Wanda Nanibush / We Return (Billboard project)
November 8 2024 – February 2025
Co-presented by AKA Artist-Run, PAVED Arts, and the University of Saskatchewan Art Galleries and Collections
424 20th St. W. Saskatoon
Opening Reception Friday, November 8, 7–10 pm
Concurrent with The Sounding Collective opening reception, BlackFlash Magazine launch, and PAVED Meant Vol. 5 launch.
In the “We Return” billboard project, renowned Anishinaabe-kwe image and word warrior, curator and community organizer Wanda Nanibush explores common threads, both literal and symbolic, as expressed in Palestinian and Anishinaabe aesthetics and actions. A tapestry of text and image speaks to the value both cultures have for family, children, and land that is underpinned by an unconditional love. The billboard contains a photograph Nanibush took from the Nakba village of Luffa where presence is maintained by marking a cacti with the word Palestine, an action against erasure. She also had a tatreez pattern and Anishinaabe saddle bag pattern weaved together both highlighting the aesthetic similarities and the joining together to end settler colonialism. Finally, Nanibush and Mohammed Abu Laban who lives in the West Bank came up with the prose after talking about the importance of love, the sacredness of children and the returns genocides try to deny us. This is about returning love to our communities and protecting our children, our future ancestors.