Previous Exhibition

Awan-e-yaawang (It is What It is)
June 10, 2024 - August 31, 2024

Curated by Michael Cywink and Dermot Wilson
Featuring works by: Don Chretien, Russell Noganosh, Lisa Pitawanakwat, Saantana Eshkawkogan, Melinda Shank, and Mike Cywink.
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"This show asks us, “how does society value these works and how are these depictions reflective of 'what IT is' in our lives today”. Many of the artists involved, believe that 'what IT is' can be reflective of (and interpreted through) the Seven Grandfather Teachings, and also of an ongoing and growing belief in “Reconciliation” as it applies to contemporary value systems, beliefs and ways of living. The “Lives of the Elders” live on and are with us in the Treaties they forged with settler governors/patriarchs.

Those inherited points of view, beliefs and feelings are also a large part of 'what IT is', as is the current environment (of scarcity and greed, rather than abundance and generosity). Aawan-e-Yaawang (It is What It Is) is all about how our lives are threatened by human and corporate structures; such as mining, oil extraction, forestry resource extraction and drinking water redistribution. It is also about the realities of the “Trans-generational Affects of a Cultural Genocide” perpetrated by Canadian governments and corporations that have led to present-day addictions and abuses suffered by our present generation (especially the youth). It is What It Is must include all of these “shades” and “shadows” that make these works contemporary, because they are imbued with “unspoken and unwritten” (but inevitable and important) messages. These are works that outline the new reality for Treaty People entering the third decade of the second millennium."

(excerpt of Statement written collaboratively by Michael Cy Cywink and Dermot Wilson)