Reconnecting With Ancestors and a Journey Back to Community

AUNTIE: Wa’tkwanonweráton Sewakwé:kon. Today, we’re visiting with Alex Jacobs Blum who is Cayuga and Wolf Clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River.Raised away from her territory, Alex now engages dual tracks of art and curation to find a pathway—to the natural world, her Haudenosaunee teachings and community - and to herself.Alex shares her remarkable journey back to Cayuga territory in Central New York a few years back where she reconnected with ancestors to find her path forward.AJB: You know growing up - there was a lot of shame built up around my identity, so I had been working to unpack and unlearn that. And then when I was there - you know I just felt so validated in myself and I felt so surrounded by so much care.AUNTIE: Alex is well-known for surrounding others with the same type of care as she nurtures a supportive web of relationships, uplifts young artists, and weaves Indigenous perspectives into institutional spaces. Through her transformative work she disrupts hierarchical power structures in storytelling and creates space for collective, Indigenous, matrilineal voices to be amplified. And in the wake of her mother’s recent passing, Alex’s work has become a way to make sense of her own profound loss.If you’re in region around Six Nations, you can experience Alex’s work firsthand—her In the Shadow of the Eclipse residency is on view at the Art Gallery of Hamilton until March 16, 2025. She also co-curated Ascending Horizons with Métis artist Kim Anderson, now showing at the McMaster Museum of Art until June 20, 2025.We are Yetinistenha ne Tekaronkyakánere – the Aunties Dandelion and wa’tkwanonhweráton greetings, love, and respect to Canada’s Indigenous Screen Office – teyonkhiwihstekénha – who provide the support to keep this show running. And can you do us a big favor by liking and sharing our episodes – and subscribe to our feed on your favorite platform. It goes a long way to support voices of Indigenous changemakers. #IndigenousArt #IndigenousCreatives #Haudenosaunee #Cayuga #IndigenousVoices #Storytelling #ArtCurator #MatrilinealPower #IndigenousMedia #AuntiesDandelion #ListenToYourAunties 🎙️💫 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.