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Love Your Body - Heal The World

Ages: 16+

The Aunties Dandelion present their 10-minute film VeRONAka - about the fictional embodiment of COVID-19.

Led by Auntie Kahstoserakwathe Paulette Moore and Auntie Dr. Bernice Downey, we will discuss how loving our own bodies from an Indigenous perspective teaches us all how to heal ourselves, our families, and our beloved communities.We will deepen understanding of the film’s teachings through a responding panel of Aunties as well as a drawing exercise. Bring your paper and pen!

About the The Aunties Dandelion:

The Aunties Dandelion is a media research center and a transformative space, informed by traditional Onkwehon:we (Indigenous) teachings with story sharing and healing narratives at their core. Designed as a relationship-centered collective by Dr. Karenna’onwe Karen Hill and Kahstoserakwathe Paulette Moore, The Aunties are rooted in Indigenous familial ways of being in relationship to each other and the natural world with a vision to create and support an expansive human community.

The Aunties Dandelion create podcasts, films and vlogs, and are available to host multimedia workshops, keynote addresses, panel discussions, Mohawk language classes and art projects.

Learn more about The Aunties Dandelion:

• Website: https://www.theauntiesdandelion.com/

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAuntiesDandelion/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theauntiesdandelion/?hl=en

• Podcast: https://the-aunties-dandelion.simplecast.com/episodes

Bios:

Kahstoserakwathe Paulette Moore is an independent filmmaker, lecturer, artist and educator. Moore is Kanien'kehàka (Mohawk) and an enrolled member of Six Nations of the Grand River territory where she is based. Moore’s work focuses on restoring spiritual, physical and economic balance at the place where Indigenous ways of being meet our modern experience. Moore spent two decades based in Washington DC working as a director, producer and writer with Discovery Channel, National Geographic, PBS, ABC and other media outlets. In 2004, she began making independent, community-based films as Shenandoah University's filmmaker-in-residence in Winchester, Virginia. Her 2007 film “Wit, Will and Walls” documents the history of desegregation in the Shenandoah Valley and has been used extensively in the U.S. and abroad to facilitate dialogue about race. In 2009, Moore began work as an associate professor of media arts and conflict transformation at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA. There, she collaborated with students to create “To Wisconsin with Love” – a film about Ojibwe resistance and envisioning in response to what would have been the world's largest open-pit taconite mine. In 2016, Moore created “From Wisconsin with Love” – a sequel to that film that focuses on the spiritual, economic, physical, and legal aspects of the act of harvest from the perspective of Ojibwe prophecy. Moore recently graduated from Onkwawenna Kentsyohkwa - a two-year Kanien'keha adult language immersion program at Six Nations. She is a PhD candidate (ABD) in Continental and Haudenosaunee philosophy with European Graduate School based in Saas Fee, Switzerland. Other clients include: Free Speech TV, UNHCR the United Nations Refugee Agency, PBS, ABC, Japan’s NHK and other NGO and media outlets.

Dr. Bernice Downey is an Anishinaabe-kwe (Indigenous woman) of Ojibwe - Saulteaux and Celtic heritage, a mother and a grandmother. She is a former nurse, a medical anthropologist and is currently cross-appointed with the Department of Psychiatry and Neuro-Behavioural Sciences & the School of Nursing in the Faculty of Health Science at McMaster University. She is also recently appointed as the inaugural Associate Dean, Indigenous Health for the Faculty of Health Sciences. Her research interests include health literacy and Indigenous Traditional knowledge and health/research system reform for Indigenous populations. She currently holds a Heart & Stroke Foundation - Canadian Institute of Health Research - Chair in Indigenous Women’s Heart and Brain Health. She is committed to addressing anti-Indigenous racism and the promotion of Indigenous self-determining approaches in health equity and system reform.

About the Panel:

Black Speculative Arts Movement (BSAM) Canada is the northern branch of a global movement that was first launched by Quentin VerCetty and Kareen Weir, who coordinated and directed the first international BSAM Canada event at OCAD University (BSAM Toronto) in 2016. BSAM Canada’s focus is to create a collaborative and supportive platform that can empower, elevate, and evolve Black creatives and organizations who work within the respective field of the speculative arts. BSAM Canada utilizes a shared power dynamic resisting hierarchy. We value inclusivity, collaboration, and open learning by honoring that each participant is an expert of their own lived experiences. Our leadership reflects these priority communities; in addition to BSAM Canada being Black-led, we are also queer and committed to mental health management.

Nicole “Nico” Taylor is the Executive Director of Communications for BSAM Canada. Nico is a writer, scholar, dancer, cosplayer, and activist who uses feminism and critical race theory to dissect social constructions surrounding race and representation, especially as they pertain to how we make sense of the images that surround us. As a trained performer in Afro-Caribbean folk dance, Nico has participated in many events showcasing the beauty and vibrancy of Caribbean culture, which included performing in the Opening Ceremony for the Pan Am Games Toronto in 2015. As a scholar, her interest in pop culture and designation as a proud blerd spurred the pursuit of a Master of Arts degree at Concordia University. Her research touched on decolonial practices, feminism, cosplay subculture, and Afrofuturism; specifically how cosplay can be wielded to revise and reclaim narratives about African diasporic people. Ultimately, Nico’s scholarly work and her engagement and examination of cosplay subculture aims to amplify visibility for cosplayers of African descent, construct space where alternative ways of imagining, creating, and being can be explored, and find ways to weave the liberation of speculative processes throughout lived experiences

Queen Kukoyi is a Black Bajan of Igbo and Lakono Ancestry, Queer, Femme presenting, Mother, Author, Educator, Scholar, Activist, and International Artist as well as the Executive Director of Operations & Finance for BSAM Canada. As a creative, Queen Kukoyi explores spoken word poetry, digital collage, and animations along with installation work that touch on concepts surrounding the Afrofuturistic meditative space. Queen uses the lens of Afrofuturism 2.0 in her visual arts, mindfulness, and storytelling to facilitate discourse that decolonizes the Black identity and affirms all intersections of Blackness. Afrofuturism 2.0 is an exploration and reclaiming of various black identities through multiple dimensions. It is a meta-analysis convergence of music, art, and sciences as performed and lived through intersectional Blackness. Her work allows her to speak about all intersections and amplify the voices of those who share similar experiences.

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