Wise Woman Travel

Hello, Suitcase, my old friend

I’ve come to pack you up again

Because I’m going to Regina

So I knew I had to find ya

And the vision of me flying on a plane

Still remains

Amid the sounds

Of cheering.

Yes, friends, for the first time since February 2020, I’m boarding a plane. Not going far ( Regina, Saskatchewan – one province to the east of where I live for you non-Canadians) and not for very long ( 3 nights) but for an exciting event: the opening of the Radical Stitch exhibit at the Mackenzie Gallery.

Billed as “the most significant collection of contemporary Indigenous beading across North America ever presented,” the show presents the work of 48 beaders from across Turtle Island ( aka North America). It was curated by three heavy hitters in the Canadian art world: Michelle LaVallee, a member of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation in Cape Croker, Ontario, and Director of the newly created Department of Indigenous Ways and Decolonization at the National Gallery of Canada; Sherry Farrell Racette, a Metis-Canadian artist, author, and feminist scholar at the University of Manitoba; and Cathy Mattes, a Michif (Southwest Manitoba) curator, writer, and Associate Professor in History of Art at the University of Winnipeg.

My friend and amazing NWT beader Margaret Nazon has several pieces of her cosmic wall art in the show, based on her interpretations of Hubble space telescope images. She will have some of her smaller, space-themed pieces ( key fobs, brooches, and a necklace) for sale in the gallery shop.

The show runs until the end of August 2022, and then goes on tour ( details TBA) . Visit it in Regina ( free admission and curator talk on April 30) or watch for it in a North American city near you.