Join Cree Filmmaker & Storyteller Julianna Maggrah as she shares stories of growing up on Kitsaki Reserve near La Ronge, Saskatchewan — often feeling isolated and like an outsider looking in, due to the intense way she experienced the world around her. It wasn’t until Julianna was diagnosed with autism in her late twenties and began connecting with her Indigenous culture, that she started to understand herself better.
Learning about Indigenous perspectives of autism including pîtoteyihtam – a Cree word meaning “those who think differently” and Māori teachings that honour the strengths and unique ways people with autism move through the world “in their own time and space”, opened the door for Julianna to accept and embrace the parts of who she is that she long felt the need to suppress.
All are invited to attend!
While registration to attend is not required, it is helpful for us to know approximately how many people may be in attendance. If you are planning to attend, please take a moment to let us know by completing this form. MAAW 2026 – Event Form
Root Sky Theatre, in association with Theatre Incarnate, is proud to premiere Rattle: A Sixties Scoop Play at the University of Winnipeg’s Asper Centre for Theatre & Film, June 3 – 7, 2026. Rattle is based on the true stories of Sixties Scoop survivors Robert Doucette and Roberta MacKinnon.
Dan and Bobbie have lived on the same North End street for decades and consider themselves family. They also share a similar history – both were taken from their Indigenous mothers as small children and adopted out into white families. They lost their family, their culture, their identity. Dan, now working for a Métis organization, has faced his past and is fighting for the future of fellow Sixties Scoop survivors. Bobbie is not so sure she wants to know why her mother gave her up as a newborn infant. Both their lives, and their families’, will be changed in unexpected ways as they struggle to understand who they are and where they belong. Rattle received an award for Best Full-Length Play in the Theatre BC Canadian National Playwriting Competition for 2022.
It is the fourth in a series of plays by Brandon University professors Darrell Racine and Dale Lakevold that explores Indigenous culture and history in Canada.
IshKaabatens Waasa GaaInaabateg Department of Visual Art Speaker Series presents Kevin McKenzie.
Kevin McKenzie is a Cree/Métis artist based in Brandon. He is a member of the Cowessess First Nation of Saskatchewan, Treaty 4.
He holds a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from the University of Regina.
Kevin McKenzie (Photo by Jordan Bennett)
During his 30-year art practice, McKenzie has exhibited nationally and internationally. Notable exhibitions include Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation II, Museum of Arts and Design, New York. He also participated in Don’t Stop Me Now, National Gallery of Canada. If We Never Met, Pataka Art Gallery Museum, New Zealand. His work was represented in Transformer: Native Art in Light and Sound, at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institute, New York.
McKenzie’s artwork is represented in the collections of; the National Gallery of Canada, the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, Manitoba Hydro Corporation, the President’s Art Collection, University of Regina, First Nations University of Canada, the Dunlop Art Gallery, the Saskatchewan Arts Board and the University of Manitoba. In 2024, he produced a public sculpture for the city of Portage la Prairie titled “Eagle Arc.” McKenzie holds a tenured teaching position in the IWGI Department of Visual Art at Brandon University.
Artist Talk by award-winning singer/songwriter, music producer and interdisciplinary artist Cheryl L’Hirondelle (Cree/Halfbreed; German/Polish), whose Indigenous family roots are from Papaschase First Nation and Kikino Metis Settlement, on the land now known as Canada.
Brandon University is honoured to welcome back Dr. Eloy Terena, Vice-Minister of Brazil’s Ministry of Indigenous Peoples and a 2019 Brandon University ELAP Doctoral Visiting Student, for a special talk titled Exploring Brazilian and Canadian Research Partnerships for the Betterment of Indigenous Peoples.
Dr. Terena is a respected leader, scholar, and advocate from the Terena Indigenous community in Mato Grosso do Sul. He currently serves as Vice-Minister in Brazil’s newly established Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, a role he was appointed to by President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva in recognition of his academic expertise, leadership, and long-standing engagement with Indigenous movements.
With doctoral degrees in both Anthropology and Law, and post-doctoral studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in France, Dr. Terena brings a wealth of knowledge to his work at the intersection of research, law, and policy. His leadership has been recognized with Brazil’s highest honour, The Order of Rio Branco, for his pivotal role in creating the country’s first Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, as well as with an honorary doctorate from the Don Bosco Catholic University.
This event will explore how international collaboration and research partnerships between Brazil and Canada can support Indigenous rights, strengthen communities, and advance Indigenous-led scholarship.
Join us on Monday, September 29, 2025, from 3:30–5 p.m. in the Gathering Space of the John E. Robbins Library at Brandon University.
Sponsored by the Vice-President, Research and Graduate Studies, the Rural Development Institute, and the Faculty of Arts, this event is free and open to all members of the campus and wider community.
Graffiti Gallery in Winnipeg is pleased to present A Warrior’s Red Road, Indigenous men connecting to culture through drum-making, on exhibition from September 6 through October 25.
The Good-Hearted Warriors/Akicita Cante Waste are a group of men who have been provided the responsibility of land and resources owned by the Brandon Friendship Centre at the East Site venue. They have sovereignty over ceremonial buildings, collection of resources and overall protection and caretaking of the space.
With a spiritual advisor providing teachings on culture and ceremony, members of the group alternate between teaching and learning to share their knowledge about activities such as hunting, fishing, and trapping.
This exhibition is the result of a year-long research partnership that followed the men from the Good-Hearted Warriors though the process of drum-making. It gives evidence that many of the Good-Hearted Warriors’ activities have direct affect on the caretaking and protection of the land and, as revealed in the themes represented through this photovoice project, the impact of the group extends much further. The hope is that by witnessing the project, the public, policy makers and funders will find a newfound respect and admiration for Indigenous men’s cultural programming and see the importance of supporting this type of work.
The research team within this project are Dr. Candice Waddell-Henowitch, Dr. Rachel Herron, Dr. Jonathan Allan and research assistance Stephanie Spence from Brandon University with Jason Gobeil from Dakota Ojibway Child and Family Services, Frank Tacan from Brandon Friendship Centre, and Marti Ford from Manitoba Inuit Association.
Opening Reception: September 6, 7—10 p.m.
Opening Prayers: 7 p.m.
Drumming Performance and Artist Talk: 7:30 p.m.
Graffiti Art Programming Inc. facilitates low barrier youth-led community programming in the North End and Downtown of Winnipeg that promotes social engagement through the arts.
The Indigenous Peoples’ Centre team is planning an event to raise awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2 Spirit people.
Beginning at 11 a.m., there will be a fire and speakers at the Ceremonial Firepit in the courtyard. Red dresses be hanged from the trees on 18th St.
The idea to hang red dresses comes from the Red Dress Project by Jaime Black. This is an installation art project based on an aesthetic response to this critical national issue. Further information in the art project is available at JamieBlackArtist.com/exhibitions.
Indigenous Art: Beyond History was organized by art history professor Dr. Stacey Koosel’s Contemporary Indigenous Art course. Her students worked as curators of the exhibition led by Felicity Nepinak-Hart as the Chief Curator of the project. Together they selected, researched and installed an exhibition of works by two dozen Indigenous artists, ranging in artistic mediums from paintings, prints and textile, to beading, installation and video.
It will include works from some of the most revered contemporary artists, such as Norval Morrisseau, Daphne Odjig, Jackson Beardy, Carl Beam and Arthur Amiotte, as well as works by students, alumni and community artists.
