York University Libraries (YUL) has called on Indigenous students to help advance efforts to create safe, welcoming spaces on campus through an art competition that contributes to the co-design of the Miinkaanensing Indigenous Reading Room.
Plans for the Miinkaanensing Indigenous Reading Room at York University’s Keele Campus Scott Library were initiated in 2023 in response to the need for a quiet, safe environment for Indigenous students that supports identity, research and well-being.
Since its soft launch earlier this year, YUL has been evolving the room through ongoing student involvement, including contributions to the setting’s design.
“In inviting student to co-create the room we hope it gives them belonging and autonomy in a space that they helped to create,” says Cora Coady, Indigenous teaching and learning librarian.
The initiative also reflects York’s commitment to advancing the priorities outlined in the 2024 Indigenous Framework Six-Year Review Report, which highlights the importance of creating environments where “Indigenous people can gather as a community, engage with each other and feel that moment of recognition.” As part of these efforts, York continues to create campus settings that celebrate Indigenous presence, foster belonging and promote reconciliation through action.
The Indigenous Student Art Competition is an example of those efforts. The program invites Indigenous artists to submit original pieces to exhibit outside of the periodical room on the second floor of Scott Library until Nov. 28. A panel of York community jurors will select three creations to be purchased for permanent display. The winning pieces will be announced on YUL's Indigenous Initiatives website and unveiled at the Miinkaanensing Indigenous Reading Room's formal opening event in the Lorna Marsden Salon on Nov. 27.
Currently, the art of seven contributors is on display, representing a variety of mediums – from beadwork and embroidery to poetry and digital media – that explore Indigenous identity, heritage and resilience.
Several of the students' submissions share thematic threads, such as connection to community, land, intergenerational knowledge, family and ancestry.
For example, a series of beadwork bears created by student Jordan Fiegehen represents her connection to the Bear Clan. “I am incredibly proud to be Bear Clan, who are historically protectors and healers. It reminds me of my own strength, and although I can feel alone, I never truly am,” she says.
A framed poem by Tori Gosse, a two-time recipient of the York University President’s Award in Poetry, reflects on her great-grandmother, who was Mi’kmaq but hid her history for much of her life. “I wanted to try to turn my poetry into art and use it as a way to connect more to not just her, but my other ancestors that I never got to meet,” says Gosse.
The importance of connection in their work is also seen in the Miinkaanensing Indigenous Reading Room’s role as a gathering place where visitors can see their experiences and creativity recognized.
“Places to be able to decompress alone or with like-minded people are incredibly important,” says Fiegehen. Gosse echoes that sentiment. “It connects you to your own culture and other people's cultures as well,” she says. “Having areas like this builds that community for us and allows us to connect more and feel more comfortable here on campus.”
That sense of connection, says Coady, is central to the reading room’s mission and what she hopes the art competition – and the permanent pieces to be selected – will foster. She recalls when she first interviewed Indigenous learners to understand what they wanted from library environments, they said places that felt comfortable and familiar. “I hope the artwork there will immediately make them feel more comfortable,” says Coady. “I hope it makes them feel more at home.”
The artists and their work
Grace Devries, Flourishing Genesis Beauty
Devries identifies with the Métis community and is currently completing her BA in visual arts at York. Her competition entry is a canvas that combines traditional Indigenous beading and quillwork techniques with recycled materials to celebrate nature’s beauty while highlighting the need to protect it from consumerist culture.
Jordan Fiegehen, I am Still Here and I am Not Alone
Fiegehen, a fourth-year anthropology student of Batchewana First Nation pursuing her second undergraduate degree at York, submitted a beadwork piece honouring her mother, depicting polar bears as symbols of strength and resilience.
Tori Gosse, All My Relations Blame You
Gosse is a writer from Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland) whose work explores Mi'kmaq identity, including in her submission: a poem in a hand-painted birch-bark–inspired frame that uses letters from the Mi’kmaq alphabet to explore language, cultural memory and the resilience of identity.
Matthew Johns, Legacy
Johns, of Mohawk and French Canadian heritage, is completing a specialized honours degree in financial and business economics at York. Their digital artwork transforms a photograph of Johns' great-grandfather into layered, fractured triangles to reflect the disruption of language and culture caused by residential schools, while honouring family resilience and the reconstruction of identity.
Sativa Kawakami, stills from home in blue
Kawakami, a Settler-Michif woman born in Toronto, is completing her master’s in environmental studies. Her competition entry is a collection of digital stills from a microfilm installation that captures the visual and narrative essence of the original work.
Marissa Magneson, ispâhkêpayiw (s/he ascends or reaches a higher level)
Magneson is a Cree-Métis artist, educator, and a PhD candidate at York. Magneson's submission is beadwork on melton framed with wood that honours the journey of Indigenous students in post-secondary education, using each bead to symbolize persistence, courage and acts of reclamation.
Jennifer Sedgewick, Odehmin
Sedgewick is a Michif/Métis whose entry is a mixed-media piece that uses contemporary and antique beads, abalone shell, vintage silk velvet, leather and melton cloth to depict the strawberry’s life cycle, symbolizing growth, renewal and the potential of students engaging with York's Indigenous Reading Room, Miinkaanensing.
Through initiatives like the Miinkaanensing Indigenous Reading Room, York continues to take a leading role in reimagining how university environments can reflect Indigenous identity and support community. The ongoing collaboration between students and York University Libraries stands as an example of how co-creation and inclusion can make a lasting impact across campus.