tiny cultural centre is a pop-up intervention project that imagines our collective decolonial futures. tiny cultural centre co-organizers H Kryworuchko and Aysia Tse organize solidarity-focused arts programming that centres informal knowledge production and exchange. Together, we show up for each other, dream and build a world we want to live in.

H and Aysia are friends, teammates, co-workers, and community arts organizers. They first started tiny cultural centre in 2023 as classmates studying in the Arts and Social Change minor program at OCAD University.

 

 

Aysia Tse (she/her) is a Singaporean-born visual artist, facilitator, and arts worker based in Toronto. Her practice involves movement-based work, performance and multimedia installations that engage themes relating to madness, queerness, and her mixed diasporic identity.

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Dr. Bonnie McElhinny is Professor of anthropology and women and gender studies at the University of Toronto. She directs Great Lakes Waterwork/Water Allies (waterallies.com), and is part of the Water Pathways research cluster at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Her books include Language, Capitalism, Colonialism (with Monica Heller). Bonnie is of Irish, Slavic, German, French, and English descent. She grew up at the confluence of the Connoquenessing River and Glade Run, on Seneca, Lenape, and Shawnee territory, and is writing a book, The River Runs a Long Way Straight Here, about these rivers. Giidaakunadaad and McElhinny have held two  previous grants together: Thirteen Moon Journey (Ontario Indigenous Cultural Fund) and Thirteen Moon Journey/Water Gathering (SSHRC Connection Grant for BuildingIndigenous Research Capacity/Reconciliation). In 2019, Giidaakunadaad and McElhinny participated in a national gathering sponsored by SSHRC to share insights on Indigenous research methodologies.

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H(annah) Kryworuchko (they/she/he) is an emerging textile artist completing their BDes at OCAD University in Material Art and Design with a minor in Art and Social Change. H’s practice engages in the (often radical) acts of living and making; with others, in their body, with land, in water, and through our crises together. 

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Katie Doreen belongs to the Mohawk Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and sits with the Bear Clan in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. Inspired by her experiences growing up on a First Nations Reserve under a series of long-term water advisories, Katie is committed to protecting the Great Lakes waters by sharing Indigenous knowledge. She draws from the Kanyen’kehà:ka ways of knowing about place and the traditional responsibilities humans have to the Earth according to the Haudenosaunee worldview.

 

As the Biinaagami Editorial and Education Coordinator, Katie bridges Indigenous and western epistemologies to encourage all to accept our shared responsibility to the Great Lakes. With degrees in Geography, Global Development, and Geographic Education, Katie blends academic training with Indigenous land-based knowledge to advocate for water stewardship, language preservation, and environmental justice.

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Anishinaabe Traditional Grandmother Kim Wheatley is Ojibway, Potawatomi and Caribbean in ancestry. She is a band member of Shawanaga First Nation located on the shores of Georgian Bay in Robinson Huron Treaty Territories and is Turtle Clan. She carries the Spirit name “Head or Leader of the Fireflower” and has worked for over 3 decades with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities across Canada.

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As a multi-award-winning speaker, Kim has appeared locally, nationally, and internationally in books, magazines, television, radio, and numerous news articles and podcasts. Her work is viewed as diverse, dynamic, motivational, and powerful while always inclusive.

Currently Kim hosts her own podcast called Ancestral Voices We Belong. She is a published author, hand drummer, singer, water walker, artist, columnist, ceremonial practitioner, and ancestral knowledge keeper. Kim is committed to forging good relationships aligned with reconciliation that honour the past, connect the present and contribute to the future.

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Dr. Mariko Uda is an ecologically-minded writer/illustrator, speaker & consultant, with a background in biology, chemistry, architecture, and civil engineering, living in Toronto. First, she studied biology & chemistry (B. Sc., University of Waterloo), which allowed her to understand nature including our bodily health.  Then, realizing that a lot of the problems – and solutions – are in how we design our cities, she studied civil engineering (B. A. Sc. University of Toronto).  Next, because she loves art and design, I studied a bit of architecture (Certificate, Ryerson University).  Finally, I put it all together with a Ph. D. in civil engineering at the University of Toronto focussed on how to design resilient communities and cities. 

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Over the years, she has worked at companies such as Ontario Power Generation, Stevens Burgess Architects, and Rivercourt Engineering as well as participated in a variety of grass-roots community groups. Her first book, Where does it all come from? Where does it all go? Toronto’s water, energy, and waste systems  answers these questions for Torontonians of all ages and backgrounds in a simple and fun way. Looking at maps, readers can get to know specifically how they fit into the larger picture. Once we know where things come from and where things go, we are no longer lost. We are connected, and have a foundation upon which to develop a caring relationship with our environment.

 

Elder Mary Lou Smoke is an Anishinawbe Kwe from Batchawana Bay.  She loves to share her culture and Traditional Teachings through story telling and Traditional Drum songs. “The sound represents the heartbeat of our mother the earth, which is the reason so many people are drawn to our drumming,” she says.

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As residents of the London Ontario community for almost 50 years, she and her late husband Dan had the pleasure of creating a weekly radio program for CHRW from 1990 to 2023. They also appeared on CTV for 20 years, giving the 8 million viewers watching the opportunity to know more about the issues and happenings of Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island. In 2022, the Smokes were awarded honorary doctorates by Western University for their contributions as writers, broadcasters, adjunct professors, and social justice activists.

 

Mary Lou is currently Elder-in-Residence at Western’s Wampum Learning Lodge. “The most important thing is ensuring the next seven generations have a place to live and clean water for survival,” she says.  “It’s my responsibility as an Elder and as a woman to pass on the teachings I have learned.”

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Giidaakunadaad (The Spirit who lives in high places), Nancy Rowe is
Michizaagiig, Ojibwe of the Anishinaabek Nation, located at New Credit First Nation. She is a recognized Knowledge Keeper and Representative of New Credit. She holds an honours BA in Indigenous Studies and Political Science. She founded Akinoomaagaye Gaamik lodge in 2014, to provide educational opportunities for all interested in Indigenous perspectives on life, health, education, history, and the environment.
Akinomaagaye Gaamik has many partnerships that support on-going education in Ontario, Boards of Education, Ontario Principals Council, Ontario Human Rights Commission, Ontario Teachers Federation, Ministry of Education, University of Toronto and Indigenous Organizations.

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