Film still from Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics | Image credit: tiff.net Each year the Toronto International Film Festival premieres talented Indigenous filmmakers in different stages of their careers. This year TIFF screens newcomers sharing semi-autobiographical stories about their loved ones, es...
Clockwise from top-right: Zainab at the Centering Race in Gender Advocacy event; Zainab at the Caribbean International Film Festival; headshot of Zainab. “While we see anger and violence in the streets of our country, the real battlefield is inside our bodies. If we are to survive as a country, it is in...
Zainab at the Black Speculative Arts Movement event at University of Toronto | Image source: Zainab Amadahy “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” Audre Lorde As someone of mixed race (including African American, Cherokee an...
Tannis Nielsen has been a part of the Toronto arts community for over twenty years. Her work includes research, teaching, and a range of visual arts. Her art focuses on anti-colonial theory, natural law/Indigenous governance, Indigenous arts activism(s), and the relative investigations of Indigenous sci...
Jim Dumont is an internationally renown Elder, speaker and traditional knowledge keeper, also known as the Gichi A:ya: the Elder of the Elders in the Eastern Doorway of the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge. In 2011, Jim was awarded a Doctorate of Sacred Letters the first of its kind at the University of Sudb...
Demonstrators in Bogota, Colombia, celebrating and paying homage to South America’s Liberator, Simon Bolivar. Protests in that country against unpopular tax reforms began April 28 and have met waves of violent state repression. Photo Credit: Zulu King Che Guerrero. Amid waves of violent state repression...
Newcomer, Black and Indigenous queer rapper Prado is a sharp and fierce voice for Black and Indigenous Women of Colour. She dropped her debut album, Prado Monroe EP, on June 18, 2021, a day just before Juneteenth. “Juneteenth is a day that stands for the emancipation of enslaved black people, the libera...
Silla and Rise | Photo by Tangent Silla and Rise have just released their new single: Pandemonium, a song featured on their third album that will debut later this fall. The group now comprises DJ Rise Ashen and Inuit throat singing trio Cynthia Pitsiulak, Charlotte Qamaniq and newcomer Charlotte Carleto...
Image Source: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada When the news came out about the remains of 215 children being found at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C many people were shocked. It’s tragic that 215 children’s lives were taken away much too soon. This is genocide, plain...
In Anishinaabe culture, it is believed that newly born infants and community Elders are the closest to the spirit world. The process of giving birth carries spiritual teachings, ceremonies, and the power to transform parents, families, and communities. However, oftentimes Indigenous parents face barrier...
