4th Annual Symposium on the Future Imaginary Schedule – Initiative for Indigenous Futures

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Conference Format

The format will be Pre-recorded Presentations + Live Discussion and Audience Q & A

We have asked most panelists to pre-record short video presentations illustrating how their work relates to their panel topic. This will allow us to use the time together in virtual space in conversation and taking questions from the audience.

The pre-recorded presentations for each panelist are accessible by clicking on their name below.

Time Zone

All events will be hosted in Yellowknife (Northwest Territories, Canada) using Mountain Daylight Time (MDT). Please note that New Zealand Standard Times (NZST) are the following day.

Thursday, August 19th Friday, August 20th Saturday, August 21st Sunday, August 22nd

Introduction from each partner to provide a brief overview of their involvement and their organization.

Video recording of the livestream can be found here.

Davis Heslep (Western Arctic Moving Pictures)
Mandee McDonald (University of Alberta, Dene Nahjo)
Jason Edward Lewis (Initiative for Indigenous Futures)

Moderator: Dëneze Nakehk’o, (Dene Nahjo)

Yellowknife Dene First Nation History and looking to the future.

Chief Edward Sangris (Yellowknife Dene First Nation)

This panel will touch on issues around the digital transmission of knowledge versus traditional ways of teaching. Is the lack of feedback through digital systems an unhealthy way of acknowledging where knowledge comes from? Are terms like self-taught dangerous? Is knowledge devalued when broadly available through digital platforms?

Video recording of the livestream can be found here.

Tania Larsson (Artist)
T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss (IM4 Initiative)
Owisokon Lahache (Artist, Initiative for Indigenous Futures)
Melaw Nakehk’o (Artist)

Moderator: Dëneze Nakehk’o (Dene Nahjo)

What are our visions for the future of Indigenous governance? How do we constitute a community/collective/nation? How do we think more broadly about, and bring forward visions of, relationality in how we practice governance? How do digital technologies support this work?

Video recording of the livestream can be found here.

Daniel T’seleie (Dene Nahjo)
Amos Scott (Dene Nahjo)
Mandee McDonald, (University of Alberta, Dene Nahjo)
Dallas Hunt, (University of British Columbia)

Moderator: Gina Starblanket (University of Victoria, Indigenous Governance)

AbTeC Gallery is thrilled to host two exhibitions in conjunction with the Symposium of the Future Imaginary, which will open with an interactive event including curatorial tours, statements by some of the artists, chatting, dancing and even light snacks (to be consumed by your avatar).

Indigenous Futures: Rooted and Ascending, curated by Melaw Nakehk’o, founding member of Dene Nahjo, is a mixed-reality exhibition, taking place simultaneously at Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, NWT (the first show of contemporary Indigenous art in the NWT!) and at AbTeC Gallery online. The virtual exhibition includes transmediated versions of the works in the physical gallery and offers a parallel avenue of access to the pieces. The artists in Rooted and Ascending engage with Indigenous Futurism, a social and cultural movement that celebrates the power of imagination, technology, and self-determination. They cast visions that describe, often through the lens of science fiction and cosmology, their own utopian ideals. Each artist, whether using technology or traditional techniques, explores what is possible. If colonial oppression did not exist, what would the future look like? Exhibiting artists include Kablusiak, Margaret Nazon, Riel Stevenson Burke, Robyn McLeod, Siku Allooloo, Casey Koyczan, and Cody Fennel.

Right next door to AbTeC Gallery, we have built a virtual version of Roaring Rapids Hall, a roundhouse community centre in Fort Smith, NWT, to house the exhibition Trails and Overflow, curated by Davis Heslep, Programming Director at Western Arctic Moving Pictures (WAMP). A transmediated board game, photos, and a video comprise the works gathered in this show, reflecting ongoing work done at WAMP to bring digital media skills to local youth.

AbTeC Gallery is an Indigenously determined virtual exhibition space for contemporary art, located on AbTeC Island in Second Life.

Join us inworld at AbTeC Gallery! For detailed instructions on how to get to there, please visit:
AbTeC.land or click here to view the beginner’s guide to Second Life.
You can also experience the vernissage via a video livestream. Go to the Facebook event page to watch!

Welcome & Technical Assistance by AbTeC
Skawennati (Co-Director, AbTeC)
Nancy Townsend (Producer, AbTeC)

Gallery Tour by curators:
Melaw Nakehk’o (Artist)
Davis Heslep (Western Arctic Moving Pictures)

Opening remarks, recap of the previous day.

Mandee McDonald (University of Alberta, Dene Nahjo)
Jason Edward Lewis (Initiative for Indigenous Futures)
Davis Heslep (Western Arctic Moving Pictures)

Throughout history, humans have developed different mediums and practices in preserving knowledge and culture. Virtual Reality (VR) is a medium which until recent years has been fairly exclusive due to the expensive technology and step learning curve in creating experiences. In recent years, this technology has become less expensive and more user friendly in the creation of 360/VR videos and 3D game environments through open-source game software like Unity. This panel will bring together an innovative, international group of cultural organizers using VR as a means to preserve and transmit language and traditional knowledge. We hope to construct this panel in groups of one organisational rep and one participant.

Panelists will discuss the trials and tribulations of creating these projects and the impacts they see that this technology will have on the future.

Video recording of the livestream can be found here.

Laurie-Ann Lines, Ethan Black, Ali Abel, Cindy Jardine (Dechı̨ta Nàowo VR project)
Loretta Todd (IM4 Initiative)
LeeAnne Ireland (Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth, Thunder VR)

Moderator: Casey Koyczan (Artist)

This panel will reflect on possible Indigenous approaches to designing, making and deploying Artificial Intelligence systems. It will be grounded in reflections on the Indigenous Protocol and Artificial Intelligence Workshop and Position Paper, using that work as a launch point to discuss the challenges of deeply and respectfully integrating advanced technological systems into Indigenous frameworks for understanding and engaging with the world.

Video recording of the livestream can be found h e re.

Suzanne Kite (Initiative for Indigenous Futures)
Michelle Lee Brown (Washington State University)
Dr. Noelani Arista (McGill University Chair of Indigenous Studies)
Dr. Hēmi Whaanga (University of Waikato)
Scott Benesiinaabandan (Independent Artist)

Moderator: Jason Edward Lewis, (Initiative for Indigenous Futures)

Exhibition opening: Prince of Wales Exhibit Walk-Through in the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. Click here to check out the in-person event on Facebook.

Melaw Nakehk’o (Artist) – to introduce Rooted and Ascending Exhibit
Casey Koyczan (Artist) – to introduce Moose Skin Dome Exhibit
Tania Larsson (Artist) – to introduce Moose Skin Dome Exhibit

Opening remarks, recap of the previous day.

Mandee McDonald (University of Alberta, Dene Nahjo)
Jason Edward Lewis (Initiative for Indigenous Futures)
Davis Heslep (Western Arctic Moving Pictures)

Can digital tools assist in the process of de-colonisation? This panel will bring together indigenous technologists and artists to discuss how their indigeneity informs the materials and technology they use in their practice. Panelists will also discuss their process in developing their relationships with technology.

Video recording of the livestream can be found here.

Travis Mercredi (Outland Sound)
Lawrence Neyelle (Artist)
Morgan Zoe (Artist)

Moderator: Jasmin Winter (Aabijijiwan, Artist)

This panel will bring together the founders and/or directors of Indigenous-led, Indigenous-focused digital media labs and studios together to discuss the challenges of supporting Indigenous media creation and building capacity in digital technology with and for our communities. It will also discuss the exciting opportunities for regional, national and international collaboration now that we are attaining a critical mass of these Indigenous-determined spaces for creation and research.

Video recording of the livestream can be found here.

Tania Willard (Site/action Studio, Instructor in Visual Arts at University of British Columbia Okanagan)
Loretta Todd (IM4 Initiative)
T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss (IM4 Initiative)
Jackson Two Bears (Artist, Onkwehonwe Research Environment)
Renaltta Arluk (Banff Indigenous Arts)
Jason Leigh (LAVA Laboratory of Advanced Visualizations / Academy for Creative Media, Honolulu)
Johnson Witehira (Indigenous Design and Innovation Aotearoa)

Moderator: Jason Edward Lewis (Initiative for Indigenous Futures)

An evening of Indigenous Sci-Fi short films available virtually.

Our closing event is a wide-ranging and deep conversation between pre-eminent art historian Jolene Rickard and early internet art pioneer and IIF Partnership Coordinator Skawennati. They discuss creating Indigenous space in shared virtual environments, viewing digital media in continuity with existing cultural practices, being mindful of when co-presence is essential to community-building and -maintaining, meeting the challenges of adapting Indigenous protocols for online interaction so we can extend Indigenous territories, and thinking about the entire world as Indigenous.

Video recording of the livestream can be found here.

Jolene Rickard (American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, Cornell University)

Moderator: Skawennati (Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace)

Video recording of the livestream can be found here.

Davis Heslep (Western Arctic Moving Pictures)
Mandee McDonald (University of Alberta, Dene Nahjo )
Jason Edward Lewis (Initiative for Indigenous Futures)

The 4th Annual Symposium on the Future Imaginary is brought to you by the Initiative for Indigenous Futures.