The 2025 Indigenous Futures Research Centre (IFRC) Annual Research Symposium will feature meaningful discussions centred around Indigenous perspectives, methodologies, and research practices that actively engage Indigenous knowledge systems and communities.
Join us as we spark dialogues between faculty and students from across Concordia University, shedding light on current challenges and exploring connected and constructive visions for the future.
Location: 4TH SPACE, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W. Concordia University
No registration is required; however, seats are limited, so please arrive early.
Alternatively, we invite you to check out our programming via 4TH SPACE’s YouTube Channel or via Zoom.
DAY 1
Thursday, January 23
1:00 PM
Opening Remarks
Ohen:ton Karihwatéhkwen by Prof. Hannah Claus
1:15 PM
Indigenous Art Histories: More than Fluff and Feathers
Rodrigo D’Alcantara, Dayna Danger, and Victoria May
Moderated by Dr. Michelle McGeough
The title of this panel is based on an exhibition and text written by the late Kanien'kehá:ka scholar Dr. Deborah Doxtator. Doxtator’s exhibition and text Fluffs and Feathers: An Exhibit on the Symbols of Indianness offered a critique of the ways Indigenous people are portrayed in popular culture. While the exhibition occurred in the 1990s, many of these notions of “Indianness” remain a part of the non-Indigenous imagination. These stereotypes are not benign but reveal the violence of settler colonialism. This panel presents the work of three emerging scholars whose research and praxis speaks to the impact of settler colonialism but centers Indigenous concerns and ideas regarding possible futurities.
2:15 PM
Break
2:30 PM
Where the Waters Flow: Networks and Tributaries
Presented by the Concordia University Research Chair in Onkwehonwené:ha
Jess Teionshontàhthe Beauvais, Armando Cuspinera, and Martín Rodríguez
Moderated by Prof. Hannah Claus
This panel brings together three of the Research Assistants who are currently working with the panel moderator and visual artist, Hannah Claus, on her Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council project: where the waters flow. Each will talk about their role in the project and how it connects to their own varied practices in theatre, ceramics and sound art/performance. Claus frames their contributions within a methodology built out of the Two Row Wampum, Tékeni Teiohá:te, within which the relationship between the non-Indigenous and Indigenous peoples of this territory is upheld by peace, respect and friendship.
3:30 PM
Break
3:45 PM
Weaving Culturally-Grounded Visual Identities
A Roundtable Presented by Abundant Intelligences
Tarcisio Cataldi, Julia Fortin, Kimiora Whaanga, and Renee Waiwiri
Moderated by Prof. Jason Edward Lewis
The Abundant Intelligences research program re-imagines how to conceptualize, design, develop and deploy Artificial Intelligence based on Indigenous Knowledge Systems. Brought together to discuss the collaborative and labour-intensive design process behind the creation of the program’s visual identity are AbInt designers Renee Waiwiri, Tarcisio Cataldi, Kimiora Whaanga and Julia Fortin.
DAY 2
Friday, January 24
11:00 AM
Indigenous Knowledges in Interdisciplinary Design
Iako’tsi:rareh Amanda Lickers, Dr. Mel Lefebvre, Dr. Miranda Smitheram
Moderated by Prof. Jason Edward Lewis
This panel brings together Iako'tsi:rareh Amanda Lickers, Dr. Mel Lefebvre, and Dr. Miranda Smitheram to discuss the integration of Indigenous methodologies into contemporary design practices. Through visual storytelling, skin marking, and material innovation, their respective practices explore how ancestral and contemporary methods can create sustainable and relational futures.
12:00 PM
Lunch Break
Pizza provided
12:45 PM
Wampum as Pedagogy
Presentation by Prof. Nicolas Renaud
In a new course on wampum belts, the experience that unfolded for both students and professor provided lessons in pedagogical approaches that blend theory and material practice, and make space for Indigenous ways of knowing. This presentation showcases the students’ final wampum projects and draws questions and observations from the process. It reflects on intercultural exchanges in the classroom; boundaries around a culturally specific tradition; inclusion of a creative component in a non-art class; channeling personal narratives; and realizing that a subject can "teach itself".
1:15 PM
Ways of Knowing and Un-learning in First Peoples Studies
Presented by the First Peoples Studies Program
Dalia Beaudry, Lena Palacios, Bailey Parkinson, and Zephyriah Roberts
Moderated by Prof. Nicolas Renaud
Students in the BA program in First Peoples Studies at Concordia are led to explore Indigenous contemporary realities, culturally and politically, and to deconstruct dominant settler epistemologies. Four students will present research they have done in recent FPST courses, contributing significant insight on a range of topics, such as language revitalization, decolonial archival practices in filmmaking, issues of identity definition, and recording cultural heritage in communities.
2:15 PM
Break
2:30 PM
Indigenous Cyberspace and Rez Futures
Presented by AbTeC Gallery
Destiny Chescappio and Morgan Zoe
Moderated by Skawennati
This two-part panel will begin with a conversation on the development of AbTeC Gallery: an Indigenously determined virtual exhibition space for contemporary art, located on AbTeC Island in Second Life, featuring artist and founder Skawennati, who will discuss the process of transmediating art and exhibition-making in cyberspace.
The second part of this presentation will have Skawennati moderating a conversation between Naskapi artist Destiny Chescappio from Kawawachikamach (QC) and Tłı̨chǫ artist Morgan Zoe from Behchokǫ̀ (NWT) whose recent works consider the imagining Indigenous reservations (Rez) in the future, addressing concepts of resilience, sovereignty and technology.
3:45 PM
Break
4:00 PM
Community in the Centre: Indigenous Ways of Doing Research
Presented by the Office of Community Engagement
Juliet Mackie, Christine Qillasiq Lussier, Victoria May, Véronique Picard,
Iako’tsi:rareh Amanda Lickers, and Harriet Ransom
Moderated by Geneviève Sioui
The Community-engaged learning fund for Indigenous students (CELFIS) recognizes Indigenous knowledge and methodologies as important contributions to academic knowledge and supports Indigenous students in anchoring their work in Indigenous communities. This panel brings together this year’s recipients: Métis multidisciplinary Artist Juliet Mackie, Inuk Oral Historian Christine Qillasiq Lussier, Red-River Métis-Michif Dance Scholar Victoria May, Wendat PhD candidate Véronique Picard, Seneca designer, pedagogue and multi-media artist Iako'tsi:rareh Amanda Lickers and Kanien:keha'ka educator Harriet Tsiawenion Ransom.