Art Connects

North York Arts is thrilled to be launching 2022’s I-Talks, a series of conversations which will create pathways to re-imagine, re-create, and re-learn ways to connect through conversation. 

I-talks is one part of Art Connects, an ongoing initiative that started in 2019 to address North York Arts’ role in Truth and Reconciliation. As North York Arts builds programs, partnerships, and relationships, we continue to ask ourselves “As a non-Indigenous organization, what can we do to support the process of decolonization and build the right relations with Indigenous communities?”

This year, Art Connects consist of seven (7) free digital workshops on ZOOM and four (4) free collaborative arts ideation and building workshops,  focusing on topics of relationship, land stewardship, treaties, land and water, land caretaking, placemaking, storytelling and more, running throughout May and June. 

 The motivation for I-Talks is to foster spaces of deep conversation; where we can discuss our relationships to the land, and water, the body, legacies of colonialism, while connecting to one another.

I-talks 1: Introduction to the series

Led by Lindsey Lickers

Date: Tuesday, May 10th, 2022

Time: 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm

Facilitated by Lindsey Lickers, the introduction of I-Talks will introduce the intentions of the space and the aims of the project. Lindsey will lead a discussion on the significance of relationships in relation to land stewardship. This workshop will focus on the impacts of colonialism on relationships, leaving participants with the question: How do we centre truth-telling in rebuilding our connections?

I-talks 2: Understanding Treaty: Part 1

Led by Jason Mercredi

Date: Thursday, May 12th, 2022

Time: 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm

Understanding Treaty: Part 1 is the first step of a deep dive into the meaning of treaties & Indigenous lawmaking. Facilitated by Jason Mercredi, will focus on treaties covering North York and surrounding areas. He will discuss how treaties can, and do or don’t, guide communities, caretaking, and natural law. Participants will be invited to reflect on what the Dish with One Spoon treaty means beyond a simple, or standard, land acknowledgment.

I-talks 3: Understanding Treaty: Part 2

Led by Jason Mercredi

Date: Tuesday, May 17th, 2022

Time: 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm

Jason Mercredi is continuing the deep dive established in Part 1, with his facilitation of Understanding Treaty: Part 2. This workshop broadens and deepens the conversation on the meaning of treaties and Indigenous law-making. Participants will be invited to continue their reflection with the question: How can the lessons from treaties guide the ability to caretake for our land and community? 

I-talks 5: Our Responsibilities to Water & Land: Part 1

Led by Carolyn King

Date: Tuesday, May 24th, 2022

Time: 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm

Facilitator Carolyn King will discuss traditional perspectives on the importance of land caretaking, original instructions, and the importance of the ceremony. Carolyn will share with participants how women’s roles, rites, and responsibilities are intertwined with land and water.

I-talks 7: Indigenous Stewardship, Symbolism & Art

Led by Lindsey Lickers

Date: Tuesday May 31st, 2022

Time: 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm

During Indigenous Stewardship, Symbolism & Art, Facilitator Lindsey Lickers, will recap the previous workshops, exploring how the knowledge generated during I-talks impacts our ideas of placemaking. Lindsey will move participants through an overview of Indigenous visual storytelling, leaving participants with the question: How do we tell stories today?

Moon and Water Teachings

With Grandmother Reneé Thomas-Hill

Date: Tuesday, November 2nd

Time: 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm

Grandmother Renee was born into the Haudenosaunee Confederacy of the Grand River Territory; She honours her lineage, Mother- Cayuga Bear & that of her Father Mohawk Turtle; As a Haudenosaunee woman, her role in life is a Carrier of our Heritage; Mother, Grandmother, Great-Grandmother & auntie to many; Educator, Historian, Lecturer/Teacher, Wisdom Keeper; Cultural Consultant

Healing with the Land

With Veronica Johnny

Date: Tuesday, October 12th

Time: 5:00 pm  to 6:30 pm

North York Arts & IndigenEd (Indigenous Education for all) present Connect to Nature – an Eco-Art Workshop with Veronica Johnny.

Veronica Johnny is a Cree-Métis, multidisciplinary, two-spirit artist from the Northwest Territories. A hand drummer and rock singer, she’s also a songwriter, visual artist and writer. Veronica facilitates culturally-informed arts-education workshops, with a matriarchal lens, and focuses her creative energies on natural healing modalities.

This workshop includes talking about the land we are on; connecting with the earth and water; an eco-art activity and a drum song performance

Sacred Medicines in Times of Healing

With Elizabeth Akiwenzie

Date: Tuesday, September 28th

Time: 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm

Nististange we (understanding women)
Anishabek moswin. Her Oneida name is Dayyayutdoladoe – Haudenosaunee from turtle clan from her mother’s Nation.

Liz Akiwenzie
Cultural Educator/ Knowledge Keeper
Ojibway and Oneida

She has been working in the helping field for almost 40 years. She has a Social worker background, she is a ceremonial person, Lodge conductor, cultural Educator for educators and caregivers, Cultural knowledge keeper for Native Communities, Healer and medicine person.

As a continuation of NYA’s 2019 training program, we are focusing on projects that aim to connect the local North York community with the environment and history of the land in which it lives, works, and plays on. A series of Indigenous and non-Indigenous research tools and community workshops will inform a public art installation created by Haudenosaunee/ Anishinaabe multi-media artist, Lindsey Lickers.