Wednesday November 30 2022 – 12:00pm to 1:00pm MT
The land is an important foundation for all Indigenous communities. An artist’s connection to place is often critical to the artistic process. In this discussion we will explore what connection to place means for Indigenous artists + creatives, and how everyone can acknowledge the land in their practice. Save the date and join us online!
PANELISTS
Tim Kenny | Master Communicator: Collaborative, Creative, Catalyst
Timothy (Tim) Kenny is a mixed-race, non-status, Indigiqueer man who grew up in Edmonton’s community housing projects. His maternal Indigenous lineage comes from the Jean Baptiste Gambler #183 First Nation in Calling Lake, Alberta.
Tim is a proud graduate of Mount Royal University (MRU) in Calgary, Alberta —where he received his undergraduate degree in Public Relations (PR), with a Minor in Indigenous studies in Spring 2019. Tim is currently undertaking his master’s studies at University of Calgary, in a land-based interdisciplinary module that specializes in Traditional Blackfoot Ways of Knowing and Being.
In Fall 2015, Tim joined the team at Iiniistii Treaty Arts Society to help birth the launch of REDx Talks: Canada’s First International Indigenous Speakers Series. As the Head of PR, Media and Communications for the organization—he worked to bring the story, heart, ceremony and mandate of REDx Talks into the cultural conversation. In 2016, he also helped bring Indigenous musicians and their craft to the Canadian forefront with his PR and publicity work for Calgary’s JUNOfest Indigenous Showcase.
Since 2016, Tim has worked in Canada’s Federal Public Service and since 2019 he has been employed as a full-time permanent employee. He’s worked on various Indigenous communications initiatives such as National Indigenous Peoples Day campaigns, Indigenous Reads, Words Matter, and the award-winning Protect Our Elders Campaign. In 2020, Tim also did a short stint at the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) Secretariat to work in the funding and engagement unit—related to external contributions for the 2021 MMIWG 2SLGBTQQIA+ National Action Plan.
In early 2021 Tim participated in a discussion panel, along with other Indigenous communicators, for Royal Roads University’s 2nd Annual Conference on Communications Ethics, while also diligently working to make his MRU Library, award-winning, undergraduate thesis publicly available.
Tim is passionate about Indigenous issues including the intersections of gender, race, terminology, art, humanities, culture and identity — and he is proud to lend his voice and continued support to these areas.
Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse | Indigenous Innovator, Storyteller, Wave Maker & Producer
Jodi is Cree and Mohawk from Michel First Nation and the current Executive Director of the Yellowhead Indigenous Education Foundation. She holds a BA from the Faculty of Native Studies and is completing an MSc with the Faculty of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology at the U of A. She also works with the Edmonton Shift Lab, a social innovation lab on anti-racism which has drawn positive attention from across the country, is the founder of Miyo-Pimatisiwin Productions and also the producer and broadcaster of an award-winning Indigenous radio program called Acimowin. She was instrumental in building strong community engagement as the consultation lead to erect the Wahkotowin Lodge, an Indigenous Legal Lodge at the University of Alberta and the first of its kind for any post-secondary institution in Canada. She is co-producing a series called Love Medicine: interviews with Indigenous and non-Indigenous wisdom keepers, elders and inspired individuals whose stories remind us that love is indeed the most powerful of all medicines.
Tarene Thomas | Indigenous Artist & Writer
Tarene Thomas is a Cree, Gitxsan, Tahltan, and Haisla writer from Enoch Cree Nation and the Northwest Coast of B.C. She holds a BA from the University of Alberta, and an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC. Her work examines the world through an Indigenous feminist lens, whilst critiquing the institutions she works inside of. Tarene fuses together the personal and political while telling stories of sadness, joy, rebellion, and refusal.
Lana Whiskeyjack | Multidisciplinary Indigenous Artist and Digital Storyteller
Lana Whiskeyjack is a multidisciplinary treaty iskwew scholartist from Saddle Lake Cree Nation, Treaty Six Territory, Alberta. Guided by her grandmother’s advice, “Go to school, travel, and see as much as you can. Then return home to share what you learned, but do not forget where you came from.” After graduating high school, the young mom moved to Red Deer to attain her Art & Design diploma, then moved to Ottawa with her growing family, attaining B.A. (Honours) and M.A (Canadian Studies) degrees. The story continues with returning to work near her home community and attain her doctorate degree at University nuhelot’įne thaiyots’į nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills (UnBQ) in iyiniw pimâtisiwin kiskeyihtamowin, the first Indigenous owned and operated educational institution in Canada. Prior to 1970, UnBQ operated as Blue Quills Indian Residential School, where two generations of her maternal family attended.
Lana’s research, writing, and art explores the paradoxes of what it means to be nehiyaw (Cree) and iskwew (woman) in a Western culture and society; and, how she and other Indigenous peoples are reclaiming, re-gathering, and remembering their ancestral medicine (sacredness and power). Her art is passionate and expressive, born from the deep roots of her culture, history, and intergenerational relations. Through the examination of sometimes difficult subjects, her art reflects the intrinsic beauty of her interconnections with the earth, nêhiyawêwin (Cree language) and wahkohtowin.
Lana brings her leadership and knowledge in nêhiyaw (Cree) arts-based practices, community-engaged research and scholarship into her role as an assistant professor in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department, Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta. Her decolonizing learning and being at UnBQ grounded within nêhiyaw (Cree) ceremony, nêhiyawêwin (Cree language) and nêhiyaw worldview is foundational to her creativity, research, teaching and community service practices. Her current research projects explores issues re-matriation, (re)connecting to the spirit of nêhiyawêwin; and, nêhiyaw diverse gender worldviews and rites of passage.
Lana is featured in a documentary by Beth Wishart MacKenzie, Lana Gets Her Talk (2017) that explores how she uses art as ceremony in confronting and transcending historical trauma and reconciliation. For more information please see http://pikiskwe-speak.ca/
Nigel Robinson | Curator & Moderator
Nigel is a Denesuline organizer, radio host, and humorist from Cold Lake First Nations. As a former student of Humber College in the Comedy: Writing and Performance program one of Nigels main interests is exploring Indigenous culture through humour. Currently this looks like making memes and practicing stand up comedy. Nigel hosts a radio program called Acimowin on CJSR 88.5.