 He was one of the greatest painters in the country and the winner of all kinds of awards and honors, including the Governor General's Award for Visual and Media Arts and the Order of Canada. He was also one of the founding members of the Indian Group of Seven, one of the first independent Indigenous-run art collectives and cultural advocacy groups in Canada. In 2016, he spoke to Alan Neal, host of All in a Day in Ottawa, about his solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada at the time and about the formation of that group.