Justine Woods

Justine Woods is a garment-artist, creative scholar, and educator whose research and creative practice embraces complexity in expansive, loving, and caring ways. Stretching across fields of study, including but not limited to, fashion studies, performance and embodiment, and research-creation, her work passionately situates fashion as a pluriversal phenomenon. Centring garment-making as a practice-based method of inquiry, Justine explores how the act of garment-making done by the Indigenous body can regenerate Indigenous ontology and re-stitch new worlds and futurities. She is a Doctoral Candidate in the Media and Design Innovation practice-based PhD program at Toronto Metropolitan University. To read more about Justine’s relations, please click here.

Peter Morin

Peter Morin is grandchild of Trouble Makers. Tahltan citizen. Crow Clan Member. French-Canadian. Performance Artist. Curator. Writer. Scholar. Cross-Ancestral Collaborator. Educator. Bannock Maker. Beadwork Artist. Karaoke Artist. Caregiver. Dreamer. Drum Maker. Morin is most proud of his designations as Failed Poet and Failed Stand-up Comedian. Morin is an award winning Artist. Throughout his twenty-year career making trouble, Morin follows the teachings/practice(s) of his mother Janell who fought for people and built/contributed towards building braver spaces. Morin is a member of teaching community at the Interdisciplinary Masters in Art Media and Design, and is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Art at OCADU. Morin is the holder of 3 failed Guinness World Record attempts: World’s Largest Bannock, World’s Largest Gluten-Free Bannock, and World’s Largest Button Blanket.

Nicole Neidhardt

Nicole Neidhardt is a Diné (Navajo) multi-disciplinary artist and award-winning illustrator who grew up in Tewa territory (Santa Fe, NM).  Nicole’ s Diné identity is the heart of her practice which encompasses illustration, installation, and Indigenous Futurisms.

Her multi-disciplinary practice centers and uplifts Indigenous worldviews and voices in order to contribute to strong and vibrant Indigenous futures.  She has illustrated the books, When We Are Kind / Nihá’ádaahwiinít’íigo (Orca 2020), Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults (Lerner 2022), What Your Ribbon Skirt Means to Me: Deb Haaland’s Historic Inauguration (‎ Christy Ottaviano Books 2023) and Circle of Love (Heartdrum 2024). She received her MFA from OCAD University in Toronto, Ontario, and a BFA from the University of Victoria.

Jay Irizawa

Jay Irizawa is a 3^rd generation Japanese Canadian interdisciplinary artist, designer and researcher exploring relations in ancestral knowledges. He is the Graduate Program Director for the Interdisciplinary Art Media and Design master’s program (IAMD) at OCAD University; also known as a TroubleMaker. Jay is troubling the ways we come to know the world by inviting speculative, futurist, critical, anti-oppressive, and anti-racist methods of art and design knowledge to raise ethical questions at the forefront of creative processes, both in theory and in the materiality of collaborative making.

Ashok Mathur

Mathur’s cultural, critical, creative, and academic practice is wide ranging and investigates new models of artistic research and interdisciplinary collaboration, particularly those that pursue a social justice agenda. As a writer, cultural organizer, and interdisciplinary artist his work addresses the intersections of race, indigeneity, and creative and artistic research. His editorial work includes the anthology Cultivating Canada: reconciliation through the lens of cultural diversity (Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 2011), and numerous special volumes of arts and literary journals such as West Coast Line and Prairie Fire. He also edits CiCAC Press which publishes poetry, prose, and creative nonfiction using an alternative author-driven approach to support writers and readers. His novels include A Little Distillery in Nowgong (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009) which also functioned as a collaborative art installation in Vancouver, Kamloops, and Ottawa; The Short Happy Life of Harry Kumar (Arsenal, 2001); and Once Upon an Elephant (Arsenal, 1998); in addition he has published a poetic novella, Loveruage (Wolsak and Wynn, 1993). As a Canada Research Chair in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry (awarded 2005 at Thompson Rivers University), he has organized and co-ordinated multiple arts-driven initiatives. Most recently he co-ordinated a month-long artist residency, Reconsidering Reconciliation, bringing twelve Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists together at the Centre for innovation in Culture and the Arts in Canada (CiCAC). Previously, he has organized other residencies and colloquia in Banff, where he directed the international IntraNation residency in 2004, and Cyprus, where he co-convened the Performing Identity / Crossing Borders performance symposium. Prior to his CRC, Mathur was head of Critical and Cultural Studies at Emily Carr University. As an educator, Mathur works with critical race theory and radical/liberatory pedagogy to develop transformational and student-driven learning models.