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April 10, 2025
Messages in the Water: A Conversation About Art, Community and Advocacy
Join Jaimie Isaac (Just Waters Artist In Residence), Dr. Aimée Craft (Decolonizing Water, University of Ottawa), KC Adams (Artist) and Taylor Galvin (Mother Earth Protector, Scientist, Community Organizer) for a conversation about water and the role of art and community organization in a precarious time. Recognizing our relationship to water encourages a responsibility to protect what is sacred. As water carriers, the women carry a responsibility for water stewardship. Walking with community in support, how can we make change and live in reciprocity with the land and water?
Many Indigenous peoples globally recognize that water is sacred, and countries have passed groundbreaking laws granting legal personhood status to their water systems, honoring the Indigenous peoples’ perspective of waters as relatives and ancestors. This discussion will focus on interdisciplinary perspectives on community advocacy for water, living in relation to water and seeing the messages in the water through art.
6:00 pm Doors open + food
6:30 pm Panel
FREE
No registration required
Note: Use the entrance at the corner of Memorial Blvd and St. Mary Ave- the new part of WAG-Qaumajuq. The event takes place in Ilavut – Entrance Hall and Ilipvik – Learning Steps.
If you have accessibility requirements, including translation, please email sarah.deckert@umanitoba.ca at least one week before the event.
This event is the third and final installment in the CHRR’s 2025 Critical Conversations series. This year, the series of three public events is held in partnership with WAG-Qaumajuq and focuses on water and justice. Just Waters: Thinking with Hydro-Social Relations for a More Just and Sustainable World, the Centre for Human Rights Research, and the University of Manitoba’s United Nations Academic Impact Hub for Sustainable Development Goal 6 Last Drop speaker series, are collaborating to host these events. Funding is provided by the University of Manitoba’s IGNITE program, with in-kind contributions from WAG-Qaumajuq.
About the Speakers
Jaimie Isaac (she/her/hers) is a curator and interdisciplinary artist, Anishinaabe member of Sagkeeng First Nation and is of British heritage. She was the Chief Curator at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria from 2021-2023, and advisor 2023-2024.
As the Curator of Contemporary and Indigenous Arts at the Winnipeg Art Gallery 2015-2021, she was awarded the Canadian Museums Association outstanding achievement award in exhibitions category with the Boarder X exhibition. Isaac has a degree in Art History and a Masters of Arts from the University of British Columbia focused on decolonizing gallery/museum practices.
Through academic, curatorial, consulting/advisory, collaborative and artistic projects, Jaimie engages in areas of reconciliation, resistance, decolonization in art and in sport, Indigenous feminism, environmental justice, language and cultural resurgence. Isaac has lectured, curated internationally with research trips and residencies in Norway, Finland, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Chicago, and New York. Bodies of art commissioned and exhibited take form in film, public art, installation and mixed media. With published work, Isaac has contributed to scholarly collections of writing within textbooks and journals.
Taylor Galvin, an Anishinaabe-Kwe scientist from Baaskaandibewiiziibiing (Brokenhead Ojibway Nation), is a graduate student at the University of Manitoba. Her research centers on protecting Lake Sturgeon in Manitoba through the use of Indigenous science. She has made significant contributions across various fields, notably as a knowledge keeper in the Lake Winnipeg Personhood case in partnership with the Southern Chief’s Organization. On the international stage, she has worked with Maya youth in Belize to advance planetary wellness and food sovereignty initiatives. Additionally, she has provided counsel to the Canadian Ambassador in the Netherlands on the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge into sustainability projects. As a guest lecturer, she teaches First Nations ecology, Indigenous medicinal plants, and land-based healing practices. Taylor is currently the Host & Creator of the TeaPee Podcast, Director of the Brokenhead Wetland Ecological Reserve and holds positions on several boards that advocate for Indigenous perspectives.
