INDI-VISIBLE
September 15, 2016
12:30pm - 2:30pm
THE INDI-VISIBLE BIKE BEADING AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES NETWORKING EVENT
It may be easy to categorize Indigenous peoples as ones who are in need of the benefit of health and wellness. We recognize that a discrepancy exists between expectations surrounding health and wellness directed towards Indigenous communities and the actual needs that arise in those communities, and so we would like to reimagine and deconstruct what health and wellness can look like from a more Indigenous-informed point of view.
We are hosting an event, led by the Uppity NDNs, an all Indigenous Women Bikers Collective in tandem with IARG, at foremost, to be an event that will hopefully bring diverse groups of Indigenous peoples together to design and decorate their bikes to be more visible for safety and to raise awareness of a community of Indigenous bikers occupying space in the city.
We would like people to take it upon themselves to invest in new ways of thinking about decolonization and spatial indigenization from this event. It would also be our first public event as the Uppity NDNs, the Indigenous Women Bikers Collective which sprung from a conversation Usher and NIghttraveller had published earlier this year.
During this event we will also be discussing our recent initiative and plan for the coming year,
which is a podcast titled The White Buffalo. It will be a podcast that will bring forward sometimes difficult, sometimes funny, and always necessary topics that contribute to an ongoing critical Indigenous discourse.
WHO WE ARE:
Cheli Nighttraveller, Camille Usher, and Isabella-Rose Weetaluktuk are founding members of the Uppity NDNs, an all-Indigenous women’s biking collective, using biking as a methodology to decolonize space, inspire relevant conversations, and spur creative production of all kinds. We find the bike to be a vehicle of autonomy, self-care, empowerment, and a means to incorporate health and wellness into our lives as urban Indigenous women.
We are simultaneously representing Concordia’s Indigenous Art Research Group (IARG) and are hosting a community-building event as part of CSU’s health and wellness event. IARG is an Indigenous-led group out of Concordia University that works to facilitate fluid spaces of connecting, analyzing, reflecting on, and experiencing the tensions and exhilaration of an ever-changing relationship and balance of power between many nations and cultures. It is our goal to question assumptions and conventions through open discussions that challenge dominant structures. Our focus is threefold: relationships, listening, and Indigenous representation. Realizing that it could become a safer space for exploration for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous experiences, IARG seeks to more directly reflect the needs and concerns of the Indigenous communities and individuals it encounters.
This year will be the first year that IARG will be entirely organized by Indigenous folks.
There will be no director, no hierarchy, just people working together with other people, as part of a larger community.
For more information about the groups contact us at: indigenousartconcordia@gmail.com
