Jean-Luc Kanapé

Jean-Luc Kanapé is an Innu activist and actor from Canada, most prominent as a caribou conservationist.^[1] A researcher for the Pessamit Innu Band council, he is involved in efforts to track and monitor the population of caribou in the Pipmuacan region near Pessamit and Baie-Comeau.^[2]

In 2021, he received an emerging leadership award from the First Nations Guardians Gathering, an organization of Indigenous environmentalists and conservationists.^[3]

He had his first acting role in the 2021 film Nouveau Québec,^[4] for which he received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Supporting Performance in a Film at the 11th Canadian Screen Awards in 2023.^[5]

In 2024, he appeared in François Péloquin's film The Thawing of Ice (La fonte des glaces).^[6]

In fall 2024 he launched Sous les barrages (Under the Dams): Tshishe Manikuan, a seven-episode podcast about Innu history, through Ici Radio-Canada.^[7] He won the award for Best Narrative Audio production at the 2025 imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival.^[8]