Speaker Series V

Beading Waterways to Connect to History through Land and Water

Recorded Saturday, April 7, 2021

The Speakers Series was hosted by Suzanne Campeau Whiteduck, Nipissing First Nation.

Carrie Allison

Carrie Allison is a nêhiýaw/Cree, Métis, and European descent visual artist based in K’jipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia). She grew up on the unceded and unsurrendered lands of the Sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səlílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəyəm (Musqueam) Nations. Allison’s maternal roots are based in maskotewisipiy (High Prairie, Alberta), Treaty 8. She is an active member of the arts community and is currently Co-Chair of the Eyelevel Artist Run Centre Board. Allison holds a Master in Fine Art, a Bachelor in Art History, and a Bachelor in Fine Art from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University. Her work has been exhibited nationally in The Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto, Urban Shaman, Winnipeg, and Beaverbrook Art Gallery, New Brunswick. She has had solo exhibitions at Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, the Owens Art Gallery, The Museum of Natural History, and The New Gallery. Allison has received grants from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Arts Nova Scotia and Canada Council for the Arts and is the recipient of this years’ Melissa Levin Award from the Textile Museum of Canada. Allison’s work has been shown in Canadian Art, Esse and Visual Arts News.

For the fifth session of our Speaker Series, artist Carrie Allison will speak about her experience organizing and facilitating The Shubenacadie River Beading Project, a community collaborative large scale beading of the Shubenacadie River, located in Mi’kma’ki, the territory in which the artist resides. This talk will explore creating connections through making, thinking about the notion of treaty as a verb, and how this project sought to give back to community through the collaborative artwork centred in local Indigenous sovereignty. The culmination of this speaking series will end with how The Shubenacadie River Beading Project has led to The Lake Nipissing Beading Project, and how community members and folks from across Turtle Island can become involved in the project.