Craftspeople
Sedalia Fazio et Rita Jacobs Fazio
Sedalia Fazio and her mother, Rita Jacobs Fazio, are both Mohawks from Kahnawake. Rita has been beading since she was a child, just like her daughter. Sedalia has also been dancing since the age of two. Today, although her health prevents her from dancing, she continues to sing and conduct sweat lodge ceremonies for the benefit of the urban Aboriginal community of Montreal.
Martin Loft
Martin Akwiranoron Loft was born and raised in Kahnawake, Mohawk Territory. He has been a professional artist for over thirty years. He is a photographer, printmaker, and craftsperson. He was also a founding member of the Native Indian Inuit Photographers' Association (NIIPA, 1985-2000), an influential indigenous artists' organization that presented Visions, the first international Indigenous photography conference and touring exhibition. Martin has exhibited his photography, traditional crafts, and prints nationally and internationally at venues such as the National Museum of the American Indian, Museum of Civilization, Royal Ontario Museum, Iroquois Indian Museum, Mashantucket Pequot Museum, McCord Museum, and the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic, which recently hosted the exhibition ‘On the Paths of the Iroquois’. In 2017, he participated in the Imago International Art Exhibition in Venice, Italy. Martin worked in his home community of Kahnawake for 27 years in various capacities, including Public Programs Supervisor at the Kanien'kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center, where he coordinated community outreach activities, including culture and history workshops, academic and arts conferences, art workshops, and visual arts exhibitions. Martin has a strong interest in Kanien'kehaka (Mohawk) language, history and culture and is a graduate of the Ratiwennahnirats Mohawk Immersion Program. Martin continues to promote the arts in the Indigenous community through artist’s talks, printmaking workshops, arts advocacy and community development in the arts.
Martin Akwiranoron Loft Artist’s Statement
My artistic background is rooted in photography, printmaking, and traditional crafts. I have worked in each medium and see them as equal forms of expression; each informing me of who I am as an Onkwehónwe artist. My journey, as a Kanien’keháka person and creative person, is to be cognizant of the influences of contemporary culture, media, and Indigenous history in my artistic practice. I strive to be a conduit for this flood of information and feed it into my personal artistic expression. Bits and pieces, fragments and clues can be found in our everyday conversations and incorporated into metaphoric symbolism -my own personal iconography. My goal is to weave this energy into my imagery as a way of satisfying my creative interests and to make a modern signpost …visual marker. I was here. This is what I saw.
Francine Francis
Francine Francis is a Mi’kmaq visual artist from Metepenagiag First Nation (Red Bank, N.B.). She has a Bachelor of Arts in Aboriginal Fine Arts from the First Nations University of Canada in Regina, Saskatchewan.
“My passion has always been with colour and my love for animals comes from nature. I colour my world through the eyes of a sensitive Mi’kmaq woman who views her world as a place where the land and animals are sacred. My images can be colourful or gentle and unassuming. I enjoy the process of layering the paint to create visual and tactile layers. I use a variety of Mi’kmaq Designs, but the one I identify with the most is the Double Curve motif… When I use this, it says, this is Mi’kmaq.”
Mi'kmaq :
"Ta’n koqwey ni’n pewatman kaqisk na welamu’kl esowiekn’ aq ta’n teli eksalkik wi’sisk ula ta’n maqamikew telisqaliaq.
Esowia’du ni’n n’t uksitqamum ta’n teli sabutabian ukpukukal sankewe’k Mi’kamewi’skw tan telaptek nekm uksiqamum stike’ maqamikew aq wi’sisk sape’ulti’tij.
N’t amaljaqawi’kaqanml kisi kaqaw-amu’ktetal kisna wantaqa-mu’ktetal aq lnim piam dalamu’ktnukl.
Kesatm na tan teli eleka’tu amaljaqanm klapis kisituan te’s menaqa telapaqtekel
E’wuman’ na pukwelkl Mi’kamewe’l kwisete’taqan, pasek tan newte’ mawi eksite’tm na tapuwi-apuwipkatekewe’l……….
tan te’s e’wuman wekela na teluwek, ula na Mi’kamewey"
