Welsh has produced, written and directed films for more than 30 years.
In 1977, Welsh's career began as an assistant editor on Allen Kings Who Has Seen the Wind film.[3] Welsh moved to Vancouver Island after working as a film editor in Toronto for ten years.[3] Welsh's 2006 National Film Board of Canada documentary Finding Dawn, about murdered and missing Canadian Aboriginal women, won a Gold Audience Award at the 2006 Amnesty International Film Festival.[4] Other film credits include: Women in the Shadows (directed by Norma Bailey, 1992), Keepers of the Fire (1994), Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle (with Peter C. Campbell, 1997), and The Story of the Coast Salish Knitters (2000).[5]
Welsh worked as an associate professor at the University of Victoria where she taught courses in indigenous women's studies and indigenous cinema, retiring in 2017.[6] Welsh was the first indigenous faculty member in Humanities at the University. In 2016, the University of Victoria made a scholarship in honor of Welsh, Scholarship for Indigenous Gender Studies Students[7]. She is a resident of Saltspring Island.[8][9]
Filmography
Finding Dawn, (2006) Ericksen, Svend-Erik (Producer). [Documentary]. Canada. The National Film Board of Canada.
The Story of the Coast Salish Knitters, (2000) Darling Kovanik, G. & Welsh, C. (Producers). [Documentary]. Canada. Prairie Girl Films and the National Film Board of Canada.
Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle, (1997) Campbell, Peter C & Welsh, C (Producers). Campbell, Peter C & Welsh, C (Directors). [Documentary]. Canada. Gumboot Productions.
Keepers of the Fire, (1994) Herring, I., Johansson, S., Macdonald, J. & Welsh, C. (Producers). [Documentary]. Canada. Omni Film Productions and the National Film Board of Canada.
Women in the Shadows, (1991) Johansson, S. & Welsh, C. (Producers). Bailey, N. (Director). [Documentary]. Canada. Direction Films and the National Film Board of Canada.
Awards
2006, Winner, Amnesty International Film Festival, Gold Audience Award.[10]
2017, Vancouver International Women in Film Festival, Matrix Award in achievement in BC shorts for the film The Thinking Garden.[11]
2009, Women in Film and Television Vancouver, Artistic Achievement Award for filmmaking excellence in telling women’s stories.[12]