Mamanaw Pekiskwewina | Mother Tongues: Saskatoon
Co-Curatred by Missy LeBlanc and Kiyari McNab
November 2022 to January 2023 
stay tuned for information on upcoming events

What does it mean when your mother tongue is not the language of your mothers and grandmothers? What does it mean to speak in a language that is not your own, that is not the language that has been passed down and flows through you, sustaining you?

Embedded within languages are entire worlds; language reveals how we know what we know and teaches us how to relate to one another and the land. Being raised with a foster language, a language forced onto us by colonizers, affects all aspects of a life and the lives of those that come after. We take root and are nourished within and by our language as it moves through our bodies and guides us. But what happens when the words that guide you are not the same words that guided your ancestors, but are words instead tainted by imperialism and colonialism?

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Mamanaw Pekiskwewina: Saskatoon is the fourth and final locality specific iteration of the Mamanaw Pekiskwewina project and is presented in tandem with the tour of Taskoch pipon kona kah nipa muskoseya, nepin pesim eti pimachihew | Like the winter snow kills the grass, the summer sun revives it across so-called Canada. Developed in consultation with members of Saskatoon’s Indigenous community including Elders, Knowledge Keepers, artists, and youth, Mamanaw Pekiskwewina: Saskatoon celebrates and makes visible the traditional and ancestral languages of the lands of what is now presently known as Northern Saskatchewan. Mamanaw Pekiskwewina: Saskatoon is co-curated by Missy LeBlanc and Kiyari McNab for AKA Artist-Run.

The Northern Michif translation of “Mother Tongues” was provided by SkyBlue Morin. 

Taskoch pipon kona kah nipa muskoseya, nepin pesim eti pimachihew | Like the winter snow kills the grass, the summer sun revives it is curated by Missy LeBlanc and is organized and circulated by TRUCK Contemporary Art and is presented in partnership with AKA Artist-Run.