Nation to Nation is a collective of First Nations artists whose main goals are to create a forum for dialogue on issues of art, race and culture; and to encourage a community in which we can support and learn from each other. To achieve these goals, we hold events, exhibitions, performances and workshops.
Nation to Nation began officially as a group in April 1994 when we organized A Celebration of Art, which took place in one member's studio/loft in Old Montreal. This event featured Michelle Thrush's one-woman performance, Reclaim. In addition, five visual artists displayed their work (and we called that aspect of the event Nation to Nation). Because of limited space, only seventy-five people were invited "by invitation only". Almost double that amount crammed themselves inside that stuffy loft to watch the performance and then to perform themselves in a lively open-mic that included story-telling, poetry, and a lot of blues harmonica. Nation to Nation was born.
The phrase "nation to nation" comes from Iroquois teachings about the traditional two-row wampum, which embodied the idea of respect for a people's customs and meant that treaties signed with the newcomers were as one nation to another: Mohawk, Dutch, Seneca, American. As a group of contemporary Native artists, we use the phrase to express the idea of dialogue between people and peoples, as individuals, artists' groups, communities or countries. It also refers to the idea of movement: rather than focus on securing a permanent home, Nation to Nation, as a constantly mutating collective, will move nomadically from space to space, city to city, nation to nation.
True to our aims, we continued to organize events to keep us active and artistically productive, while bringing together Natives and non-Natives, as well as artists and non-artists. Subsequent events included an artist exchange between the Vermont Artists Group and Nation to Nation; an Art Bingo to which fifteen artists donated art to be won by lucky bingo players; An Evening with Even Adams, a writer, actor and AIDS educator who read from his recent works; Vision to Vision, an exhibition and screening of videos by artists including Ruby Marie Dennis, Daniel Dion, and members of the collective, Live Out Loud; and Native Love, the first exhibition for which we asked participating artists to create new work. To our delight, this show is now travelling.
Our most recent project, CyberPowWow, is an interactive, internet event which will launch a WebPage dedicated to issues of contemporary Native art. For more information about CPW, and how you can participate, consult the How-To page.
Our next project, Six of the Nation, will present an exhibition series of six Mohawk artists of Kahnawakeronon ancestry at the Kanien'kehaka Raotitiohkwa Cultural Centre in Kahnawake. Beginning April 7, 1997, these three-week long exhibitions will each feature one artist, working in their chosen medium, from painting to printmaking, drawing to collage.
Nation to Nation believes that creativity is a fundamental link which brings together all aspects of community. We will continue organizing events and exhibitions that encourage dialogue and artmaking, and that strengthen our community.