Reworldings: Indigenous Imaginaries for Conservation Futures

Join curator Alexandra Nordstrom and Unsettling Conservation Collective artists Glenn Gear, Melaw Nakehk’o, Sheri Osden Nault, Adrian Stimson, and Michelle Wilson for a virtual conversation on the making of Reworldings. Featuring multimedia video, textile, and sculptural installations, the exhibition considers how art can repair relationships between people and place, reimagining the field of conservation through Indigenous leadership and knowledge.

About the Speakers

Alexandra Nordstrom
Alexandra Nordstrom is a cultural worker, curator, researcher, writer, and art historian living and working in Montréal, Quebec. Multidisciplinary in nature, her work focuses on the resurgence and study of Indigenous knowledge systems and cultures with a particular focus on Cree Worldviews, land-based learning, and creative practice. Nordstrom holds an MA in Art History from Concordia University (2020) and is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History at Concordia. She is a co-curator of the Poundmaker Museum and Gallery and is one of the co-directors of Sarasa Performance Laboratory Inc. (formerly Miyawata Culture Inc.).

Glenn Gear
Glenn Gear is an Indigiqueer filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist of mixed Inuit heritage living in Montréal. He is originally from Corner Brook Newfoundland and has family throughout Nunatsiavut and Labrador. His research creation-practice is shaped by Inuit ways of learning and knowing – often employing a hands-on and tactile approach through the use of animation, photography, archives, painting, beading, and traditional materials such as sealskin. His work reflects upon the complex relationships between humans, animals, and land, revealing the patterns, cycles, and magic within. He is currently an adjunct professor at Queens University in the Film & Media Department and continues to facilitate low-budget, DIY animation workshops with Indigenous youth. His films have screened throughout Canada and around the world.

Melaw Nakehk’o
Melaw Nakehk’o is Dehcho Dene and Denesuline, born and raised in Denendeh (Northwest Territories). She is a visual artist who paints, sews, and beads, as well as a traditional moosehide tanner. Her work in reviving and teaching moosehide tanning techniques has inspired a resurgence of the practice and shaped a broader community building movement within Canada. Nakehk’o is continuously working creatively through performance art, contemporary visual art, public art, filmmaking, graphic recording, and teaches land-based Indigenous art practices. She is a Founding Member of Dene Nahjo. Melaw has three sons and lives in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada.

Sheri Osden Nault
Sheri Osden Nault is a Two-Spirit Métis artist, Indigenous tattoo practitioner, community worker, and Assistant Professor in Studio Arts at the University of Western Ontario. Their work spans mediums including sculpture, performance, installation, and more; integrating cultural, social, and experimental creative processes. They work through embodied connections between human and non-human beings, land-based relationships, and kinship sensibilities as an Indigenous Futurist framework. Methodologically, they prioritize tactile ways of knowing and learning from more than human kin. Their research is grounded in their experiences and engages with decolonizing methodologies, queer theory, ecological theory, and intersectional and Indigenous feminisms. They are a tattooer, researcher, and organizer within the Indigenous tattoo revival movement in so-called Canada and they run the annual community project, Gifts for Two-Spirit Youth. They also operate the Melancholy Queers Club, though this project has slowed down, for which they create and vend DIY shirts and zines.

Adrian Stimson
Adrian Stimson is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, performance, photography, sculpture, and installation. His work is held in national and international collections, and is especially known for the recurring presence of bison. A member of the Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation in southern Alberta, he holds a BFA with distinction from the Alberta College of Art & Design and an MFA from the University of Saskatchewan. Stimson has received numerous accolades, including the Blackfoot Visual Arts Award (2009), the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal (2003), the Alberta Centennial Medal (2005), the REVEAL Indigenous Arts Award from The Hnatyshyn Foundation, and the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2018).

Michelle Wilson
Michelle Wilson is a queer, neurodivergent artist and mother who has been developing community-based programs that integrate the creative arts with health and wellness. Her work focuses on artistic collaboration as a form of anti-colonial care, rejecting the individualistic notion of the artist. Instead, she prioritizes working at the periphery, creating space for diverse groups of people to come together through the act of creation. Dr. Wilson is an organizing member of both the Coves Collective and the Unsettling Conservation Collective. She recently joined the University of Guelph as an Assistant Professor in Visual Arts and the new Bachelor of Creative Arts, Health and Wellness program.

Image details: Sheri Osden Nault, Seeded Bison Skull 03 (Mohkinstsis day 1), 2025, clay, soil, native seeds. Photo courtesy of the artist.