2022 Events

Schedule of Events – 2022

Artist talks are scheduled every Wednesday afternoon, Keynote presentations and Panel Discussions are scheduled throughout the week.

Keynote presenters will be Steven Loft, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Michelle Lavalee, and Tracy Kim Bonneau. Visiting artists Kablusiak, Lisa Myers, Csetkwe Fortier, Charlene Vickers, Carola Jones, Manuel Axel Strain, Terrance Houle, and Meagan Musseau.

Find out more about the keynote presenters and visiting artists for the 2022 program.

Stay tuned for the schedule of events and presentations. 

Throughout May and June:

Artist in residence Manuel Strain exhibition at Alternator artist-run centre in Kelowna. https://www.alternatorcentre.com/events/manuel-strain-we-go-to-the-mountains

Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Keynote Speaker: Cheryl L’Hirondelle

When:  12:00pm – 1:00pm
Where: UBC Campus Administration (ADM) 026

Cheryl L’Hirondelle (Cree/Halfbreed; German/Polish) is an interdisciplinary artist, singer/songwriter and new media curator whose family roots are from Treaty Six: Papaschase First Nation / amiskwaciy wāskahikan (Edmonton) and Kikino Metis Settlement, AB. Her work investigates and articulates a dynamism of nēhiyawin (Cree worldview) in contemporary time-place incorporating Indigenous language(s), music, audio, video, VR, sewn objects, the olfactory, and audience/user participation to create immersive environments towards ‘radical inclusion’ and decolonisation. As a songwriter, L’Hirondelle’s focus is on both sharing nēhiyawēwin (Cree language) and Indigenous and contemporary song-forms and personal narrative songwriting as methodologies toward survivance. Cheryl was part of the historic Minquon Panchayat – a group of Indigenous and artists of colour who radically challenged and changed the artist-run movement in the early 90’s. Since 2008, she has been co-writing songs with incarcerated women, men and detained youth in federal prisons, provincial correctional centres and municipal detention centres. Cheryl was awarded two imagineNATIVE New Media Awards (2005 & 2006), and two Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards (2006 & 2007 as part of M’Girl) and is a recipient the 2021 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Art. She also exhibits, performs and presents nationally and internationally and she is currently a PhD candidate with SMARTlab at University College, Dublin, in Ireland.

Panel: New Materialism: Ookpik and Berry Stained Spoons

When:  2:00pm – 3:00/3:30pm
Where: UBC Campus Administration (ADM) 026

Panel discussion facilitated by Stacey Koosel with participating artists Kablusiak Carpenter and Lisa Myers.

Kablusiak’s soapstone sculptures challenge traditional notions of Inuit art with campy humour and irreverence. Lisa Myers is an Anishinaabe artist whose practice brings us into the kitchen as she explores food sovereignty with berry-dipped wooden spoons. Both artists work within the realm of new materialism with playful, iconic works that etch themselves in the minds of the public, the panel discussion is led by Stacey Koosel

Themes: Sculpture, carving, land-based performance, food sovereignty

Friday, May 20, 2022

BUSH Gallery: medicine garden with Tania Willard and Lisa Myers

Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Keynote Speaker: Michelle Lavalee

When:  12:00pm – 1:00pm
Where: UBC Campus Administration (ADM) 026

Michelle LaVallee is Anishinaabe (Ojibway) and a member of the Neyashiingamiing Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation in Cape Croker, Ontario, and has Canadian Settler heritage of English/Scottish/French descent from her mother. She currently holds the position of Director of Indigenous Ways and Decolonization at the National Gallery of Canada. Previously she was Director of the Indigenous Art Centre at Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (Gatineau, QC), where she was responsible for the development, care, and management of Canada’s oldest and only federal heritage collection devoted to Indigenous art. She worked as part of the Corporate Secretariat management team and led the Art Centre team towards better stabilization with regards to human resources, budget, acquisitions, and collection maintenance. LaVallee was Curator at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan (2007–2017), and has curated exhibitions for galleries including A Space Gallery (Toronto) and Gallery 101 (Ottawa). Her curatorial work has explored the colonial relations that have shaped historical and contemporary culture through exhibitions including: Moving Forward, Never Forgetting (2015); 13 Coyotes: Edward Poitras (2012); Blow Your House In: Vernon Ah Kee (2009); and Miss Chief: Shadow Catcher—Kent Monkman (2008). LaVallee organized the historical and nationally touring exhibition 7: Professional Native Indian Artists Inc. (2013–2016) and award-winning book contextualizing their influential role in contemporary Canadian art history. She has been a chosen participant for a number of Canadian Indigenous Curators Delegations sent to Australia, New Zealand and Venice, and her curatorial work has been recognized by three Saskatchewan Book Awards, and the City of Regina Mayor’s Arts and Business Awards.

Panel: Day-glo sculptures and the art of Snag

When:  2:00pm – 3:00/3:30pm
Where: UBC Campus Administration (ADM) 026

Panel discussion facilitated by Stacey Koosel with participating artists Meagan Musseau and Troy Sebastian.

Meagen Musseau is a L’nu (Mi’kmaw) artist who merges land-based performance with braided day-glo sculptures. Troy Sebastian is a Ktunaxa writer known for his razor-sharp wit and storytelling prowess. An artist and a writer who are both known for their subversive humour and ways of subverting the colonial gaze, the panel discussion is led by Stacey Koosel.

Themes: Sculpture, literature, installation, community, sexuality, and humour.

Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Keynote Speaker: Steven Loft, Vice-President, Indigenous Ways and Decolonization at the National Gallery of Canada

When:  12:00pm – 1:00pm
Where: Online via Zoom.

Steven Loft is Kanien’kehá:ka (also known as Mohawk), turtle clan of the Six Nations of the Grand River, also with Jewish heritage. He has recently been named the inaugural Vice President, Indigenous Ways and Decolonization at the National Gallery of Canada. Previous to this, he was the Director of Strategic Initiatives for Indigenous Arts and Culture and formerly Director of the Creating, Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples program with the Canada Council for the Arts. A curator, scholar, writer and media artist, in 2010 he was named Trudeau National Visiting Fellow at Ryerson University in Toronto. Loft has also held positions as Curator-In-Residence, Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Canada, Director/Curator of the Urban Shaman Gallery (Winnipeg); Aboriginal Curator at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and Producer and Artistic Director of the Native Indian/Inuit Photographers’ Association (Hamilton). He has curated group and solo exhibitions across Canada and internationally; written extensively for magazines, catalogues and arts publications and lectured widely in Canada and internationally. Loft co-edited the books Transference, Technology, Tradition: Aboriginal Media and New Media Art (Banff Centre Press, 2005) and Coded Territories: Indigenous Pathways in New Media (University of Calgary Press, 2014).

Panel: Land as Art: Creative research in land-based materiality and concepts

When:  2:00pm – 3:00/3:30pm
Where: Pre-recorded talk, available via download

Panel discussion facilitated by Tania Willard; co-presentation with NAISA and Dechinta with participating artists Maureen Gruben, Tanya Linklater, and Kablusiak Carpenter.

Indigenous contemporary art practice often highlights relationships to land, territory and home, within more than a context of being place-based Indigenous territory and the ways in which artists draw upon it from the material to the performative and conceptual, these artists discuss the specificity of the North as home, land and territory and draw out these relationships in their work and research. This panel is being co-presented by Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning (https://www.dechinta.ca) and NAISA North ( https://www.dechinta.ca/naisa2022) a program of The Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) is an interdisciplinary, international membership-based organization, comprised of scholars working in the fields of Native American and Indigenous Studies (https://naisa.org/about ).

*This panel will also be available to NAISA North registrants, please note this panel is pre-recorded and will be uploaded via CANVAS to Intensive courses and Milanote for all Intensive participants.

Friday, June 3, 2022

Manuel Axel Strain exhibition located at UBC Okanagan Gallery.

Monday, June 6, 2022
Water is Life – Indigo workshop with Carola Jones and Patricia Derbyshire
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
Keynote Speaker: Tracy Kim Bonneau

When:  12:00pm – 1:00pm
Where: UBC Campus Administration (ADM) 026

Tracey Kim Bonneau is a member of the syilx Nation, born and raised in the unceded traditional territory of her ancestors the syilx -Okanagan. Tracey is a veteran writer and producer who has achieved recognition and awards from The Canadian Association of Broadcasters, American Indian Film Institute, BC Association of Broadcasters and BC Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Foundation of British Columbia (Leo Awards). Her most current works include her documentary series Quest OutWest Wild Food airing on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. As series creator Tracey produced, wrote and hosted 39 ½ hour episodes since 2014. Quest OutWest is scheduled for production, in the spring of 2022 for 13 more episodes. Tracey’s experience in print, radio, television and multimedia digital platforms spans over thirty years of freelance work and media arts project management. In 2018 Tracey joined the IM4 Lab, created by Loretta Todd. Tracey serves as a Matriarch with the IM4 lab in collaboration with Emily Carr University. The IM4 Lab offers free workshops to provide an accessible training forum for Indigenous peoples.IM4 is dedicated to Indigenizing VR/AR/360 by enabling Indigenous communities to find effective ways to incorporate these technologies into educational, cultural, language, artistic, and commercial applications. Aside from her art career, Tracey is employed by a non-profit organization as the Manager of Arts Culture and Adult Higher Learning at En’owkin Centre located in Penticton.

Panel: Givn’r! Embodied Connections

When:  2:00pm – 3:00/3:30pm
Where: UBC Campus Administration (ADM) 026

Panel discussion facilitated by Stacey Koosel with participating artists Terrance Houle, Carola Jones, and Charlene Vickers.

Terrance Houle (Niitsitapi/ Saulteaux) is an interdisciplinary artist who explores colonial and non-colonial histories. Charlene Vickers is an Anishinaabe artist whose painting, sculpture and performance works explore memory, healing and embodied connections to ancestral lands. Carola Jones is an artist of Algonquin Southeastern Woodlands people of color and a knowledge keeper of historical traditional textile practices. All three artists have tackled topics to do with memory and embodied connections to ancestral land, the panel discussion is led by Stacey Koosel.

Themes: Photography, performance, painting, felt, cultural abstraction, analog art practices.

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