1:00pm - 2:00pm
Experience the Gallery through Michif language, story, and connection with Red River Métis educator, writer, and researcher Nicki Ferland. The afternoon will begin with a simple prayer in Michif, giving thanks for the day and helping us walk in a good way. Participants will be welcomed to Paashchipew Way, the Michif place name for the area where the Winnipeg Art Gallery resides.
Together, we will kanawahpahten (watch and look closely at) selected works across the galleries that reflect Michif values and teachings, including kiyokewin (visiting), wahkotowin (kinship and the web of good relations between all things), and not parentii kayaash oschi (our ancestors). The tour will close with a prayer of gratitude and safe return, offering a meaningful opportunity to connect with art through language, culture, and lived knowledge.
The initiative is an in-person version of Indigenous Language Sovereignty: Article 13 Experience, where you can experience the Gallery virtually, hearing from the Language Keepers themselves in videos.
Indigenous Language Tours@WAG-Qaumajuq are not just for Indigenous people, they are for anyone who wants to learn about the importance of Indigenous worldviews and art history.
This important step in decolonizing WAG-Qaumajuq and supports the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Article 13:
Indigenous Peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons.
Language is also mentioned in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action, Number 14i:
Aboriginal languages are a fundamental and valued element of Canadian culture and society, and there is an urgency to preserve them.
Tours will happen monthly in the gallery spaces and will be led by Indigenous knowledge and language keepers. Stay tuned for more dates!
March Tour led by
Nicki Ferland
Nicki Ferland is a two-spirit Red River Métis mother, wife, aunty and helper. She is an educator, writer, and researcher whose work focuses on the Métis Nation’s enduring relationships with land in Winnipeg. Her parents are both descended from scrip-bearing Métis families with ancestral roots in St. Vital and St-Boniface (Winnipeg), and Lorette, Manitoba. Her relations include the Lagimodière, Goulet, Poitras, Beauchemin, Grant, Ducharme, Harrison and Fisher families. She is a harvester registered with the Manitoba Métis Federation and is vice-chair of the Two-Spirit Michif Local. Nicki is a Michif Language learner and the Director of Land Based Education and Indigenous Curriculum at the University of Manitoba.
We hope you enjoy your visit to WAG-Qaumajuq! See our tips for visiting.
