Skawennati: Welcome to the Dreamhouse
OTTAWA, ON, May 28, 2025 /CNW/ - From May 30 to September 1, 2025, the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) presents Skawennati: Welcome to the Dreamhouse, a solo exhibition that tells the story of Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) artist Skawennati's dynamic artistic trajectory over 25 years, as she envisions Indigenous people in the future through avatars, costumes, textiles, prints, sculpture, time-based productions as well as machinimas and machinimagraphs—films and still images made in virtual environments.
"Skawennati fearlessly explores themes of Indigenous futurism. She has imagined avatars, dolls, goddesses, historical figures and everyday people who meaningfully and playfully intersect across time and space in a dreamhouse of her creation," said Jean-François Bélisle, Director and CEO, of the National Gallery of Canada. "We are proud to share her work with the public. The works in Skawennati's dreamhouse create a place where humanity can reach a world that has changed for the better, where the future becomes real and where dreams can be manifested in the here and now."
"Skawennati unearths often repressed histories and melds them with speculative conceptions of the future by creating worlds of discovery and wonder. In these worlds, she explores notions of time, place, memory, dreams and aspirations, particularly from her perspective as a Kanien'kehá:ka artist, activist, mother and advocate for Indigenous-centred learning and being," wrote Steven Loft, Vice-President, and Michelle LaVallee, Director Indigenous Ways and Curatorial Initiatives, Indigenous Ways and Decolonization at the National Gallery of Canada, in their introduction to the exhibition catalogue. "For her, the digital media landscape becomes just that: a landscape replete with life and spirit, inclusive of beings, thought, prophecy and the underlying connectedness of all things."
Organized by the National Gallery of Canada and curated by Wahsontiio Cross, Associate Curator, Indigenous Ways and Decolonization at the NGC, Skawennati: Welcome to the Dreamhouse brings together the Montreal-based artist's creative output through more than 100 works of art. As a lifelong science fiction and Star Trek fan, the artist noticed that there were very few Indigenous people in the stories about the future. She set out to change that through her work.
Beginning with Imagining Indians in the 25th Century (2000), a groundbreaking web-based work, the survey exhibition continues through her exploration of technology until her most recent works, such as the three-channel music video and fashion collection They Sustain Us (2024).
The majority of the art works on display in Welcome to the Dreamhouse are drawn from the artist's personal collection. Other works on view are from the National Gallery of Canada's collection (9), Canada Council for the Arts' Art Bank, Canada Council for the Arts and the Musée Pointe-à-Callière, cité d'archéologie et d'histoire de Montréal.
Catalogue
A richly illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition Skawennati: Welcome to the Dreamhouse. Edited by Wahsontiio Cross, the 136-page softcover book comprises contributions by Mojeanne Sarah Behzadi, Richard William Hill and Cheryl Sim. Available at the Boutique and online.
Public programs
A shared space, Kahwá:tsire—the Gathering of all Embers, is connecting the exhibitions Skawennati: Welcome to the Dreamhouse and Nadia Myre: Waves of Want, both presented at the same time. This gathering space is for coming together, learning and reflecting on both exhibitions. In Kahwá:tsire, visitors are invited to leave their reflections on the exhibitions as part of the community fire and create their own wallpaper designs and paper dolls inspired by the works of Skawennati and Nadia Myre. Additional learning activities planned include beading workshops with Ojibwe artist Amanda Fox, miniature birch bark canoe workshop with Algonquin artisan Pinock Smith, special meet the artist tours, and ongoing tours with interpreters. Visit gallery.ca for more details.
About the National Gallery of Canada
Founded in 1880, the National Gallery of Canada is among the world's most respected art institutions. As a national museum, we exist to serve all Canadians, no matter where they live. We do this by sharing our collection, exhibitions and public programming widely. We create dynamic experiences that allow for new ways of seeing ourselves and each other through the visual arts, while centering Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Our mandate is to develop, preserve and present a collection for the learning and enjoyment of all—now and for generations to come. We are home to more than 90,000 works, including one of the finest collections of Indigenous and Canadian art, major works from the 14th to the 21st century and extensive library and archival holdings.
Ankosé – Everything is connected – Tout est relié
SOURCE National Gallery of Canada
View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2025/28/c2504.html
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hypebeast
26-06-2025
- Hypebeast
JD Opens the Doors to Second Retail Hub in Dubai
Following on from the opening of itsDubaiflagship last year,JDhas revealed a brand new retail hub in the city as it continues to build on its presence beyond Europe. Set in City Centre Mirdif – a five million sqft shopping mall housing over 450 shops – the store brings the 'King of Trainers' staple offering of performance garments, athleisurewear, and sneakers to the central location. As well as shopping the latest drops and seasonal collections from popular sportswear brands, visitors will be able to get their hands on exclusive 'Only at JD' products at the store, which historically have included limited-edition releases fromNike,adidas,New BalanceandOn. To celebrate the new store, JD hosted a special event earlier this month. Giving shoppers a taste of the pop-ups and activations expected to take place in the space, the retailer served up live music from localDJ RuuzandDJ Noor, a JD emblazoned photobooth, and an engraving station for Stanley Cup customization. Take a closer look at the two-day event in the gallery above. Explore the latest sneaker and sportswear drops at the new JD store now. To find out more about its upcoming events, head to its regionalInstagram page. JD StoreFirst floor, City Centre MirdifSheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed RdDubai, UAE
Forbes
05-06-2025
- Forbes
At Sante Fe's Native American Fashion Week, It's 'Not Just About Style, It's About Presence.'
Relative Arts NYC runway Tira Howard "Native people are still here. We always have been. But too often, this country acts like we're not. That erasure doesn't just happen in textbooks. It happens on runways, in museums, in the media and in fashion houses," says Amber Dawn, founder of Native Fashion Week. Though Indigenous practices, cultural values, and art have long been marginalized and forcibly distanced from the Western mainstream, the emergence of an Indigenous Fashion Week asserts its' presence, and keeps the culture very much alive. In Santa Fe, over the course of four days filled with fashion, panels, and parties, Native Fashion Week opened at the Santa Fe Railyard, a clever homage to Native peoples' complicated history with the railroad systems built throughout the 19th century. These tracks remain symbolic of colonization, territorial expansion, environmental devastation, and cultural erasure. During the event's opening, 'Runway on the Rails,' designers Nonamey and Ayimach Horizons previewed snippets of their collections aboard the Sky Railway during a two-hour ride into the desert. From this moment, it became clear: the clothes showcased throughout the week would be less about craftsmanship or spectacle, and more about storytelling and history. Runways to Rils Tira Howard "Native Fashion Week is not just about style. It's about presence. About pushing back on invisibility with creativity, excellence, and joy," says Amber Dawn. She continues, "Unlike the common theme in the US, which are featuring Indigenous designers in museums and making us out to exclusively be of times past, we're building a platform for the future. The exposure of modern Indigenous design is so important to this work." For Dawn, a feeling of erasure, even from runways, has happened for Indigenous culture. "Native Fashion Week Santa Fe is a reclamation of space. A space where Indigenous designers lead. And it's happening here in Santa Fe, a city that already holds a reputation for art, culture and storytelling," she says. "This is about bringing new eyes and new energy to Santa Fe. Fashion editors, buyers, stylists, celebrities, photographers, major industry figures from places like New York, LA, and beyond." One of the key figures and new eyes paying attention was CFDA CEO Steven Kolb. 'Coming to Native American Fashion Week has given me the chance to step into the community and get a sense of Indigenous culture and Native design,' Kolb said. While the CFDA currently has no plans to provide funding for Santa Fe's Native Fashion Week, Kolb emphasized, 'We can bring knowledge, advice, connections, and awareness, we want to create visibility for this within the greater fashion world.' Native American Fashion Week Tira Howard Outside of Warehouse 21, a large event space in Santa Fe, Korina Emmerich wrapped up her runway show, which featured large tassels, tribal prints, and earthy tones. 'This collection was called Seeds, and was based on the concept of 'they tried to bury us, but they didn't know we were seeds.'' She continues, 'I wanted to focus on reinvigoration and reclamation of Indigenous culture, I used orange a lot to bring attention to Orange Shirt Day and boarding schools. Every Native person knows someone who went to those boarding schools, so I wanted to bring attention to that.' Possibly the most memorable piece was a closing statement of rebellion: a dress made out of the Palestinian flag. 'I think it's important that we keep paying attention to what's happening in Palestine, in Gaza, as they keep blocking out the news. It's an act of genocide, and it's something we [Native people] have also gone through.' Native American DFashion Week Tira Howard Emmerich, who says she was 'working on her collection until the very last minute,' draws inspiration from her heritage: the Palouse people of Washington state. She credits her father, an art teacher, as her biggest inspiration, encouraging her to embrace both her Indigenous identity and creativity. 'The first dress I made was my jingle dress for my powwow regalia, and I think a lot about putting stories into the clothing. For me, it's about storytelling more than it is about commerce.' 'Growing up, we didn't see any Native fashion designers besides Dorothy Grant, so how did you know it's a possibility if you don't see it? But the recognition is phenomenal,' she says. 'We're so lucky that we have room for everyone.' Native American Fashion Week Tira Howard On the second day of Fashion Week, in the same event space, Nonamey, who originally premiered on the Skyrails train, debuted a larger collection aimed at telling a more fully realized story. 'The name of this collection is Threaded Lineage, and it's the story of my family,' he says. 'It's an Indigenous story—my story. It begins with the Ancestor Dress, a story about my grandmother and a relative of mine who was shot by police.' Midway through the show, Nonamey presented a blinding orange, structured jacket emblazoned with the words 'DON'T SHOOT' across the back. This piece, like others in the collection, serves as a kind of "connective tissue"—memories and histories that have either directly affected him or live on through his lineage. Nonamey, who is of the Anishinaabe people of Northern Wisconsin, tells a deeply personal story of his family's forced relocation, his time in the foster care system, and the loss of identity that came with it. That journey intensified after learning he had lost both his mother and grandmother. 'It was this loss I didn't know what to do with, so I started applying it to my art,' he says. Originally trained in sculpture, Nonamey ultimately discovered that the language of clothing spoke to him more. Throughout the collection, he presented pieces that followed traditional 18th-century European dress silhouettes, layered with tribal prints, a visual merging of histories and heritages that reflect both his identity and the complex, often painful relationship with Native ethnicity in a colonized world. "I am a result of colonial action, I am an attempt at cultural genocide, but by reconnecting I stepped further away from an edge and I feel that by creating art and sharing it, i'm decolonizing this industry." Nonamey for Native American Fashion Week Tira Howard That spirit carried throughout the week. While Indigenous traditional wear is far from a monolith, with many of the designers representing diverse tribes and regions across the Americas, the shared goal of representing their heritage across time and geography remained central. Acts of rebellion, fine tailoring, streetwear, tribal prints, traditional tassels and suedes, moccasins, and sustainable fashion approaches like fur and multi-use materials were all present on the runway. 'The industry needs to know more and invest in the original designers of America. There is not one way to define Native fashion arts; the diversity is beautiful and complex,' says Amber Dawn. 'We had over 25 nations represented among the 30 Indigenous designers this season at Native Fashion Week Santa Fe. Within each of those nations, there are specific designs, colors, and intentional symbolism. Our designers blend their personal fashion with these traditional motifs, creating a modern interpretation of Indigenous fashion that embodies such a personal journey for everyone.' Nonamey NAFW Tira Howard As the week came to a close, the audience was left with a powerful message from the creator of the programming: 'From the streetwear motifs to the use of furs, which are all sustainable and sourced from Indigenous farmers in Canada, the meaning behind what our designers do, and the incredible attention to detail and purpose, must be understood through context as we enter a global forum. ' She continues, 'That's where you begin to see the vast range of performances down the runway, from Apache Skateboards to Shoshoni's Nar Rew Ekar, which went viral on social media, to the protest staged by Alex from Scrd Thndr. There was so much beauty and so many different expressions of fashion to witness. That background information is essential as we scale our exposure. We can't wait to continue expanding next season with more symposia and auxiliary events to keep sharing our designers' stories and work.'
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Yahoo
New Zealand Parliament votes for record suspensions of 3 lawmakers who performed Māori haka protest
New Zealand legislators voted Thursday to enact record suspensions from Parliament for three lawmakers who performed a Māori haka to protest a proposed law. Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke received a seven-day ban and the leaders of her political party, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, were barred for 21 days. Three days had been the longest ban for a lawmaker from New Zealand's Parliament before. The lawmakers from Te Pāti Māori, the Māori Party, performed the haka, a chanting dance of challenge, last November to oppose a widely unpopular bill, now defeated, that they said would reverse Indigenous rights. But the protest drew global headlines and provoked months of fraught debate among lawmakers about what the consequences for the lawmakers' actions should be and whether New Zealand's Parliament welcomed or valued Māori culture — or felt threatened by it. A committee of the lawmakers' peers in April recommended the lengthy punishments in a report that said the lawmakers were not being punished for the haka itself, but for striding across the floor of the debating chamber towards their opponents while they did it. Maipi-Clarke Thursday rejected that, citing other instances where legislators have left their seats and approached their opponents without sanction. It was expected that the suspensions would be approved, because government parties have more seats in Parliament than the opposition and had the necessary votes to affirm them. But the punishment was so severe that Parliament Speaker Gerry Brownlee in April ordered a free-ranging debate among lawmakers and urged them to attempt to reach a consensus on what repercussions were appropriate. No such accord was reached Thursday. During hours of at times emotional speeches, government lawmakers rejected opposition proposals for lighter sanctions. There were suggestions that opposition lawmakers might extend the debate for days or even longer through filibuster-style speeches, but with the outcome already certain and no one's mind changed, all lawmakers agreed that the debate should end.
