DATE: Thursday, September 19th, 2024
TIME: 5:30pm – 6pm
LOCATION: 2nd floor galleries
COST: This event is part of AWE at Night
Accessibility: Accessibility and accommodation requests must be made at least two weeks in advance of the event. Please contact shinch@artwindsoressex.ca for questions.
Anishinaabe Elder Mona Stonefish (Bear Clan) is a Doctor of Traditional Medicine and an international activist for peace, Indigenous, women’s, and disability rights. She is a former Senator of the Anishinaabemowin Teg – language preservation, a Keeper of Wisdom, and a Grandmother Water Walker. Stonefish is also a member of the Native American Museum of Washington D.C., a member of the Art Gallery of Windsor Board of Trustees, a traditional dancer, and recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013). She was honoured with the prestigious Clark Award for her contributions as an advocate focused on the role of human rights, restorative justice and education, and as an advisor to Windsor Law on Indigenous matters (University of Windsor, 2016). She was also recognized with the 2017 Journey Toward Success Visionary Award. Stonefish was also 1 of 6 o-curator-artists to receive the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation, for the exhibition, “Into the Light: Eugenics and Education in Southern Ontario,” Guelph Civic Museum, 02/20/2020. In their extensive travels, she and her granddaughter Sky Stonefish support and teach one another, confront discrimination and fight to tear down barriers together.
Sky Stonefish is an Anishinaabe jingle dress dancer, photographer and beadworker. Sky is a trailblazer in many arenas: from her modelling for Shandra Spears Bombay to her activism confronting discrimination and tearing down barriers. Sky’s magnetic leadership brings people together everywhere she goes.
