(Halifax, NS) – As part of Mi’kmaq Awareness Month, Mount Saint Vincent University (the Mount) will launch a new learning kit shedding light on what it’s like to grow up Aboriginal, and what other young Canadians learn about indigenous peoples. Combining visual art, storytelling, and songs,
Women, Contemporary Aboriginal Issues, and Resistance will be unveiled by its creators on Tuesday, October 15 at the Mount’s Aboriginal Student Centre and MSVU Art Gallery.
Launch Event (Tuesday, October 15)
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4:15p.m. – Welcome |
Aboriginal Student Centre |
| 5:15p.m. – Reception | MSVU Art Gallery Seton Academic Centre, Ground floor 166 Bedford Highway, Halifax NS |
Women, Contemporary Aboriginal Issues, and Resistance showcases the lives of fictional children as they grow into young adulthood, quickly becoming aware of the roles that prejudice, Aboriginal roots, and friendship will play throughout their lives. The kit includes three booklets, discussion prompts, the work of outstanding Aboriginal visual artists, and an 80-minute video featuring prominent lecturers, artists, and activists: Joan Glode, CM, Ursula Johnson, Shirley Bear, CM, Ruth Cuthand, and Dorothy Christian.
Women, Contemporary Aboriginal Issues, and Resistance was co-produced by the MSVU Art Gallery, Director, Ingrid Jenkner, and Rita Shelton Deverell, principal investigator, with the assistance of a dissemination grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The kit features graphic design by MAAIINGAN Productions, Muskrat Media of Toronto; songs and drums by All Nations Drum, Halifax; photography by April Maloney, Indian Brook First Nation; the work of visual artists Ruth Cuthand, Saskatoon; Shirley Bear, Tobique First Nation; Ursula Johnson, Eskasoni First Nation and Shelley Niro, Kitchener, Ontario.
The launch of Women, Contemporary Aboriginal Issues, and Resistance is part of the MSVU Celebrating Publishing week and Research Re-mixed. Complete learning kits will be available free to those attending. The DVD portion of the kit will play in the Seton Academic Centre foyer during the launch and MSVU Art Gallery’s current exhibition, the Art Bank in the 21st Century, will also be open to the public.
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Media contact:
Kelly Gallant
t. 902.457.6339
kelly.gallant@msvu.ca
