January of 2023, Jesse mourned the passing of his father Larry Gouchey, a key source of inspiration in his life. Jesse dedicates this Hall of Fame induction to his daughter and his father.
