Winnipeg to Host Third Annual Symposium on the Future Imaginary

Work at the Initiative for Indigenous Futures (IIF) falls into four main categories: workshops, residencies, archive, and symposia. Zoning in on the last item on that list, IIF has held two annual symposia on the Future Imaginary to date. The first symposium was held in 2015 during the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Festival in Toronto. The second symposium was held during the O’k’inadas // complicated reconciliations_ artists residency at UBC-Okanagan. This year, the symposium will be held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on the lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation. The three-day event has the subtitle “Radically Shifting Our Indigenous Futures Through Art, Scholarship, and Technology.”

The third iteration of the symposium will be the largest yet, with the most expansive range of speakers and the first to be fully open to the public! These events create a platform for multidisciplinary conversations about where Indigenous communities see themselves generations from now – and how to develop strategies to get them there. Artists, community activists, curators, and academics will be coming together from Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and Norway during November 30 to December 2 for an engaging weekend of Indigenous art and media, scholarship, and cultural innovation at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and University of Winnipeg.

Themes for panel discussions include: “Dreaming of Our Future Seven Generations Ahead,” “IndigeFem and the Future,” “Games as Resurgence and Presence,” “Land-based Knowledge and Creative Intervention,” “Technology as (De)Colonial Tools,” and “Arctic Futurisms.” If those topics weren’t exciting enough, the last day of the symposium will also feature a makerspace activity and an Indigenous-developed video game and VR arcade, showcasing the IIF Skins workshops, games from Elizabeth LaPensée, Never Alone, the 2167 VR projects, the Art Alive VR experience from Pinnguaq, and more!

Want to attend? You can register for the 3rd Annual Symposium on the Future Imaginary on our Eventbrite page. Questions and concerns can be directed to tmkprojectcoordinator@gmail.com.

Note: Artists and curators who would like to attend the symposium may apply for funding from the Canada Council for the Arts.