Butterflies in Spirit

Butterflies in Spirit is a Vancouver dance troupe started in 2012 by Lorelei Williams. Their mission is to raise awareness of violence against Aboriginal Women and Girls and the Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women and Girls across Canada.

Perceptions: KC Adams Photo Series

The project, spearheaded by the city’s Urban Shaman Gallery, showcases the work of visual artist KC Adams. With Perception, Adams asked prominent indigenous Winnipeggers to pose for two photos: “I want you to look right into the lens. I’m going to say something. I don’t want you to react. I just want you to think of the words.”

Adams’s art is being displayed “on billboards, in storefronts and in bus shelters. On Jets game nights—those rare nights when the city’s largely white, suburban population floods the downtown—massive images will be projected onto buildings. By fall, financial backers, including the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, hope the project will stretch to the suburbs and the University of Manitoba’s south-end campus. This is just the start. Perception will inaugurate an annual indigenous art project in a city divided along racial lines, which has long struggled with deeply rooted racism.”

URL: http://www.kcadams.net/art/photography/PERCEPTION.html

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/winnipegs-new-art-project-stares-down-racism-in-the-face/

Beat Nation

The Beat Nation –Hip Hop as Indigenous Culture is a project, funded through Heritage Canada’s Gateway Fund. The website focuses on the development of hip-hop within communities of Indigenous youth.

Exhibition: Where are the Children? Healing the Legacy of the Residential Schools

Launched at the National Archives of Canada in 2001, “Where are the Children? Healing the Legacy of the Residential Schools” is an exhibition that has toured all over Canada. As stated on the website, “the exhibition consists of 118 framed archival photographs, text panels, maps, original classroom textbooks and historical government papers selected from nine public and church archives, and depicts the history and legacy of Canada’s Residential School System. Where are the Children? spans over 130 years and contains photographs and documents from the 1880s to present day.”

Rabbit and Bear Paws

Rabbit and Bear Paws is a series of graphic novels developed and created by Chad Solomon, Tanya Leary, and Christopher Meyer. The comical series is set in North America in the 1750s, and is set around the adventures of two brothers named Rabbit and Bear Paws. The graphic novels feature traditional native teachings and humor, which help young Indigenous peoples to explore their roots, and allow a universal non-Indigenous audience to learn from the wisdom and culture of Indigenous peoples, as well as learning about the contributions made by Indigenous peoples to modern society.

VIVA Project

The VIVA project was a five year long, multi-national community arts-based research project that culminated in the publishing of a book entitled ¡VIVA!: Community Arts and Popular Education in America. The project was a collaboration between artists, activists, and educators in Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, the United States, and Canada, and it was predicated on a mutual interest in Freirean popular education and community-based art.

The Halluci Nation

The Halluci Nation (formerly, A Tribe Called Red) is a native DJ/ Producer crew based in Ottawa.

From their Press Kit: “As they enter a new cycle, Bear Witness and Tim “2oolman” Hill of A Tribe Called Red are reintroducing themselves as The Halluci Nation, to reflect the evolution of their music and mission. The Halluci Nation, takes its name from a phrase coined by John Trudell, to describe the vast global community of people who remember at their core what it means to be human. As a visionary artist and activist, Trudell recognized the connection between his accomplishments and what ATCR did intuitively through music and art.”

Walking With Our Sisters

Walking With Our Sisters in a commemorative art installation for missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada. The website states:

It is estimated that 600+ native women in Canada have gone missing or have been murdered in the last 20 years. Many have vanished without a trace with little to no concern paid by the media, the general public or politicians. This is a travesty of justice.

Red Slam Collective

The Red Slam Collective is a Toronto-based “5 member artist collective expressing their creativity through their Okra (story) and their Owena (word) in the spirit of Indigenous oral traditions using contemporary poetry performance through the development of creative writing through visualization, music, and multi-media” (http://rpm.fm/artist/red-slam-collective/).