Mikinaak (Crystal) Migwans

Mikinaak (Crystal) Migwans is a member of Wiikwemikoong Unceded Territory and Assistant Professor of Indigenous Contemporary Art in Canada at the University of Toronto with a cross-appointment as Curator of Indigenous Art at the U of T Art Museum. Their research and pedagogy is focused on Indigenous relations in museum and gallery settings, the power of makers, and the politics of place-making, with special attention to weaving, women, and water relations in the northeast. Their dissertation at Columbia University explores the natural fibre weaving traditions of the Great Lakes, especially the bulrushes which Renee Wasson Dillard has called “the first water protectors.” Migwans has worked with the Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts & Culture at Carleton University, the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation in M’Chigeeng First Nation and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.