What We Do

BWPrint72We are a community based social arts and justice organization, interested in helping Indigenous communities, particularly youth, with reclaiming the richness and vibrancy of their heritage including traditional arts, but with a contemporary spin. Our collective combines land-based contemporary art creation with traditional arts, anishinaabemowin immersion, and Elders and traditional knowledge and land based practices. We believe the arts are the most powerful medium to create positive social change within our communities for the future.

Pronounced ah-nah-mun, The Onaman Collective was formed in November of 2014 by Isaac Murdoch, and Christi Belcourt. We care so deeply about the youth and the future of our communities, each of us in our own way has been using our art for social change. We formed the collective for the express purpose of finding ways to converge land-based art creation with traditional knowledge, youth, Elders and Anishnaabemowin and Cree languages.

Some of our projects include:

  • Anishinaabemowin Wiigwaam: Language Houses
  • The Sacred Fisher Story: The Youth Mural Project
  • Onaman Kendaagozid: Gathering about Sacred Paint (Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan & Alberta)
  • Canoe Building in Chippewa of the Thames in July, 2015
  • Murals & storytelling within Schools
  • Painted Hand Gathering in Sept 2015
  • On-going youth mentorship
  • On-going collaborative art pieces within the collective
  • On-line Spreecast Forum: Community Discussion on Nuclear Waste
  • LAND FUND: Ongoing fundraising for land to set up a permanent traditional camp to be able to host year round language, art and traditional food camps.
  • Snowshoe Making Workshop, Serpent River, ON
  • Cree Language House (Edmonton)
  • Great Lakes Gathering, July 14-17, Sault Ste Marie, ON
  • Birch Harvesting
  • Canoe building
  • Research with Elders
  • Youth Art Retreat: Words from the Land
  • Traditional Foods Camp
  • #CallResponse (http://www.callresponseart.ca/)
  • On-going collaborative works
  • Community Art Builds: screen printing banners in communities

RESEARCH

Within our collective we continue to do research into the areas that interest us and to make presentations on:

    • Onaman (red ochre / earth based paints)
    • Pictographs
    • Traditional tattooing
    • Traditional Stories & Legends
    • Constellations
    • Anishinaabeg & Metis History & Oral History
    • Sacred Sites
    • Anisinaabemowin place names & plant names

 

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