Xwat Maanzháapǔyak: BIG BEADS

The gathering started with a welcome and artist talk, followed by a community lunch. In the afternoon, participants chose one of two hands-on workshops.

Workshop 1: Giant Pool Noodle Earrings with Vanessa Dion Fletcher

Artist Vanessa Dion Fletcher will show you how to transform pool noodles and hoola hoops into a giant doorknocker earring sculpture.

Workshop 2: Mixed Media Zines with Marc Ngui

Learn how to cut and paste images and text into a mixed-media collage work of art. All of the artworks will be digitized and compiled into a collaborative Zine.

AWE welcomes all 2-Spirit, Indigenous, newcomer, LGBTQIA+, and allies in support of healing and understanding, to celebrate culture and identity, and to discuss how we can work together towards a more equitable future through the power of art. 

Working as a team, high school students created a collective design which included the word Waawiaatanong, which translates to “where the river bends”, the Anishinaabemowin place name for Detroit–Windsor. The mural is surrounded by flowers, waves representing the Detroit River, and a turtle symbolizing Turtle Island. The students collaborated to paint the design on the gallery wall, signing their names next to the mural.

Vanessa Dion Fletcher is a Lenape and Potawatomi neurodiverse Artist; her family is from Eelūnaapèewii Lahkèewiitt (displaced from Lenapehoking) and European settlers. She uses porcupine quills, Wampum belts, and menstrual blood to reveal the complexities of what defines a body physically and culturally. Reflecting on an Indigenous and gendered body with a neurodiverse mind, Dion Fletcher primarily works in performance, textiles and video.

She graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016 with an MFA in performance and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University in 2009. She has exhibited across Canada and the USA at Art Mur Montreal, Eastern Edge Gallery Newfoundland, The Queer Arts Festival Vancouver and the Satellite Art show in Miami. Her work is in the Indigenous Art Centre, Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection, Vtape, Seneca College, Global Affairs Canada and the Archives of American Art.