Janna Nicholas

As the living world burst into colour and then was blanketed in snow, Est-Nord-Est transformed its space into a meeting place for the Wolastoqey Nation and its close analogues from other Indigenous nations and the Wabanaki Confederation. This residency, curated by Ivanie Aubin-Malo, brought together Catherine Desjardins and Janna Nicholas, along with visits from Martin Savoie, Kateri Nisnipawset Aubin Dubois, Léa Garneau, Terry David Young, Ariane Desjardins, Mélanie Brière, Marie-Eve Chabot Lortie, Marcus Merasty, Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, Angela Beek, Samaqani Cocahq. Although traditional creation and techniques were certainly a main feature of the residency, I learned during my visit that relationships were at its heart.

During our conversations, I noted Janna’s humility and generosity. The oldest of the artists who stayed for the entire residency, she considered Est-Nord-Est a “place for lessons,” explaining that “we are all here to learn from each other.” In her view, “as human beings, we have a sacred responsibility to the entire living world, to take care of what lives among us.” Indeed, I saw an overwhelming presence of life in her work, among both her materials and her chosen subjects. From her strong foundation in spirituality, she expresses herself in many ways; at Est-Nord-Est, she cooked meals for the other artists and taught people how to make good bannock, and at home she takes care of her four children, attends ceremonies, and creates works expressing her ancestral beliefs. She is particularly interested in forms that have high symbolic meaning for her nation and for other Indigenous nations of Turtle Island. For example, referring to the fact that we live on the turtle’s back and to this animal’s particular importance to her, she emulated the shape of its carapace to make her smudge bowl.

Janna is also a storyteller. Her works are imbued with narrativity. Working with birch bark, she has made drawings of great blue herons – particularly important in her community – and star women, visually recounting stories central to her culture. And so, she talked to me about her community’s origin stories, teaching me that Indigenous people come from the stars – more precisely, from constellations. She conveyed this in a porcupine-quill embroidery portraying a petroglyph of an eight-pointed star, an image with particularly strong symbolism. In this way, she conveys, in both gestures and art, her own vision of her nation’s stories and spiritual knowledge.