Thursday, October 9, 2025, 6 – 7:30 pm
Kina Gegoo Miiksemgad “Everything Fits Together”: Anishinaabe Symbols, Meaning Making, and Memory Keeping
Respondent talk with Dr. Alan Corbiere
Pavilion
A public talk and conversation with Dr. Alan Ojiig Corbiere, associate professor in the History Department at York University. Corbiere’s research is focused on Indigenous histories and relations examining the complexity of treaty negotiations between Indigenous peoples as well as with settler governments. His research explores collective memory, relationships to place, and shared responsibilities. This talk by Corbiere is presented in conjunction with our current exhibition Standing in the room together, featuring Michael Belmore, Bob Boyer, Jack Bush, Edward Poitras, and Tariku Shiferaw. His talk will offer new ways of seeing and reading the exhibition, reflecting on crossing generational dialogue and cultural contexts establishing Indigenous approaches to history, storytelling, and language preservation.
Standing in the room together rethinks aspects of the York University Art Collection, its relation to contemporary artists, and how it generates uncommon connections between artworks, revealing lesser-known narratives that can reorder the canons of art history. The exhibition brings together unlikely pairings of works and artists, responding to the throughline of modernist abstraction in the University’s art collection. Standing in the room together is curated by Lillian O’Brien Davis with Michael Belmore.
Bob Boyer, A Rocky Path but a Good One, 1985. Acrylic on paper. Courtesy the collection of Michael Belmore.
Dr. Alan Ojiig Corbiere, Bne doodem (Ruffed Grouse clan), is an Anishinaabe from M’Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island. He is associate professor and CRC in Indigenous History of North America in the History Department within the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies. For five years he served as the Executive Director at the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation (OCF) in M’Chigeeng, a position which also encompassed the roles of curator and historian. He also served as the Anishinaabemowin Revitalization Program Coordinator at Lakeview School, M’Chigeeng First Nation, where he and his team worked on a culturally based second language program that focused on using Anishinaabe stories to teach language. His research interests include Indigenous Peoples, history, Anishinaabe language revitalization, and treaty research and relationships. He received his PhD in History at York University as well as his MES with a BSc from the University of Toronto. Corbiere is dedicated to Ojibwa language revitalization as an essential part of preserving Indigenous cultural and knowledge.
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