“One of the things we do is we get a little settled. We … tap into the one and done because we don’t have time, or we don’t have budget, there’s lots of reasons and excuses…”

– Annetta Latham

Introduction

The Artful Conversations podcast features conversations between leaders in arts and culture throughout Canada and the globe. The Creative Culture and Coffee series extends this into in-depth discussions between arts practitioners over coffee. In this episode, Brittany Cherweniuk and Annetta Latham discuss the complexities of interweaving Indigenous practices, perspectives and values into community cultural engagement and development.

Brittany Cherweniuk is a Métis fine craft artist and instructor residing in amiskwaciy-wâskahikan on Treaty 6 Territory. She works in textile arts to create cultural connections and tell multigenerational stories. Brittany has built her career working in museums, galleries, and not-for-profit organisations in curation, program development, youth leadership, traditional Indigenous arts, and sharing authentic Indigenous histories. Annetta Latham is an arts manager who has worked in New Zealand, Canada, Australia and Scotland. She has spent her career developing strategic business plans and policies and project-managing festivals, events, community arts projects, concerts, operas and public art installations, and developed Artful Conversations as an Assistant Professor at MacEwan University in the Arts and Cultural Management program.

In their conversation, Brittany and Annetta discuss the importance of embedding Indigenous cultural perspectives into community collaboration. Understanding and embracing protocol demonstrates that you are committed to initiating interactions with cultural sensitivity and appreciation. They emphasise the importance of baby steps: Showing that, while you might not have all the information, you want to start somewhere, learn along the way, and put in the work is crucial to developing reciprocal relationships with Indigenous groups and communities.

Being aware of colonial legacies is also vital. History is recorded within knowledge frameworks, and the ways you have been taught to understand history may have a Western ethnocentric perspective which undermines Indigenous ways of knowing. Being aware of the limitations of your perspective and open to Indigenous ways of knowing is important, even if they are difficult to reconcile.

It’s also critical to appreciate the limitations of standard project timelines. Interweaving Indigenous practices into non-Indigenous ones at the get-go helps properly develop projects and create long-lasting, mutuality which grow to benefit all communities involved.

This introduction has provided a brief overview of Brittany and Annetta’s conversation. Listen to the podcast to get a more in-depth view of community culture and engagement through an Indigenous lens.

A conversation with Brittany Cherweniuk and Annetta Latham