Tantoo Cardinal will be honoured with ACTRA Toronto’s award of excellence, the organization announced Tuesday.

Cardinal will be presented with the prize at the 2015 edition of the ACTRA Awards in Toronto, to be held at The Carlu on Feb. 20, 2015.

Cardinal has appeared in over 100 film and television projects over the course of her 40-year career, including Blackstone, Dances with Wolves, North of 60, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and North of 60. She has won a number of awards for her performances, including a Gemini for North of 60, a Leo Award for Blackstone and an American Indian Film Festival best actress award for Where the River Flows North. Other awards that Cardinal has been honoured with include a Rudy Martin Award for outstanding achievement by a Native American in film, Harvard’s Sun Hill Award for excellence in Native American filmmaking, and the Peter Ustinov Award from the Banff Film Festival.

Cardinal, who is also known for her activism on behalf of Aboriginal Canadians, was inducted into the Order of Canada in 2009 and into Playback’s Film and Television Hall of Fame in 2011. That same year, she was arrested following a protest she participated in with other actors against a proposed extension of the Keystone Pipeline which would have passed through Native territory.

In addition to the award of excellence, ACTRA will present three juried outstanding performance awards at the 2014 gala in the categories of male, female and voice.

Photo credit: Nadya Kwandibens