Land Defender Elder

The viewing of Jamie’s work begins with the understanding that we do not live in a post-colonial society and the Indian Wars never ended. Everyday acts of settler colonial violence such as displacement, police brutality, and land desecration, provide a window into the injustices suffered by our ancestors. Intertwining personal narrative with historical memory and cultural loss allows the work to speak to what it means to be Indigenous, what it means to honor our history, and what our history can tell us about our future.

Jamie’s cultural and familial background gives a profound sense of kinship and belonging as well as what it means to connect to the land, ceremony, language, and others. The responsibilities they have to their community, kin, and culture are a mindset that extends throughout their body of work.

With works tackling topics of imperialism, colonial genocide, and historical loss, Jamie attempts to pull the thread of resistance to these atrocities through cultural connection and emphasizing collective survival. Making art about being queer, trans, and 2-spirit gives way to visualize the complexities in ideas such as truth and reconciliation for Indigenous communities and what living in the colonial present means. This public work is meant to not only affirm that Anishinaabe people are still living here in our homelands, that we have always been here, that we will continue to be here and we are making demands about what the futures of our nations look like.