Video: Minnawaanigogiizhigok (Dawnis Kennedy), Lecture

Plug In ICA invites Minnawaanigogiizhigok (Dawnis Kennedy) to present on her research, exploring the impact of Canada’s Indian Act on identities of Indigenous peoples and the communities and governance structures they maintain. In her talk, Existing in Conflict with the Law: Canada’s Indian Act, and the Legislation and Criminalization of Indigenous Identity, Kennedy unpacks how treaty and governance are understood within Anishnaabe law. This presentation by Kennedy on Thursday, March 28, at 7pm is part of our Respondent Series and in conjunction with Jean-Paul Kelly’s current exhibition, That ends that matter.*

Minnawaanigogiizhigok (Dawnis Kennedy) (LL.M) is the Community Connection Coordinator at Manitoba Indigenous Cultural Education Centre (MICEC). Minnawaanigogiizhigok (Happy/Joyous Day Woman) is a member of the Waabizheshi (Marten) Clan from Bigaawanishkoziibing – Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation. She is a second degree Midewiwin (Way of the Heart) person and member of the Three Fires Society. Minnawaanigogiizhigok was also raised as Ojichidaakwe (Female Person of Big Heart) by the Ojichidaa Society in Bigaawanishkoziibing. Also known as Dawnis Kennedy, Minnawanigogiizhigok is of European and Ojibwe Anishinabe lineage works to bring best of both traditions forward.

Dawnis is a wife, auntie, great auntie, mother, sister, cousin, daughter, niece, granddaughter, caregiver and friend. She is an enthusiastic bead collector, sometimes crafter and occasional beadworker. She is an accomplished scholar focused on learning Anishinabe Onakonigewin (the law of Anishinabe peoples), a community educator and a support to many of the people in her life. In her work, Dawnis draws on her training as a helper, her western education, her learning in the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge, her experience as a Trudeau Foundation Scholar and her mentorship as a visiting scholar of Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig, Centre of Excellence in Anishinabe Education.

Thank you to the Manitoba Indigenous Cultural Education Centre for making this presentation possible.

*The exhibition That ends that matter continues the artist’s interest in the divide between materiality and perception; what we see and what is actually represented. The exhibition centers on Kelly’s own recounting based on memory and observation as a visitor to courtroom hearings at the City of London’s Magistrates’ Court in the UK— a criminal justice system, which completely forbids any kind of recording; visual or otherwise. The result includes a visual music animation, online image streams, and a re-enactment of witnessed events. The various film selections serves as a boarder set of relations to the exhibition and Kelly’s overall interests in different forms of representation from documentary frameworks to film production. That ends that matter is the first presentation of Jean-Paul Kelly’s work in Winnipeg and in the prairies. For more information on the artist and the exhibition visit our website: plugin.org