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Arctic/Amazon

SEPTEMBER 19-20, 2019​

ABOUT

Arctic/Amazon symposium is co-hosted by the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD U) and the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in September 2019. The purpose of this event is to gather established and emerging scholars, curators, and Indigenous artists primarily from North American regions of the Arctic and Amazonian zones to meet person-to-person to exchange ideas, share works, and to develop collaborative strategies that centralize traditional Indigenous knowledges for the survivance and thrivance of Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities amidst tumultuous environmental times. In this 2019 symposium, all of the presenters are Indigenous in order to establish that the overall vision of the Arctic/Amazon project is grounded upon Indigenous ways of knowing and making. At the same time, the symposium honours the significant conceptual and research contributions made by artists to address complex issues regarding climate change, globalized Indigeneity, and political contact zones.
Powerplant

SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE

The two day symposium was meticulously orchestrated to foster interesting conversations from various perspectives amongst the Indigenous communities represented.

SPEAKERS & FACILITATORS

Below are the artists and scholars you will be meeting. Select a profile to learn more about their practise.

Billy Gauthier

Position: Arctic

Born in Happy Valley – Goose Bay, Labrador, Billy Gauthier is an Inuk artist and activist who lives in North West River, NL. He initially began to carve in 1996 and was inspired by his cousin, John Terriak, another skilled Nunatsiavummiuk sculptor, to create further works.

Gauthier creates intricately detailed, mixed-media sculptures with various materials, such as stone, bone, antler, ivory, sinew and baleen (whalebone). His work often depicts traditional Inuit practices, cosmologies, spirituality and personal memories. Gauthier’s carvings also address contemporary challenges that many Inuit families and communities experience across Inuit Nunangat, such as food insecurity, substance abuse, the impacts of environmental degradation and concern for the environment and wildlife. The undated Narwhal Hunt exemplifies the artist’s practice. Created with anhydrite, serpentine, whalebone, sinew, labradorite, caribou antler and moose antler, it features a number of diminutive hunters amongst a swirling, light grey mass of sculpted waves and walruses. Narwhal Hunt highlights traditional hunting practices as well as the importance of the walrus as a food source for many communities across the North.

His inaugural solo exhibition — Billy Gauthier: Visions From Labrador — was featured at Spirit Wrestler Gallery in Vancouver, BC in 2010. Gauthier’s work was also included in the touring exhibition SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut from 2017 to 2019, with his first-mid career retrospective — Saunituinnaulungitotluni | Beyond Bone — presented at The Rooms in St. John’s, NL in summer 2019.

Gauthier is also an activist as well as an environmental advocate and activist. In October 2016, he participated in a thirteen-day hunger strike with other members of his community, Delilah Saunders and Jerry Kohlmeister, to protest the flooding of the reservoir at Muskrat Falls, which posed a risk of contaminating the Churchill River with methylmercury and could flow downstream impacting many Inuit families. The strike ended on October 26, 2016, when an agreement was made between Gauthier, Saunders, Kohlmeister and Premier Dwight Ball. 

Gauthier’s work has been exhibited at various art galleries across Canada, including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax, NS, the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Manitoba, and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, ON, among many others. In 2009, Gauthier’s work was featured on the cover of the Inuit Art Quarterly and in 2011, he received the Newfoundland and Labrador Art Council’s “Emerging Artist of the Year.” He also served as a member of the Inuit Art Foundation’s Board of Directors from 2015-2017.

Billy Gauthier

Arctic

Born in Happy Valley – Goose Bay, Labrador, Billy Gauthier...

Denilson Baniwa

Denilson Baniwa

Position: Amazonian

Denilson Baniwa was born in Mariuá, Rio Negro, Amazonas. He is from the Baniwa people that live in the High Black River, Amazonas. His trajectory as an artist began in his childhood from the cultural knowledge of his people. In his youth, Baniwa began his contemporary career and consolidated himself as a cultural educator, breaking paradigms and opening paths for indigenous rights in their traditional territories. Baniwa’s works express his experience as an indigenous being living in the present, mixing traditional and contemporary Indigenous references and incorporating Western icons to communicate the thought and struggle of native people, using various languages and media, such as canvas, installations, digital media and performance works. His works have been presented in groups shows such as “Dja Guata Porã – Amazonia no MAR” (MAR, RJ, Brazil, 2017) as well as in a solo exhibition, “Terra Brasillis: o agro não é pop” (2018). He is the founder of Radio Yandê, Brazil’s first all indigenous radio. Baniwa currently resides in Rio de Janeiro.

Denilson Baniwa

Amazonian

Denilson Baniwa was born in Mariuá, Rio Negro, Amazonas. He...

Heather Igloliorte

Dr. Heather Igloliorte

Position: Arctic

Dr. Heather Igloliorte is the University Research Chair in Indigenous Circumpolar Arts at Concordia University in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal, where she also leads the Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership SSHRC Partnership Grant and Co-Directs the Initiative for Indigenous Futures Cluster (IIF) in the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology with Professor Jason Edward Lewis. Igloliorte has been a curator for fourteen years; she currently has three exhibitions touring across Canada and is working on the inaugural exhibition of the Inuit Art Centre opening in Winnipeg in 2020. Igloliorte also serves as the Co-Chair of the Indigenous Circle for the Winnipeg Art Gallery; on the Board of Directors for North America’s largest Indigenous art historical association, the Native North American Art Studies Association; is Vice-President of the Board of the Inuit Art Foundation; and sits on the Faculty Council of the Otsego Institute for Native American Art History at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, among others.

Dr. Heather Igloliorte

Arctic

Dr. Heather Igloliorte is the University Research Chair in Indigenous...

Emerson Munduruku

Emerson Munduruku

Position: Amazonian

Emerson Munduruku is a visual artist and a biologist, with a Master’s degree in Ecology. He was Born in Santarém, (Pará State) and currently lives in Manaus (Amazonas, Brazil). Munduruku has published articles on animal behaviour, ethnozoology and climate change induced by species extinction. He teaches environmental and scientific education in formal institutions and informal settings. Munduruku has been developing a performance practice for the past four years, designing his own body make-up and costumes, which are inspired by Amazonian myths. In performance, he becomes the archetypal persona, Uýra Sodoma, a metaphysical being born from using organic elements that channel expressions of deep Amazonia in symbols, process and emotions. The aesthetic composition of his work in make-up characterization and costumes, allied with traditional dance moves, is manifested into a physical presentation of the enchanted beings, in celebration of the biodiversity and the peoples from the Amazon.

Emerson Munduruku

Amazonian

Emerson Munduruku is a visual artist and a biologist, with...

Emilie Monnet

Émilie Monnet

Position: Artistic Collaborator

At the intersection of theatre, performance and media arts, Émilie Monnet’s practice centres on questions of identity, memory, history and transformation. Her works privilege collaborative processes of creation and are typically presented as interdisciplinary theatre or immersive performance experiences. She is the artist-in-residence at Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui until 2021. In 2016, she created Indigenous Contemporary Scene, a platform for the presentation of live arts and exchanges between Indigenous artists. ICS’s upcoming edition will take place in Edinburgh, Scotland, next August. Monnet was raised in the Outaouais, Quebec, and lives in Tiohtià:ke / Mooniyaang / Montréal.The performance installation This Time Will Be Different, her newest work co-created with choreographer Lara Kramer, was launched at FTA in June 2019. onishka.org

Émilie Monnet

Artistic Collaborator

At the intersection of theatre, performance and media arts, Émilie...

Floyd P. Favel

Position: Facilitator

Floyd P. Favel is from the Poundmaker Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. He studied theatre in Denmark and Italy, and has travelled the world in his research into Indigenous theatre methods. Favel works as a playwright, director and journalist,  and he is also the Curator of the Chief Poundmaker Museum and Gallery. His work has been published nationally and internationally in such journals as Lakota Country Times, Navajo Times, Native Peoples Magazine, The Globe and Mail, Lancement du Livre FTA, Terres du Jeux-Les Editions de la, and Canadian Theatre Review, as well as working with publishers including Coteau Books, Isuma Publishing and Playwrights Canada Press. Recently some of Favel’s essays were translated into Polish and published in Opcje, and a collection of his essays are is currently being translated into Polish.

Floyd P. Favel

Facilitator

Floyd P. Favel is from the Poundmaker Cree Nation in...

Geronimo Inutiq

Position: Arctic

Geronimo Inutiq is an electronic music producer, performer, DJ, multi-media artist, and operator of the Indigene Audio independent tape label.

Starting off as a hip hop producer in Quebec City with seminal Presha Pack crew in the mid-90s, Inutiq started further exploring electronic music production techniques through private research and at Concordia University.

Known for his work as “madeskimo” – and helping innovate a fusion of Inuit throat-singing and drumming with electronic beats – Inutiq has also become recognized for doing video and visual art in the context of museum, galleries, and public exhibits. His work has been presented across Canada and internationally, including the Transmediale Festival in Berlin.

Inutiq has remained socially involved – not just by representing Inuit peoples with his remixes and productions of Inuit traditional sounds and language that he performs – also through sharing his skills and experience in the context of workshops for indigenous community organizations. His work operating the Indigene Audio independent tape label continues to be a creative outlet for Inutiq and his friends from different areas around the world to continue producing independent music projects.
Geronimo Inutiq is an electronic music producer, performer, DJ, multi-media artist, and operator of the Indigene Audio independent tape label.

Starting off as a hip hop producer in Quebec City with seminal Presha Pack crew in the mid-90s, Inutiq started further exploring electronic music production techniques through private research and at Concordia University.

Known for his work as “madeskimo” – and helping innovate a fusion of Inuit throat-singing and drumming with electronic beats – Inutiq has also become recognized for doing video and visual art in the context of museum, galleries, and public exhibits. His work has been presented across Canada and internationally, including the Transmediale Festival in Berlin.

Inutiq has remained socially involved – not just by representing Inuit peoples with his remixes and productions of Inuit traditional sounds and language that he performs – also through sharing his skills and experience in the context of workshops for indigenous community organizations. His work operating the Indigene Audio independent tape label continues to be a creative outlet for Inutiq and his friends from different areas around the world to continue producing independent music projects.

Geronimo Inutiq

Arctic

Geronimo Inutiq is an electronic music producer, performer, DJ, multi-media...

Jaider Esbell

Jaider Esbell

Position: Amazonian

Jaider Esbell is an artist from the Macuxi people, currently living in Boa Vista, Roraima, Brazil. Visual artist, painter, writer, cultural producer and activist, Esbell’s work revolves around human and non-human expressions, forces of the forest, ancestrality, knowledge, memory, dialogues, contemporary plasticity, global politics, local roots, visual shamanism, comunication, and power. He has three published books and his art works have been shown in many exhibitions such as Mira! Contemporary visual arts from indigenous peoples (2013), It Was Amazon (solo, multiple venues 2015-2017). In 2013, Esbell was invited to give lectures at Pitzer college (USA). He has curated several exhibitions in Boa Vista and manages his own gallery for contemporary indigenous arts in this city.

Jaider Esbell

Amazonian

Jaider Esbell is an artist from the Macuxi people, currently...

Jocelyn Piirainen

Position: Arctic

Jocelyn Piirainen is an artist, curator and filmmaker originally from Ikaluktutiak (Cambridge Bay), NU and currently based in Winnipeg, MB. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Carleton University, majoring in Film Studies, and has also attended Algonquin College and the New York Institute of Photography. Piirainen’s educational training has focused on the arts, particularly film and new media, and her current artistic practice primarily involves analog photography. Her written pieces have also been featured in Canadian Art, Canadian Geographic and the Inuit Art Quarterly. She joined the curatorial department at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in March 2019 as the inaugural Assistant Curator of Inuit Art. She described this position by noting that “I hope to continue engaging the Indigenous community here in Winnipeg, as well as sharing the stories and visuals of these works with everyone”1. Piirainen has worked on numerous exhibitions, screenings and arts festivals. As part of the first Indigenous Curatorial Incubator program offered through SAW Video, she co-curated the short film programme “UnMENtionables: Indigenous Masculinities” at the 2015 Asinabka Film & Media Arts Festival in Ottawa, ON. In 2016, Piirainen organized Neon NDN: Indigenous Pop-Art at SAW Gallery in Ottawa, ON, which included works by Tanya Lukin Linklater, Annie Pootoogook (1969—2016), Qavavau Manumie, Shuvinai Ashoona, Nicotye Samayualie and others2. She was a co-curator of the landmark exhibition Tunirrusiangit: Kenojuak Ashevak and Tim Pitsiulak that was featured at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, ON from June 16 to August 12, 2018. Piirainen collaborated with other artists, curators and scholars, such as Koomuatuk (Kuzy) Curley, Taqralik Partridge, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, Georgiana Uhlyarik and Anna Hudson to curate the work of renowned visual artists from Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, Kenojuak Ashevak, CC, RCA (1927—2013) and Tim Pitsiulak (1967—2016). Tunirrusiangit: Kenojuak Ashevak and Tim Pitsiulak was Pitsiulak’s first major retrospective exhibition, and the exhibition was also the first time Inuit art was displayed in the Sam and Ayala Zacks Pavilion, the largest exhibition space at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Piirainen’s latest exhibition, Small Worlds at the Winnipeg Art Gallery includes over 100 miniature carvings created by Inuit artists from across Nunavut between 1950 and 1970.

Jocelyn Piirainen

Arctic

Jocelyn Piirainen is an artist, curator and filmmaker originally from...

Mark Igloliorte

Mark Igloliorte

Position: Arctic

Mark Igloliorte is an Inuk artist born in Corner Brook, Newfoundland with Inuit ancestry from Nunatsiavut, Labrador. His artistic work is primarily painting and drawing.Igloliorte’s work has been featured in several notable national exhibitions including: “SakKijâjuk – Fine Art and Craft from Nunatsiavit, Sanaguagatsiat Mitsugaillu Nunatsavummit” curated by Heather Igloliorte, the “2015 Marion McCain Exhibition of Contemporary Atlantic Canadian Art”, curated by Corinna Ghaznavi, “INUIT ULLUMI: INUIT TODAY: Contemporary Art from TD Bank Group’s Inuit Collection”, “Northern Exposure”, curated by Dianne O’Neill, “Beat Nation”, curated by Kathleen Ritter and Tania Willard, “Le Nouveau Pleinairisme” curated by Kitty Scott, Joanne Sloan and Pierre Dorion, “The Phoenix Art-The Renewed Life of Contemporary Painting”, curated by: Robert Enright, “Alternation”, curated by Ryan Rice. In addition, Igloliorte has been profiled in features by Canadian Art Magazine and Inuit Art Quarterly. He holds both a Bachelor of Education (Intermediate/Secondary) from Memorial University of Newfoundland and a Bachelor of Fine Art, Major in Fine Art from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and a Master’s of Fine Art, Studio Art – Painting and Drawing from Concordia University School of Graduate Studies. Igloliorte is an Assistant Professor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

Mark Igloliorte

Arctic

Mark Igloliorte is an Inuk artist born in Corner Brook,...

Mathew Nuqingaq

Position: Arctic

Mathew Nuqingaq is a multifaceted artist who works in jewellery, sculpture, performance, and photography. He grew up in Qikiqtarjuaq (Broughton Island) and attended Arctic College in Iqaluit where he now lives and works. Nuqingaq is best known for his jewellery pieces which incorporate traditional Inuit iconography like ulus (women’s knife) and kudliks (oil lamp) executed in non-traditional materials like copper and silver. His work has been shown in major exhibitions across Canada including Our Land: Contemporary Art from the Arctic at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2016–2017, and Floe Edge: Contemporary Art and Collaborations from Nunavut, 2016 presented by AXENÉO7 and the Nunavut Arts & Crafts Association. It also has been featured internationally and in 2019, was included in collaboration with Iqaluit-based designer Victoria Arctic Fashion at Paris Fashion Week. Nuqingaq’s sculptural snow goggles—a contemporary riff on the eyewear traditionally worn by Inuit and Yupik to prevent snow blindness—have been worn by celebrities like Prince Charles and guitarist Joe Satriani. The notion of protecting one’s vision is both literal and metaphorical for Nuqingaq, who has remained dedicated to supporting the vision of the Inuit artistic community throughout his career. In 2007 he founded Aayuraa Studio, a collaborative workspace in Iqaluit for emerging and established artists working in jewellery design. Nuqingaq is co-founder and past chair of the Nunavut Arts & Crafts Association and the current President of the Inuit Art Foundation. In addition to his honours and achievements in the visual arts, Nuqingaq is a talented drum dancer who has performed in international festivals and celebrations around the world. He is a Member of the Order of Canada.

Mathew Nuqingaq

Arctic

Mathew Nuqingaq is a multifaceted artist who works in jewellery,...

Nancy (Niap) Saunders

Niap

Position: Arctic

Niap is an Inuk from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik. In 2014, she made the firm decision to pursue a career in the arts in order to exhibit her works publicly. This decision led her to study visual art in CEGEP and Studio Arts at Concordia University in Montreal. Long before entering into formal art studies, however, at age four, Niap began experimenting with many media, so that now painting and sculpture are integral to her practice.She explores issues related to identity affirmation and traditional Inuit culture while integrating formal aspects of modernity. In this regard, she fuses two worlds: traditional Inuit art with its themes based on the lifestyle and achievements from the past as well as past values and traditional mediums and artistic strategies specific to contemporary art. For Niap, the dissonance experienced in attempting to harmonise these two approaches is creatively fertile. It evokes the reality of many Inuit today who have to compete with modernity while being mindful and respectful of their traditional culture. She is of the conviction that that this fusion of styles will ensure the continuation of Inuit art-making while ensuring its transformation.In addition to her art practice, Niap is a passionate advocate of her community and culture. As a teenager she walked from Duncan, BC to Ottawa, ON to raise awareness for Indigenous youth suicide. Niap is also an avid throat singer and has performed at several public events. Notably, she performed in 2014 at a ceremony in Quebec that recognized throat singing as a form of intangible heritage under the Cultural Heritage Act. In November 2015, Niap participated in her first group exhibition Ullumimut − Between Tradition and Innovation at Montreal’s McClure Gallery. In 2016 she completed a residency at École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris and worked with Adventure Canada as an artist in residence. Niap was the recipient of the 2017–2018 Virginia J. Watt Scholarship awarded by the Inuit Art Foundation. In 2017, she created a permanent mural for the Canadian Museum of Natures’ Canada Goose Arctic Gallery. Her installation ᑲᑕᔾᔭᐅᓯᕙᓪᓛᑦKatajjausivallaat, le rythme bercé (2018), exhibited at OBORO Gallery in Montreal, QC, was acquired by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in the summer of 2018.

Niap

Arctic

Niap is an Inuk from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik. In 2014, she...

Peter Morin

Peter Morin

Position: Facilitator

Peter Morin is a Tahltan Nation artist and curator. Throughout his artistic practice, Morin investigates the impact zones that occur when Indigenous practices collide with Western-settler colonialism. Morin’s artworks are shaped, and reshaped by Tahltan epistemological production and often take on the form of performance interventions. Morin’s practice has spanned twenty years so far, with exhibitions in London, Berlin, Singapore, and New Zealand, as well as across Canada and the United States. In addition to his exhibition history, Morin has curated exhibitions for the Museum of Anthropology, Western Front, Bill Reid Gallery, and Burnaby Art Gallery. He was longlisted for the Brink and Sobey Awards, in 2013 and 2014, respectively. In 2016, Morin received the Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Canadian Mid-Career Artist. He holds a SSHRC grant, Crossing media, Crossing Canada: performing the land we are, which explores the meeting up of media and durational performance. Morin currently holds a tenured appointment in the Faculty of Arts at the Ontario College of Art and Design University in Toronto.

Peter Morin

Facilitator

Peter Morin is a Tahltan Nation artist and curator. Throughout...

Rosi Waikhon

Rosi Waikhon

Position: Amazonian

Rosi Waikhon is Waíkhana, also known as Piratapuia Indigenous people. She is an activist, poet, and former director of FOIRN (The Black River Indigenous organizations Federation). In 2010, she received a scholarship from International Fellowships Program – IFP run by the Ford Foundation. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Social Anthropology Post-Graduate Program at UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina).

Rosi defends the Alto Rio Negro Indigenous Land (Amazonas – Brazil) by developing voluntary community activities in the region and supporting visibility and protection of indigenous rights in the battle for adequate public policies and its implementation. She coordinates the “Water, Land and Forest Movement”, a collective of volunteers that develops activities towards revitalization and bem-viver (wellbeing). This collectives focuses on the importance of traditional indigenous food, conservation and maintenance of traditional practices in managing the forest, native forms of selecting plants and seeds, environment preservation and the promotion of collaborative income generation. These activities follow indigenous methodologies deployed in group walks on the land, campaigns, exhibitions, round tables and workshops to learn by doing.

Rosi Waikhon

Amazonian

Rosi Waikhon is Waíkhana, also known as Piratapuia Indigenous people....

Sonya Kelliher-Combs

Sonya Kelliher-Combs

Position: Arctic

Sonya Kelliher-Combs is an artist of mixed descent: Iñupiaq from the North Slope of Alaska, Athabascan from the Interior, German and Irish. Traditional women’s work has taught her to appreciate the intimacy of intergenerational knowledge and material histories. Personal and cultural symbolism forms the imagery. Symbols speak to history, culture, family and the life of her people. They also speak about abuse, marginalization and the historical and contemporary struggles of Indigenous peoples. Kelliher-Combs lives in a modern world, but still depends on the cultural traditions and values of her people, including respect for land, animals, sea and fellow humans. She strives to create works that carry on these values and address the persistent importance of traditional knowledge.Kelliher-Combs received her BFA from University of Alaska, Fairbanks, MFA from Arizona State University. She is the recipient of the Anchorage Mayors Arts Award, State of Alaska Governor’s Arts Award, Rasmuson Fellowship, Eiteljorg Fellowship, Native Arts and Cultures Fellowship, Joan Mitchell Fellowship and United States Artists Fellowship. Her work can be found in numerous private and public collections including the National Museum of the American Indian, Anchorage Museum, Eiteljorg Museum, British Royal Museum, Institute of American Indian Art Museum of Contemporary Native Art and Alaska State Museum.

Sonya Kelliher-Combs

Arctic

Sonya Kelliher-Combs is an artist of mixed descent: Iñupiaq from...

Suzanne Morissette

Dr. Suzanne Morrissette

Position: Facilitator

Dr. Suzanne Morrissette is a Metis artist, curator, and scholar from Winnipeg. Morrissette holds a PhD in Social and Political Thought at York University. Her visual art research has been included in such recent exhibitions as wnoondwaamin (we hear them) (2016-18) which toured to four venues across Canada. Morrissette’s recent curatorial project, On Being Illiberal, looks to the work of three artists – Carl Beam, Merritt Johnson, and Fallon Simard – who each provide vantage points from which problematize public perception of Indigenous political thought. Morrissette has received numerous grants from provincial and national arts councils to support her artistic and curatorial practices. She has held teaching positions with various universities since 2011, and currently works as Assistant Professor at OCAD University.

Dr. Suzanne Morrissette

Facilitator

Dr. Suzanne Morrissette is a Metis artist, curator, and scholar...

Taqralik Partridge

Position: Arctic

Taqralik Partridge is a multidisciplinary artist and writer originally from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik. Her performance work has been featured at festivals across Canada and in the UK and Scandinavia; and some of her textile and beadwork is currently on tour with the exhibition Among All These Tundras. Taqralik will be a featured artist at the 2020 Sydney Biennial in Australia.

Taqralik Partridge

Arctic

Taqralik Partridge is a multidisciplinary artist and writer originally from Kuujjuaq,...

Waira Nina

Waira Nina Jacanamijoy-Mutumbajoy

Position: Amazonian

Waira Nina Jacanamijoy-Mutumbajoy is an Inga performer, sound artist and political director of Inga nationality (Caquetá, Colombia). She was born in Yurayaco, Caqueta, Colombia where she grew up in the ambiwaska traditional ceremonies guided by both her maternal and paternal grandfathers taitas. Her works share her visions on ancestral territory and extractivism, Amazonian sounds, the recent peace treaty in Colombia, violence, women’s and comunity empowerment. She carries deep knowledge of traditional musical instruments such as the cascabel, the quena and the dulzaina and loves creating sound choreographies which draw from Inga culture. Her spiritual and artistic inspirations come from the sounds of the river, the forest and ceremonies. Jacanamijoy-Mutumbajoy has extensive background in pedagogy and leadership and political participation of Amazonian Indigenous women. She has written (La Vida es una Pinta/Life is but a Vision), a book of stories which will be published in Spanish, English and Ingana. She has created experimental sound art pieces for the Amazon Intercultural Radios Network and has participated in artistic residencies and sound laboratories such as in Iquitos, Peru and has participated in festivals in Colombia, Chile and Canada.

Waira Nina Jacanamijoy-Mutumbajoy

Amazonian

Waira Nina Jacanamijoy-Mutumbajoy is an Inga performer, sound artist and...

Yube Huni Kuin

Yube Huni Kuin

Position: Amazonian

Born in 1983, Yube is Huni Kuin and lives at the indigenous land Praia do Carapanã, Mibayã village, at Tarauacá River, Acre.

He is an Agroforestry Agent graduated by the Comissão Pró-Índio do Acre, he participated in six Vídeos nas Aldeias workshops and coordinated the Ponto de Cultura. Yube uses documentary-cinema to narrate stories about his people origin, culture and daily life.

He has produced nine awarded movies, including “Xinã Bena, novos tempos – new time ” (2006), where the Huni Kuin São Joaquim villages’ leaders remember times of captivity and celebrate the land demarcation and rebound to their traditions; “Já me transformei em imagem – I’ve already transformed myself in images” (2008), where the producers and characters commented on the Huni Kuin history; and “Kene Yuxi. As voltas do kene – Kene’s comeback” (2010), a movie about the Huni Kuin’s graphism or “kene”, based on a research made by Yube’s father, Joaquim Maná, and on his mother’s, Maria Carlos Huni Kuin, knowledge

Yube was a professor at the Formação Transversal em Saberes Tradicionais – Traditional Knowledge’ transversal training, at the UFMG – Minas Gerais Federal University – teaching the O livro vivo Huni Kuin: narrativas, plantas e imagens class (The living Huni Kuin book: narratives, plats, and images). He also was an special advisor of Indigenous People at the Acre’s state government during 2010 and 2018. Nowadays he is vice-president of the Huni Kuin federation (FEPHAC).


Nascido em 1983, Yube é Huni Kuin e vive na Terra Indígena Praia do Carapanã, aldeia Mibayã, no rio Tarauacá, Acre.

Agente agroflorestal formado pela Comissão Pró-Índio do Acre, já participou de seis oficinas do Vídeo nas Aldeias, foi coordenador do Ponto de Cultura neste programa. Yube utiliza o cinema-documentário para narrar as histórias sobre a origem de seu povo, a sua cultura e o cotidiano nas aldeias.

Tem nove filmes produzidos e premiados em vários festivais, incluindo “Xinã Bena, novos tempos” (2006), onde as lideranças da aldeia Huni Kuin São Joaquim relembram os tempos do cativeiro e celebram a terra demarcada e a retomada das tradições; “Já me transformei em imagem” (2008), que traz comentários sobre a história dos Huni Kuin, feitos pelos realizadores do filme e seus personagens; e “Kene Yuxi. As voltas do kene” (2010), que trata dos grafismos ou kene do povo Huni Kuin a partir de uma pesquisa realizada pelo pai de Yube, Joaquim Maná, e dos conhecimentos de sua mãe, Maria Carlos Huni Kuin.

Yoube foi professor na Formação Transversal em Saberes Tradicionais da UFMG em 2015, na disciplina O livro vivo Huni-Kuin: narrativas, plantas e imagens. Também foi assessor especial dos Povos Indígenas do governo do Estado do Acre entre 2010 e 2018 e hoje é vice presidente da federação do povo hunikuin FEPHAC.

http://www.videonasaldeias.org.br/2009/realizadores.php?c=52

Yube Huni Kuin

Amazonian

Born in 1983, Yube is Huni Kuin and lives at...

WAPATAH & TEAM CONTRIBUTORS

Dr. Gerald McMaster

Position: Director, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair
Email: gmcmaster@faculty.ocadu.ca

Dr. McMaster has over 30 years international work and expertise in contemporary art, critical theory, museology and Indigenous aesthetics. His experience as an artist and curator in art and ethnology museums researching and collecting art, as well as producing exhibitions has given him a thorough understanding of transnational Indigenous visual culture and curatorial practice. His early interests concerned the ways in which culturally sensitive objects were displayed in ethnology museums, as well as the lack of representation of Indigenous artists in art museums.

As a practicing artist, he offered a way of staging hitherto decontextualized objects different from the traditional formats favoured by exhibition designers trained in Western traditions; instead, his was an approach that rested on Indigenous epistemologies. These early stages in developing an –Indigenous visuality led him to study concepts in visual, experiential and spatial composition. His exhibition Savage Graces (1992) challenged long held views, and played a major role in breaking down conventional barriers around where art should be practiced, while also demonstrating that art is not tied to ethnicity.

As a curator, he focused on advancing the intellectual landscape for Indigenous curatorship through the foundational concept of voice. He curated, for example, an exhibition called Indigena (1992) that brought together unfiltered Indigenous voices for the first time. Until then, non-Indigenous scholars had dominated discussions of Indigenous art, history and culture. McMaster made the point that Indigenous artists and writers were more than capable of representing themselves in articulate, eloquent ways.

Over the past 20 years, he has continued to refine the idea of voice, leading him to ask: How can Indigenous voices continue providing new perspectives on well-researched subjects such as art, history and anthropology? Throughout his career, his championing of the mainstream value of Indigenous art, among other things, has led to his being chosen to represent Canada at a number of prestigious international events. These include his serving as Canadian Commissioner for the 1995 Venice Biennale, and as artistic director of the 2012 Biennale of Sydney, and curator for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. 

Dr. Gerald McMaster

Director, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair

Dr. McMaster has over 30 years international work and expertise...

Dr. Brendan Griebel

Position: Alumni

Brendan Griebel is a researcher and curator of Inuit material culture, focused on the intricate relationships that exist between history, materiality, and collective identity. He specializes in facilitating the documentation of community knowledge surrounding the making, use and interpretation of cultural objects ranging from archaeological artifacts and traditional technologies, to architecture, museum collections, and digital media. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Toronto, and has spent over a decade engaged in land-based and experiential research with Inuit scholars and knowledge holders throughout the Canadian Arctic. Brendan is a long-term collaborator with Nunavut’s Pitquhirnikkut Ilihautiniq (Kitikmeot Heritage Society), and a member of Carleton University’s Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre. He is also the Co-Founder and Director of The Museum of Fear and Wonder, an Alberta-based institution dedicated to the emotional and psychological properties of objects.

Dr. Brendan Griebel

Alumni

Brendan Griebel is a researcher and curator of Inuit material culture, focused...

Team Member Nina
Team Member Nina

Nina Vincent

Position: Alumni

Nina Vincent is a Brazilian anthropologist, researcher, professor, independent curator and currently works at the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN), where she works close to communities to preserve intangible heritage and Brazilian popular/traditional culture.

Bachelor in Social Sciences at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) with exchange period at Université Paris X – Nanterre, France. She has a master degree and a PhD in Anthropology at the same institution. In 2021 she held the thesis called “ART, INDIGENOUS LAND. Paths and relations of Indigenous Contemporary Arts between worlds” (2021) addressing the emergence of a contemporary indigenous art scene in Brazil over the past decade.

Author of “Paris, Maori. The museum and its others” (2015) her Master’s dissertation published by Garamond through the Social Sciences National Association (ANPOCS) best dissertation prize granted to her in 2013. The book analyzes the visuality and curatorial proposition of some exhibitions held at the Musée Du Quai Branly, specially one curated by the Maori, indigenous people from New Zealand, exploring relations between colonialism, primitivism, arts, cultural representation, aesthetic regimes, material culture and the agency of objects.

In 2016 was the recipient of the Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program scholarship that brought her to work at Wapatah/OCAD U on the Arctic Amazon project coordinated by Gerald McMaster.
She was research assistant to the collective exhibition On the path of glass beads organized by Els Lagrou at Museu do Índio, Brazil.
Has taught Anthropology of Art, Indigenous and Afrobrazillian Arts at the Art School (EBA)of UFRJ (2014) and offered workshops and classes on Anthropology, Art, and Curatorial issues at other academic and artistic institution.

She was assistant editor to the publication “Brazilian Culture Today”, from Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa, Brazil, a compilation of lectures by Brazilian contemporary artists from all fields.

Nina Vincent

Alumni

Nina Vincent is a Brazilian anthropologist, researcher, professor, independent curator...

Brittany Bergin

Position: Research Assistant

Brittany Pitseolak Bergin is a research assistant at Wapatah Centre, OCAD University. Raised in Southern Ontario, her family is from Kinngait, Cape Dorset. Inspired by the artists in her family and community, including her great-grandmother and namesake Pitseolak Ashoona, Brittany’s focus at Wapatah is centred in community engagement as she continues to support major projects and outreach initiatives. Her work has been integral to the success of projects such as the Virtual Platform for Indigenous Art, Arctic/Amazon Symposium, Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity exhibition and publication, and Indigenizing the (Art) Museum Virtual Series. Her most recent conferences include the Frontend Conference (Munich) and Inuit Studies Conference (Montreal). 

Brittany Bergin

Research Assistant

Brittany Pitseolak Bergin is a research assistant at Wapatah Centre,...

Mariah Meawasige

Position: Research Assistant

Mariah (Makoose) is an Anishinaabe/settler and creative from the northern shores of Lake Huron. Her practice specializes in graphic design but questions the bounds of communication through illustration, sculpture, video, and performance. She created the logo for the Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge and is currently working on the centre’s visual identity. Through her love of stories and storytelling, Mariah’s body of work aims to explore temporalities and place, map memories, and build relationships.

Mariah Meawasige

Research Assistant

Mariah (Makoose) is an Anishinaabe/settler and creative from the northern...

Dr. Ayumi Goto

Position: Alumni

Ayumi Goto is a performance apprentice, currently based in Toronto, traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Huron-Wendat, Anishinaabe, and Missisaugas of the New Credit First Nations. Born in Canada, she at times draws upon her Japanese heritage and language to creatively reconsider sentiments surrounding national culturalism, migrations, activist strategies, and land-human relations. Ayumi has made performative interventions in London, Berlin, Kyoto, and across this land presently called Canada. Alongside Peter Morin and Stephen Foster, she is a founding member of the O k’inādās Collective, which most recently facilitated a Canada Council funded six-week artist residency on Syilx territory in July 2016, to facilitate creative collaborations between Indigenous artists and artists of colour.
Ayumi has recently completed a Ph.D. in Communication Studies at Simon Fraser University, and is working as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Ontario College of Art and Design University with Gerald McMaster. The recipient of the SFU President’s Scholarship and SSHRC funding, her doctoral research examines building relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities through performative engagement, presenting the notion that collective responsibility and reconciliation are practice-based. Her academic and creative works are deeply influenced by Roy Miki, Shirley Bear, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Adrian Stimson, and Peter Morin.

Dr. Ayumi Goto

Alumni

Ayumi Goto is a performance apprentice, currently based in Toronto,...

Jevi Peters

Position: Alumni

Jevi is a Business Informatics B.ASc. McMaster University graduate, and studied Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (Prof. Certification) at MIT. She has worked in the IT industry over the years as an Analyst, an Ethical Hacker, Software Programmer, Research Assistant and DevOps Engineer. Hailed from a family of scribophiles, she enjoys photography, poetry and prose, and completed the study of Art & Design at the GBC School of Design graduating with honours, and Digital Media at OCAD University. Jevi is currently pursuing a Masters of Fine Art in Digital Futures at OCAD University. At Wapatah, she worked on the graphic design and development of the digital and print promotional material, including posters, newsletters, flyers, business cards, website development, and event management. (jevi.me)

Jevi Peters

Alumni

Jevi is a Business Informatics B.ASc. McMaster University graduate, and...

Bryan Winters

Position: Alumni

Bryan Winters ​is a Nunatsiavut beneficiary from Happy Valley – Goose Bay, Labrador. He attended Saint Mary’s University in Halifax prior to completing the Electronics Engineering Technician Program at the Nova Scotia Community College Waterfront campus in Dartmouth, NS. This led to a career as an Electronics Maintenance Technician on the North Warning System (NWS).
After leaving the NWS, he spent time managing credit card processing accounts as a Relationship Manager for Sekure Merchants in Montreal before moving to Toronto where he was the program coordinator of the Igloo Tag Trademark Program at the Inuit Art Foundation. He is currently the Executive Director of the Toronto Inuit Association and is studying Indigenous Public Administration and Governance through First Nations Technical Institute in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory and Ryerson University in Toronto.

Bryan Winters

Alumni

Bryan Winters ​is a Nunatsiavut beneficiary from Happy Valley –...

Jananda Lima

Position: Research Assistant

Jananda Lima has recently completed a Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCADU. With a background in graphic design, Jananda works in social innovation with marginalized communities through co-design. Her practice also includes exploring possible futures by systemically shifting focus away from entrenched social biases.

Jananda Lima

Research Assistant

Jananda Lima has recently completed a Master of Design in...

Thaís Yumi Horikawa Chaves

Position: Mitacs Intern

Thaís is an undergraduate Translation’s student at Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Brazil. She is currently learning Spanish, French, and German. She is part of a Mitacs’s program, which sponsors students from all over the world to come and research in Canada. Thaís is responsible for translating documents and information for the Wapatah team from Portuguese to English. Back in Brazil, she makes part of a research project involving Brazilian literature and its translation to English speaking countries. And she was also part of a university extension program that was focused on reading and discussing books from marginalized groups or causes.

Thaís Yumi Horikawa Chaves

Mitacs Intern

Thaís is an undergraduate Translation’s student at Universidade Federal da...

The symposium honours the significant conceptual and research contributions made by artists to address complex issues regarding climate change, globalized Indigeneity, and political contact zones"

Arctic/Amazon Symposium 2019

 

Emerson Munduruku
(Santarém/Manaus)

Sonya Kelliher-Combs
(Iñupiaq/Athabasca/Germany/Ireland)

Mark Igloliorte
(Corner Brook/Nunatsiavut)

Jaider Esbell
(Macuxi)

Denilson Baniwa
(Mariuá/Rio de Janeiro)

Mathew Nuqingaq
(Qikiqtarjuaq/Iqaluit)

EVENT FAQS

More information on recording, photography and livestreaming will be announced soon.

To purchase or commission an Indigenous work of art, we encourage you to speak directly with the artistes.

In person at the event

Ask us for their contact info

The event will be hosted at The Habourfront Centre in downtown Toronto. See Centre Accessibility for more information on the accessibility options of the facility. There will be whisper and consecutive interpreters in the audience to aid Spanish, English and Portuguese speakers.

Whisper Translations

Guide-dog friendly

Assisted hearing devices

Wheel-chair accessible

Elevator Access

Support Persons

The event ticket is valid for all events on both days. For the break out discussions, we encourage you to select one that you are interested in for both days to reserve your spots. Depending on attendance and registration, we can not guarantee that you will get into your first choice.

Keynote

Large Discussions

Break Out Discussions

Dance Party

Dinner

Underground parking is available directly in front of the gallery and above ground at Queens Quay West and Rees Street. See Parking Locations and Rates. Parking revenues help to support public programming and activities at Harbourfront Centre. All of parking lots have designated accessible parking with availability on a first-arrival basis.

Accessible Parking

Credit Cards Accepted (Lot P2 and P3)

Cash Accepted

AutoShare

Parking Map

Toronto Inuit Association

Copyright 2019 Arctic/Amazon

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