CONVENERS
Julieta Paredes Carvajal is an urban Aymara woman and is a poet, singer-songwriter, author, and graffiti-artist. She is a part of Women Creating Community and, together with the Assembly of Communitarian Feminism, created a current of thought and action called Communitarian Feminism, bringing together women throughout the continent.
Skawennati makes art that addresses history, the future, and change. Her new media projects have been widely presented in major exhibitions such as Now? NOW! at Denver’s Biennial of the Americas. Born in Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, she holds a BFA from Concordia University. She co-directs Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures.
Dylan Miner is a Wiisaakodewinini artist, activist, and scholar. He is the author of Creating Aztlán: Chicano Art, Indigenous Sovereignty, and Lowriding Across Turtle Island. His project Anishinaabensag Biimskowebshkigewag (Native Kids Ride Bikes) is on view in Sweden and his solo exhibition Michif–Michin (the people, the medicine) opens Summer 2016 in Vancouver.
Jeneen Frei Njootli is a multidisciplinary artist and academic, and a member of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation based in Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish territory. She is working towards her MFA at The University of British Columbia with a focus on decolonial aesthetics. Her works are in the permanent collections of The Yukon Permanent Art Collection, among others.
Rodrigo Hernández Gómez is a transdisciplinary artist/activist born in the valley of Anahuac, Tenochtitlán/Mexico City, of Nahua family, living in unceded Coast Sailish Territory/Vancouver. He holds an MFA from York University and explores visual and performative epistemic resistance and resurgence. He currently works with cultural organizations and peoples to critique multiculturalism from an urban indigenous, migrant perspective.
Dot Tuer is a writer, curator and cultural historian based in Toronto, Canada, and Corrientes, Argentina. She works on decolonial Canadian and Latin American performance, photography, and new media. She is author of Mining the Media Archive and numerous museum catalogue, book anthology, and journal essays. She is a professor of Visual and Critical Studies at OCAD University.
LOCATIONS
Mon 7/18 – Weds 7/20: H307, Tecnoaulas FEN
Fri 7/22: F13, FAU
DESCRIPTION
The goal of this work group is to explore ideas and expressions of the sovereignty of the body and territorial integrity of indigenous peoples of the Americas in order to question colonial racist patriarchal centricity and assert eccentric community propositions. The focus is on the sovereignty of indigenous bodies and territories because political dissidence is not enough. This focus also builds upon the exchange and dialogue around indigenous sovereignty and aesthetics that began at the Montréal Encuentro. As a group, we will collectively work towards decolonizing the imaginary around bodies, knowledge, knowing, pleasure, aesthetics, as well as to exercise the possibility to dream. We will explore ex-centric processes of depatriarchalization and decolonization in relation to women’s bodies, pleasure, and sexuality. We will explore the interconnection of depatriarchalized and decolonized bodies and territories through different visual and performative media. The work group will conclude with a performance of bodies and territories in which all participants can take part.
