My favourite things are weird, strange, and beautifully awkward.

In October, UMIH collaborated with Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (MAWA) to host an exhibition entitled WE HOLD YOUR GAZE_Remix. WE HOLD YOUR GAZE was beyond quirky in form and content, pairing variegated, sparkly paintings with scrolls of poetry. The exhibition is the collaborative creation of Like Queer Animals (LQA), a duo comprising Chicago-based artist Jessie Mott and French-Québécoise queer scholar Chantal Nadeau. Mott creates the illustrations—all anthropomorphic hybrid creatures—while Nadeau writes the poetry for the accompanying scrolls.

On January 19th, 2023, Ojibwe author, poet and playwright Drew Hayden Taylor from Curve Lake First Nation delivered the Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media’s Sidney Warhaft Memorial Lecture at the University of Manitoba titled “Storytelling in the 21st Century.” Among the topics discussed, Taylor encouraged Indigenous authors to explore and infiltrate mainstream literary genres, such as science

cover image: Andersen, Chris. 2009. Critical Indigenous Studies: From Difference to Density

Trump’s decision to directly intervene on behalf of oil companies to allow the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines to move ahead with construction showed a blatant disregard for the rights of Indigenous people. It also wasn’t a surprise. In fact, Trump’s long history of hostility towards Native Americans has been well documented since the ‘90s.

Image by Alejandro Luengo

Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan’s performance piece The Local Sky Tonight or What is Being Refusedwas originally commissioned as one of a series of pieces meant to represent different parts of stories. Their original prompt was on the hero’s call; the significance of the secondary title catalyzes from the moment our rabbit-guide begins their rumination of Campbell’s infamous monomyth

This piece discusses two recent events within Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba. The book launch of Settler City Limits: Indigenous Resurgence and Colonial Violence in the Urban Prairie West, with a panel lead by Dr. Sarah Cooper (Faculty of Architecture), featured editors Heather Dorries, Robert Henry, David Hugill, and Tyler McCreary. As well, the most recent Decolonizing Lens film series, entitled “Art and Activism” held a viewing of the sort

On Oct. 24, 2019, a panel discussion was held by the University of Manitoba’s Master of Human Rights program in collaboration with the Canadian Museum of Human Rights, and the SSHRC’s Conjugal Slavery in War project. The event, entitled “Advocating For Justice And Reparations In Uganda: A Conversation With Grace Acan And Evelyn Amony,” was chaired by Dr. Kjell Anderson, director of the U of M’s newly-created Master of Human Rights program.

The Decolonizing Lens is an initiative that celebrates the work of Indigenous filmmakers, incorporating Indigenous actors, directors, producers and narratives. This marks the fourth year of the film and discussion series, which was organized and supported by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of Manitoba and held at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Image courtesy: Rosiethefilm.

On Oct 10 2019, writer and artist Adrian McKerracher, visiting the University of Manitoba’s School of Art, gave a riveting lecture on the value of using metaphor in creative work. Drawing on his own experiences, McKerracher described the many benefits of metaphors as a construct, and as a way not only to improve upon literary description, but also as a framework within which one cam approach creative work and the world in general.

Author of Living a Feminist Life (2017) and On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life (2012), Sara Ahmed is an Australian scholar who has gained worldwide renown in the field of feminist studies for her work on complaint. Ahmed resigned from her position as a Race and Cultural Studies professor at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2016 in protest of the university’s failure to seriously address the issue of sexual harassment on campus