Indigenous Mural
(Source: Stef + Ethan)
"The intricate balance of relation, the first meeting between Niap and Olinda, was tenuous,” said McMaster. “The immediate effect of this meeting and eventual creative collaboration was unmistakable in that there was a true understanding of a global network, a connection that a project such as this could realize. By singing their songs, their worlds came into being."
— Dr. Gerald McMaster (Curator)
Meet the curator and artists
Dr. Gerald McMaster is a leading voice nationally and internationally, with over 40 years of experience in contemporary art, critical theory, museology and Indigenous aesthetics. He is a Tier 1 Canadian Research Chair at OCAD University and Director of Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge. In 2022, Dr. Gerald McMasterw was named a recipient of the 2022 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts for his Outstanding Contribution. He is Plains Cree from the Red Pheasant Cree Nation and a citizen of the Siksika Nation.
Niap, also known as Nancy Saunders, is an award-winning multidisciplinary multimedia artist from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik. Currently based in Montreal, Niap’s practice shifts between sculpture, textiles, paintings and photography. Through each medium, she reaffirms her culture by incorporating elements that represent her identity as an Inuk woman.
Olinda Reshijabe Silvano is a Shipibo-Konibo artist from Paoyhan, Peru. Olinda’s woven embroidery textiles and public art feature bold geometric abstractions, known as kené designs. The kené is a network of meaning and complex relations guiding paths, healing, and creating connections between human and more-than-human beings in an animated environment. These maze-like patterns are sacred designs that emerge from singing and experiencing connections between worlds propitiated by shamanism that render the invisible perceptible. Silvano is a symbol of resistance in Cantagallo, Peru, where she relocated to continue the tradition of kené art along with the collective Las Madres Artesanas (the Artisan Mothers).
About Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity
Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity is a multi-phase interdisciplinary project that explores the ways in which Indigenous contemporary artists and collaborators take on issues of climate change, globalized Indigeneity, and contact zones in and about the Arctic and the Amazon during a time of crisis.
Acknowledgements
Support for the mural was made possible by the university, StreetARToronto, a City of Toronto program; Nunavut Community Tourism and Cultural Industries; the Ontario Arts Council; Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area; Partners in Art; and the Toronto Arts Council.
Other Indigenous public art installations on campus
Existing Indigenous public art installations on campus include:
- The Ring, a sculpture at the Gould and Nelson Mandela Walk intersection
- Nadya Kwandibens’ photographic mural (SLC)
- RASS Community Space
- Native American Indigenous Studies Association mural (SLC)
- Saagajiwe mural (external link) (RCC 2nd floor)
- YSGS mural (DCC 7th floor)