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“A Return to Womanhood, the Transition into the Prophesied time for Women as Leaders.”
Women have always been the centers of our homes, families, communities and Nations, for they are the ones that bring each of us into our human earthly life. We had strict child-raising protocols with the help of our extended family and communities to raise healthy, whole-hearted humans that contribute their gifts, roles and and responsibilities. Settler colonial laws and practices forcefully removed the women’s leadership authority from our traditional governance systems, our ancestors foretold that there will be a time when our women will return to restoring balance to our world. This workshop will introduce nêhiyaw world-views through nêhiyawêwin (Cree language) and land-cosmic based teachings through art practices. With the collective help of grandmother’s teachings, Lana Whiskeyjack will co-lead conversations through some creative practices.
Lana Whiskeyjack is the Knowledge Keeper and Visual Art Consultant who will also play a role in the development process making sure that we are keeping to protocol traditions and kinship relation as we bring our MainStage play, Ayita by Teneil Whiskeyjack to life. The focus of Lana’s high level post secondary research and practice is strength-based stories of resilience and traditional culture that hold women as sacred and powerful. Much of her practice comes from honoring the responsibilities of womb connection.
Lana Whiskeyjack is a multidisciplinary treaty scholartist (scholar and artist) from Saddle Lake Cree Nation and is an assistant professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta. In 2017, Lana completed her iyiniw pimâtisiwin kiskeyihtamowin doctoral program at University nuhelot’įne thaiyots’į nistameyimâkanak Blue Quill, a former Indian Residential School attended by two generations of her own family. She integrates Indigenous ways of knowing and being with methods of Western academia in her research and course development. Lana’s research, writing, and creativity are focused on Indigenous gender diversity and sexualities, intergenerational resilience, and Indigenous visual literacy. Her current research project explores issues around the theme of (re)connecting to the spirit of nêhiyawêwin (Cree language), nêhiyaw gender worldviews, and the iskwew (woman) body relation to the cosmic and earth within 13 moon teachings through arts-based practices. She is featured in a documentary about confronting and transcending historical trauma through her arts practice titled, “Lana Gets Her Talk” (2017).