As part of Jamii's 6th Annual National Indigenous Peoples Day Celebrations
Exhibited at The Esplanade & Lower Sherbourne St - David Crombie Park
In the spring of 2024, Jamii collaborated with emerging photographer Leah Maddy King to create Koshki’zi, a stunning photo exhibition unveiled at David Crombie Park on June 21st as part of Jamii’s Annual Indigenous Day Celebration.
Leah King, a self-taught photographer from Pikangikum First Nation, began her journey with macro and landscape photography, later expanding to astrophotography, capturing mesmerizing images of the moon and northern lights. Through her lens, Leah expresses her personal narrative and captures moments that hold profound meaning for her and her community.
Jamii’s collaboration with Leah began in 2021 with Illuminated Perspectives, a photo exhibition featuring four photographers from Pikangikum First Nation and curated by 11 young women from The Esplanade community. We are deeply honored to continue this creative journey with Leah, made possible through the generous support of our funders.
If you want to learn more about Leah and her work, click here.
Unveiled on Thursday, June 21, 2024
On display from June to November 2024
As part of
CREDITS
Producer: Jamii
Photographer: Leah King
Curator: Isorine Marc
Graphic Designer: Iris Unlu
Additional Coordination: Vanessa Hazel
ARTISTIC STATEMENT BY LEAH KING:
Our culture and our connection to Mother Earth has been deep in slumber. We were made to forget. We began to fear it. Now we are awake. Restless. We see with new eyes. Reborn. We are taking back our culture. We wear the ribbon skirt that connects us with Mother Earth. We dance because we have reclaimed what we lost. We are awake. And we will relearn and rebuild.
Leah King, an emerging photographer from Pikangikum First Nation, is self-taught. She began with macro and landscape photography, later exploring astrophotography by capturing images of the moon and northern lights. Through her photos, she expresses herself, capturing moments and images that hold deep meaning for her and her community.
PIKANGIKUM FIRST NATION:
Pikangikum First Nation is located on Pikangikum Lake, approximately 100 km northwest of Red Lake in Northern Ontario. “Pikangikum” comes from the Ojibway word “Biikanjikamiing,” which refers to how the Berens River flows into Pikangikum Lake on the east, how the lake spreads out from the river on either side, and how the river leaves the lake in the west across from where it enters. It is a community of about 4,000 inhabitants, surrounded by a natural environment. The lakes and the forest are where a majority of community members still derive a significant portion of their domestic and livelihood needs and where they spend a significant portion of the year living on the land, carrying on traditions since time immemorial.
RELATION BETWEEN JAMII/THE ESPLANADE COMMUNITY and PIKANGIKUM FIRST NATION:
Relationships are central to our lives and help to ground us as individuals, as families, and as communities. The relationship between The Esplanade community within the St. Lawrence neighbourhood in Toronto and Pikangikum First Nation began in 2018, when Jamii initiated an intra-provincial project with residents of our community who had ties with other communities in Ontario. Our first visit to Pikangikum took place in 2018, with Asmita, a resident of The Esplanade, serving as our ambassador. Jamii’s initial visit to Pikangikum aimed at forging connections, and since then, Jamii has annually collaborated on arts projects with Pikangikum Education Authority and Eenchokay Birchstick School, focusing on youth, storytelling, and well-being. Some of these collaborations include showcasing the work of four photographers from Pikangikum in The Esplanade in 2021. In June 2023, Darwin Peters created a mural on the St. Lawrence Community Recreation Centre in Toronto, while Morningstar Quill exhibited her photographic work in our local park. In 2023 and 2024, Jamii, while in Pikangikum, created a series of video portraits featuring artists, community leaders, and Elders—a project that was born from within the community, which expressed a need to capture their own stories. Through time, trust and mutual appreciation between our communities have grown, and we are deeply honored to present Leah’s work today in our park, continuing to share the stories of the Indigenous peoples of Canada.
If you want to learn more about Jamii's relation with Pikangikum community, click here:
