On Thursday, March 30th, Kendra Greendeer (Ph.D., 2023), then the Paul Mellon Guest Predoctoral Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts presented a shoptalk titled, “(re)EMERGENCE: Performing Indigenous Feminist Futures.”
Abstract: To reclaim Native lands and assert Indigenous femininity, contemporary Indigenous women artists are invoking Rematriation. This woman-led movement of restoration of pre-settler-colonial land ethics foregrounds the significance of the feminine within a process of return that allows for every aspect of Indigenous culture to be restored to pre-settler colonial practices. The land-based multimedia artist Meagan Musseau (L’nu from Elmastukwek, Ktaqmkuk territory) reincorporates pre-settler artistic practices with accessible materials to preserve cultural teachings for the future. This talk explores her work of Rematriation alongside that of other contemporary Native women artists whose art enacts Indigenous placemaking in ways that restructure and reexamine the spaces deemed settler-colonial.