PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: Cam (Montreal) * Demian Diné Yazhi’ (Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment)* Jessica Sabogal (Oakland) * lianne charlie (Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation) * Lindsay Katsitsakatste Delaronde (Kahnawake) * Melanie Cervantes (Oakland) * Mitra Fakhrashrafi / #DecolonizeHistory (Toronto) * Red Bandit (Toronto) * Swarm (Montreal/Toronto) *
Throughout UNCEDED VOICES, visiting and local artists will be creating art pieces on the streets of Tiohtià:ke (Montreal) between August 14 until August 23. Some of these collaborations will be open to the public.
***UPCOMING EVENTS***
(français ci-dessous)
* Queer Between the Covers Bookfair
Saturday August 15, 2015
11am to 6pm
Centre communautaire de loisirs Sainte-Catherine d’Alexandrie, 1700, Rue Amherst (wheelchair accessible)
Look out for Unceded Voices table at the bookfair !
https://www.facebook.com/events/1580901022163305/
* BOW DOWN 7 : THE Beyoncé Themed Party
Hosted by Dayna Danger and Cerise Sur le Gâteau
SATURDAY AUGUST 15, 10 pm at Felix, 6388 St-Hubert
Part of they proceed from this dancing night will be going to the Unceded Voices fundraiser. Hosted by Dayna Danger and Cerise Sur le Gâteau
https://www.facebook.com/events/378322649029774/
* Insurgent Projections at Unceded Voices
SUNDAY AUGUST 16, 8:30pm at Ken Saro-Wiwa’s park (Christophe-Colomb and Beaubien corner)
The film program for that night :
– Babakiuera (30min)
– Lautaro, 500 anos de resistencia (30 min)
– From Slavery to mass Incarceration (5 min)
– Meshkanu: The Long Walk Of Elizabeth Penashue (20 min)
https://www.facebook.com/events/116210992058121/
* Re-appropriating Indigenous Identity (with Clifton Nicholas)
MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 6-8pm
at QPIRG Concordia, 1500 de Maisonneuve West, #204 (métro Guy-Concordia; wheelchair accessible)
This presentation looks critically at the uses and misuses of Indigenous imagery, from contact to today. Using a slideshow combined with an oral presentation, topics include negative stereotyping of native people, government and media propaganda against natives, the anti-Indigenous lobby, land rights, and the commodification of Indigenous identity. This workshop debunks past and present cultural appropriation of Indigenous culture and people. Presented by Clifton Nicholas, a filmmaker from Kanehsatake.
* Buiding resistance to Canada 2017 (with Clifton Nicholas and Jaggi Singh)
TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 6-8pm
at QPIRG Concordia, 1500 de Maisonneuve West, #204 (métro Guy-Concordia; wheelchair accessible)
These two panelists will share the background to anti-Canada 2017 organizing, as well as ideas around building decentralized by coordinated campaigns to undermine the celebration of Canada. The underlining reasons for a concerted and public opposition to Canada will also be discussed. This session will also focus on the beginnings of a potential network for anti-Canada organizing. Also, this presentation will expose some of the mythologies that uphold Canadian self-identity, focussing on exposing the apartheid realities in Canada, particular in relation to the treatment of Indigenous peoples.
* Collage Workshop with Lianne Charlie
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 19, 6-8pm
at QPIRG Concordia, 1500 de Maisonneuve West, #204 (métro Guy-Concordia; wheelchair accessible)
This is a presentation of Lianne Charlie’s collage work and about her identity as a Northern Tutchone woman who has grown up away from her homelands and largely within a mainstream, urban setting, collage helps her reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable. Collage creates a space where home/away, insider/outsider, new/old, native/non-native, city/bush can exist is productive juxtaposition. Collage invites us to work with the fragmented realities of Indigenous identities, families, communities, cultures, and lands that have been created (sometimes violently, often intentionally) by historical and contemporary colonialism.
* Discussion with Unceded Voices collective
THURSDAY AUGUST 20, 6-8pm
at Galerie articule, 262 Fairmount West
Discussion with Lianne Charlie, Lindsay Katsitsakatste Delaronde, Melanie Cervantes, Jessica Sabogal & Swarm. Moderator by Camille Larivée.
(This discussion will be in English with whisper translation into French.)
This discussion with Unceded Voice’s artists focus on artistic practices and thoughts about art as anti-colonial resistance to capitalism and all other forms of oppression, and the importance of creating a community of Indigenous and POC artists on Turtle Island. There also will be a discussion on the place of women and feminism in the street art world.
* REBEL! Radical Poster Making for Our Liberation”
A Screen Printing Workshop by Melanie Cervantes of Dignidade Rebelde
FRIDAY AUGUST 21, 6-8pm
at Galerie articule, 262 Fairmount West
There has never been a movement for social change without art and visual communications being central to that movement. Graphics in particular are powerful living reminders of various struggles for justice. Melanie will frame the workshop by giving participants a brief history of the role of political posters in liberation struggles as well as sharing Dignidad Rebelde’s work . This history will be illustrated via a short slideshow presentation. Following the presentation there will be a screen printing demonstration and an opportunity for participants to print posters of premade designs provided by Dignidad Rebelde. The goal of this workshop is discuss the role of design, art and culture in community transformation and movement building and to give participants the opportunity to learn the screen printing process as well as get hands on experience printing posters.
*Unceded Voices Closing Party // Toxic Tour Bus Fundraiser
SATURDAY AUGUST 22, 7-12pm
at La Déferle, 1407 Valois
Raising funds to bring people from to “MONTREAL” (Tiotia:ke ~ unceded Kanien’keha: ka territoty) to Canada’s Chemical Valley Toxic Tour in Aamjiwnaang First Nation (Anishinaabe-ojibwe territory). Featuring live painting and art for sale by Unceded Voices Artists + performances+ screening,etc.
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SUPPORT UNCEDED VOICES
Here are some ways you can support Unceded Voices:
FINANCIAL DONATION: We are currently raising the money needed for Unceded Voices (to cover travel costs of participants, as well as materials). Visit our gofundme campaign to make a donation: www.gofundme.com/uncededvoices; you can also get in touch by e-mail to make a cash donation: decolonizingstreetart@gmail.com
PROMOTE:
Please share our facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/970129306351884
Link to our website: www.decolonizingstreetart.com
Get in touch about getting flyers and posters: decolonizingstreetart@gmail.com
SHARE MATERIALS: Please consider making in-kind donations. Some of our needs include: paint, spraypaint, brushes and scaffolding. To make a donation, e-mail us at decolonizingstreetart@gmail.com to make arrangements.
WALL SPACES: We’re on the look-out for wall spaces in Montreal for murals and wheatpasting. If you can help us out, get in touch by e-mail: decolonizingstreetart@gmail.com
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ABOUT UNCEDED VOICES
The goal of Decolonizing Street Art is two-fold: to develop a network of solidarity and support between Indigenous street artists; to promote anti-colonial resistance through diverse street art interventions.
At present, Decolonizing Street Art organizes an annual convergence of street artists in Montreal. The second gathering will take place this coming August 14-23, 2015 under the name “Unceded Voices”.
During Unceded Voices, artists from all over Turtle Island (and beyond) will be making street art interventions on the streets of Montreal. Unceded Voices will also include workshops and panels on the theme of anti-colonialism.
This year (2015) all participating artists are Indigenous and/or people of colour. In the long-term, Decolonizing Street Art is focused specifically on supporting a solidarity network of women-identified Indigenous street artists.
The organizing principles of Decolonizing Street Art include opposition to colonialism, capitalism, and all forms of oppression, including but not limited to racism, patriarchy, heterosexism, ableism and transphobia. We organize on the basis of solidarity, mutual aid and support, as anti-colonial street artists and supporters.
Decolonizing Street Art is a grassroots initiative. We refuse state and corporate funding. Our overall budget (less than $4000 annually) is raised via crowdfunding and the support of local groups and individuals.
Decolonizing Street Art promotes autonomous street art (distinct from public art) that is not financed by government or corporate institutions, or represents their interests.
Decolonizing Street Art’s lead organizer is Camille Larivée, a queer and feminist Innu street artist based in Montreal, with the support of local allied individuals and organizations. The original idea for Decolonizing Street Art emerged from a conversation between Camille and Tom GreyEyes (Navajo) in November 2013.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Decolonizing Street Art acknowledges that we are on the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka. The Kanien’kehá:ka are the keepers of the Eastern Door of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The island called “Montreal” is known as Tiotia:ke in the language of the Kanien’kehá:ka, and it has historically been a meeting place for other Indigenous nations, including the Algonquin peoples. It’s not enough just to acknowledge the keepers of this land. We encourage the participants and supporters of Decolonizing Street Art to get informed and educated, and to actively resist colonialism and neo-colonialism in the many forms it takes, and in the diversity of forms that resistance can take too.
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CONTACT INFORMATION
web: decolonizingstreetart.com
e-mail: decolonizingstreetart@gmail.com
facebook: www.facebook.com/decolonizingstreetart