Walk a Mile in My Moccasins

EMILIA-AMALIA continues its year-long collaboration with the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC), titled HOLES AND HOW TO FILL THEM, through a program of curated screenings. Inviting emerging artists and curators to respond to EMILIA-AMALIA’s programming, and to the CFMDC film collection, these screenings activate holes, gaps and omissions as artistic and political strategies.

Curated by Adrienne Huard, “Walk a Mile in My Moccasins (Then Slide Them Off and Come Lay With Me)” is a program featuring a film and a video project that engage the intersections of Two-Spirit identity, queerness, Indigenous feminism, gender expression and sexual autonomy. In “Positions” (2018) by Justin Ducharme and “Honey Moccasin” (1998) by Shelley Niro, perspectives on queerness, tradition and Indigenous understandings of gender playfully expand on Two-Spirit representations. These films normalize Indigenous experiences and subvert the settler colonial gaze.

Ducharme and Niro reject the notion that Indigenous queerness is steeped in pain and brokenness and, alternatively, they dismiss the desire to overcompensate for this negative affect through the use of unrealistic, jubilant tones. Neither pleasure-based nor steeped in colonial trauma, they show Indigenous lives existing in a world that was imposed on them. This program celebrates cultural and gender identities through a neutral perspective—with humour, drama, subtlety and unapologetic NDNness.

Featured works:

• “Positions” by Justin Ducharme (Canada 2018 12 min. digital)
• “Honey Moccasin” by Shelley Niro (Canada 1998 47 min. 16mm )

Total Runtime: 1 hr The screening is free and the venue is fully accessible.

Adrienne Huard is an Anishinaabekwe born in so-called Winnipeg and is currently based in Tkarón:to/Toronto. She is registered at Couchiching First Nation, Fort Frances, Ontario. After graduating in 2012 from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in photography, she decided to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in art history at Concordia University in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Huard graduated from Concordia in April 2018 and is currently attending OCAD University’s graduate-level Criticism and Curatorial Practice program.

EMILIA-AMALIA is a feminist working group based in Toronto. Initiated in 2016, E-A activates modes of informal knowledge sharing and experimental writing to explore relationships of mentorship, collaboration and indebtedness between generations of feminist artists, writers, and curators.