"Creator Save the Matriarch": Muraling Young Indigenous Women's Utopias

• In Event: More Than Words: Indigenous Girls, Public Art, and Public Pedagogy

Abstract

1) Objectives: This presentation will: (a) share our experiences, as a group of young urban Indigenous women, allies and scholars, engaging in mural making as a way of speaking back to the violence in our lives; (b) story how we Indigenized public art practices; and (c) explore the impacts of our public art-making.

2) Perspectives: The Young Indigenous Women’s Utopia (YIWU) Girls Group in Treaty Six (traditional homeland of the Métis, also known as Saskatoon) uses culture and arts-based activism to combat gender-based and colonial violence. Drawing on Cree scholar, Shawn Wilson’s (2008) notions of Research as Ceremony, we center Indigenous ways of knowing and doing in our scholarship and activism (Kovach 2009). We are inspired by Unangax̂ scholar Eve Tuck’s desire-based frameworks (2009) and situate this work as part of what Michi Saagig Nishnaabeg scholar Leanne Simpson describes as Indigenous resurgence work.

3) Methods: The girls meet regularly to create cultural productions. Over four years, they have produced films, red ribbon skirts as an act of resistance, an anthology of essays and poetry and contributed to an international girlafesto. As their culminating activity, they wanted to leave a legacy on their city scape. The group partnered with local Métis artist, mural maker and community art facilitator, Michelle Pritchard, to co-design their installation. To prepare, they were also offered star blanket teachings by local activist and artist Gabrielle Lee. Coming together with elders, little sisters, community artists and extended family, YIWU designed, painted and then unveiled a large mural at a public ceremony in downtown Saskatoon.

4) data source: Based on field notes, meeting minutes, recorded zoom conversations, facebook live stream recordings, video interviews and testimonials, we use an autoethnographic and conversational storytelling method to describe our experience and impact.

5) results: The final mural depicts a strong intergenerational family unit, with a Matriarch at its centre, connected by ceremony at dawn. The women featured all stand strong and wear the powerful color red. Together they resist and insist on a safer future that celebrates Indigenous girls’ resilience, diversity, strength, and culture.

Reflecting on the process of visioning, painting and installing the mural, the girls found the process to be healing, exciting and empowering. The aunties and families described their pride and how emotional it was to see the girls’ vision evinced publicly in a community where their voices are so often stifled. Other bystanders reflected on the beauty of the final image that celebrates powerful Indigenous voice. To mark the occasion and honor the girls, they were each wrapped and gifted a hand-made ceremonial star blanket.

6) scholarly significance: Creating public art in community was a way of bringing together multiple generations of Indigenous women to imagine and manifest more hopeful futures. Both the making and sharing of public art have the power to contribute to community healing and reshaping harmful narratives to support the amplification of marginalized voices. Through incorporating traditional teachings and ceremonies, we contribute to the work of resurgence.

Authors

• Jennifer Altenberg, St Marguerite school

• Sarah Flicker, York University