Inspiration, Visonary

The Urban Indigenous Centre, through the TDSB, launched its first magazine in Indigenous Education. The concept of the magazine was inspired by a poem written by Duke called OK KO OK.

“This magazine gives the students at the Urban Indigenous Education Centre an opportunity to express what they feel is O.K. in life and what behaviours should be Knocked Out. Had Indigenous people had an opportunity to share their worldview with the dominant culture since the time of contact, there would be no need for Truth and Reconciliation today.”

The magazine hopes to provide a true depiction of Indigenous Culture.

On Sept. 27, 1830 the Choctaw Nation signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek with representatives of the United States government on behalf of President Andrew Jackson. In his closing speech at his presidential inauguration, he quoted a word that he learned from the Choctaw Nation. All of the chiefs assembled that day at the signing of the treaty, included the word OK after their signature. It’s one of the only pure Indigenous words that has since been introduced into the English language. And like an emoji on your cellphone, has the capacity to contain a lot of information in just two letters.

Elder for the Delegation

Delegates met with MIT scholars to discuss diverse domains as the decolonization of space, to re-imagining Indigenous architecture to the role of community-based governance in the genetic modification of invasive species. Throughout the week of workshops, lab visits and pairings, delegates were matched with relevant labs and researchers across MIT to brainstorm their current works, including art gallery and site-specific installations, a Sundance-backed documentary film, research projects such as Indigenous Protocol-based Artificial Intelligence, and Indigenous-led emergent media laboratories and education programs.

Cultural Knowledge Keeper

YOUNG PEOPLE’S THEATRE is the oldest professional theatre company in Toronto and is a national producer and presenter of theatre for young audiences – the first in North America and the largest of its kind in Canada.

Over the past 56 years YPT has staged many of the most important plays that form the canon of work for youth in our country. YPT continues to develop new work and create partnerships with theatre companies across the country and around the world. But that’s not all. The enriched learning experiences of YPT’s Education & Participation Department provide young people with opportunities to develop their whole being.

Through our workshops in community shelters and agencies, educational initiatives in Toronto classrooms, Drama School programs in four locations throughout the City, and training and apprenticeship opportunities, we place learning at the centre of everything we do. At YPT we strive for a positive and lasting impact on the emotional, social, and intellectual development of young people – giving them the chance to grow into the unique and wonderful people they were born to be.

artist, poet

GROW is a radical online art and horticulture project that seeks to connect creatives and audiences from across the globe in a new and innovative digital R&D process.Connecting artists and academics from Australia, Canada and the UK, GROW is unpacking the tangled history of botany, plant uses and ownership, in an essential and fascinating conversation that we hope will facilitate a reflective, meditative, collaborative act of healing. Watch as seedling creative concepts take root on our interactive online portal, track the creative process and feed into the ideas you’d like to see blossom into fully formed outdoor projects.

Six artists were invited from Australia, Canada and the UK to take part in a mini-fellowship to develop their ideas both individually and collaboratively from seed and to allow other creatives and audiences from around the globe to discover, comment on and interact with the work. The artists taking part in the GROW R&D are Elder Duke Redbird (Canada), Libby Harward (Australia), Katerina Kokkinos-Kennedy (Australia), James Nguyen (Australia), Carl Robertshaw (UK) and Angie Bual (UK).

panel member

Panel: Erica May-Wood & Simon Sharkey (Conference of the Birds), and artists from National Access Arts Centre live in Glasgow. Dr. Duke Redbird, Pawel Pokutycki and participating arts leader virtually from around the globe.

Conference of the Birds is a global, participatory project activating artists and communities in seven countries (led by artists in Canada and Scotland) to travel a path to learning and enlightenment around the crises we currently find ourselves in. As artists who work with community, , we gather to share innovative ways to connect, to create and make sense of the pandemic and climate crises our communities are in.

Guided by Indigenous thought leadership, digital and design thinking, and creative engagement, we - upwards of 200 artists from seven countries – are travelling a hero's journey through the framework of the ancient Sufi poem The Conference of the Birds, ultimately creating nearly 50 pieces of art that will be curated in one overarching interactive narrative.

Artist/POet

In May 2020, Lakeview Community Partners Limited and Artscape launched an artist-based initiative to animate the site at Lakeview Village and provide work for artists during COVID-19 (following safety and health measures set out by the government of Ontario). This opportunity provided over $100,000 in paid work for 19 artists, including 14 muralists, two visual artists, one sculpturist, one painter, and a poet.

These artworks created a canvas for artistic expression along 1,600 linear feet of construction hoarding wrapping the future Lakeview Village Discovery Centre. Located near a field of one million sunflowers, this program created a unique placemaking experience to beautify an active construction site and provide a place for the community to experience and interact with art safely.

A DISH WITH ONE SPOON is a poetic narrative that describes Indigenous life along the waterfront and how the verb based languages of the various stewards of the treaty area, called A Dish With One Spoon, were influenced by Mother Nature and the names were adopted by the GTA. Read the full poem below, or use Google Translate to see Duke’s words in over 100 languages.

Artist, Founder, Creator

WIGWAM CHI-CHEMUNG is a floating ART installation celebrating the enduring Indigenous presence of the Anishinaabe peoples who since time immemorial resided on all the land, waters, lakes and streams in the Toronto Port Lands and surrounding territories. WIGWAM CHI-CHEMUNG can be translated as Pontoon Houseboat in English.

The Toronto waterfront has a long Indigenous tradition of robust use and transcendent human appreciation since long before the present Port Lands Authorities took ownership. Since time immemorial the waterfront was host to sacred ceremonies and community festivals. With offerings the Indigenous people prayed for the sustainability of the lands and waters. It is the intention of WIGWAM CHI-CHEMUNG to encourage the continuation of these demonstrations and celebrations to Mother Earth in solidarity with the dominant society.

The presence of the WIGWAM CHI-CHEMUNG  floating art installation on the waterfront will benefit Canadians and visitors alike. The boat is designed to be a platform for Indigenous elders and artists to share their wisdom.  During the boating season from May until November, WIGWAM CHI-CHEMUNG acts as a floating Interpretive Platform on the waterfront.  

Elder, Advisor, consultant

What began as a short how-it’s-made video on the construction of Collingwood’s Awen’ Gathering Circle, became a documentary about collaboration along the path to reconciliation.

Tom Strnad, one of the filmmakers on the project said the film became more than a behind-the-scenes look at the design and construction of a structure as soon as he began interviews with those involved. Initially, the town wanted a short video showing how the gathering circle was made. As the filmmakers dove into how it was made, both Strnad and the town began to see the story went deeper than laser-cut steel and cleaning up an old landfill.

The Gathering Circle was created with the direct involvement of indigenous architects, and the idea was inspired by a concept Dr. Duke Redbird came up with – to pair seven Ojibwe grandfather teachings with the seven layers of a food forest.