NDN and Black folx know all about this so-called non-apocalypse trending on the lips of the hipster arts anthropocene folx, who keep telling us it's sooooo problematic when I call it an apocalypse (probably because they've never experienced one). Colonialism is such a gaslight. Listen: NDN and Black peoples have seen the end of their known ways and the implementation of a sick, extractive alien order that destroyed our intimacy with all Creation. Possibility narratives have been increasingly taken up in academic, lit, and art spaces, but NDN and Black peoples, creators, are the O.G. post-apocalyptic warriors, developing survivalist tendencies of care since the first môniyâw-iyin tried to snuff out our medicines.

 

Creative kinship encapsulates the intimacy, solidarity, and mutual survivance creators find through various forms of collaboration. Groups of artists working and with connections to Tio’tia:ke/Mooniyaang and Kahnawake will participate in a month-long collaborative residency period. The residency period will then culminate in a final exhibition of the work completed. In recognition of lateral and non-hierarchical practices of mentorship, there is no power differentiation between the artists in collaboration—no western art administrative model that puts the administration and the faculty above, and in control of, the artists producing for said institution.

 

gijiit is a curatorial collective based in Montreal and Toronto, concentrated on community-engaged Indigenous art addressing gender, sex, and sexualities. For its first mentorship project, gijiit brings together pockets and constellations of creative kinships in Tio’tia:ke/Mooniyaang (Montreal). Whether it's sneaking one another into studio spaces to share access to resources, making one another food, or spending hours at the hot springs to heal thine own holy temple(s) of creative labor, NDN and Black kin have been helping one another survive creative industries for a minute.

 

Curated by Lindsay Nixon and Adrienne Huard for gijiit.

Exhibitions  

Participating Artists: Dayna Danger Stacy Lee ReCollection Kahnawake Moe Clark Beric Manywounds Adrienne Huard Lindsay Nixon
Curator(s): Lindsay Nixon | Adrienne Huard
Credits: Dayna Danger, Big’Uns (detail), 2017