Indigenous initiatives in Arts

Jay Havens speaks to a group encircling the stage, there are Indigenous items including a wampum belt, on display

The Faculty of Arts is honoured to be the academic home of Indigenous faculty, students, programming, research and creative practices.

Arts is committed to ongoing and increasing collaboration with Indigenous communities to learn from and integrate Indigenous ways of knowing in our curriculum, scholarship and community engagement. This commitment aligns with the university’s Indigenous Strategic Plan, 2023-2028, and goals within the Arts Strategic Plan, 2023-2030.

These webpages represent current, past and upcoming Indigenous initiatives, people and resources that are based primarily within Arts – although many include contributions from partners across campus and beyond.

If you know of an initiative, event or idea you would like to share, please contact the Arts Communication team.

Events (Fall 2024)

Indigenous Speakers Series

Launched in 2017, the Indigenous Speakers Series highlights the voices of Indigenous artists, writers, activists, scholars and leaders from across Turtle Island.

Collaboratively organized by Indigenous and non-Indigenous members of Arts and beyond, the series has been honoured to host speakers such as the late Lee Maracle (2018), David A. Robertson (2019), Jean Teillet (2021), and Niigaan Sinclair (2023).

Read about all speakers in the series

Watch the recording of their presentations

Illustration of Jordan Jamieson against a blue background with stocks of wheat

Portrait of Jordan Jamieson by Hawlii Pichette, Urban Iskwew.

Learning opportunities

Courses

Choose from a variety of disciplines that offer courses related to indigenization and decolonization. These  include history, legal studies, political science, fine arts, English, gender and social justice, Spanish, social development studies, social work, Canadian studies, health humanities and religious studies.

The Faculty continues to seek ways to build decolonization and Indigenous perspectives into its curriculum more broadly, such as the Global Engagement Seminar.

Upcoming courses: Winter 2025

Minors, specializations, and diploma

United College offers programs open to students from any faculty at Waterloo:

Arts offers minors that incorporate courses in Indigenous studies:

Indigenous faculty members in Arts

Talena Atfield

Talena Atfield

Talena Atfield is an Assistant Professor in History at the University of Waterloo. She is of Kanien'kehá:ka of the Grand River and mixed settler backgrounds and grew up urban. She holds a Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Tentewatenikonhra'khánion (We Will Put Our Minds Together). She is also an associate professor (Yehyatonhserayente:ri) with Six Nations Polytechnic. Dr. Atfield’s research is grounded in community-based knowledge sharing and creation. She works with tangible and intangible Indigenous knowledges held in museums, galleries, and community centres, with a special focus on Hodinohso:ni material culture. Employing coming faces, or seven generations teachings to the study of Indigenous cultures held in collections, Dr. Atfield critically examines the information shared with past researchers and works with community members, scholars, and knowledge keepers to find ways to reintegrate and reinvigorate this information into community practice.

More about Dr. Atfield’s research and teaching

Jay Havens

Jay Havens

Jay Havens is an Assistant Professor in the Theatre and Performance program in the Department of Communication Arts. They are a multi-media 2Spirit artist, educator, and collaborator of Kanien’keha:ka (Haudenosaunee) and Scottish Canadian ancestry. Professor Havens was born on lands known as the Haldimand Tract and raised on Unceded Sto:lo and Musqueam lands close to Vancouver. They are a scenographer with experience in site-specific performance and installation, murals, projection and mixed media artworks for galleries, museums, and public spaces. Professor Havens’ practice embraces re-learning the ways of Onkwehon:we (original peoples) and their research has focused on Indigenous Methods of Knowledge-building applied to creative and logistical processes of scenography. They hold a BFA from the University of British Columbia and an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

More about Professor Havens’ teaching and creative practice

Logan MacDonald

Logan MacDonald

Logan MacDonald is an Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts, Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Indigenous Art, and the founding director of the Longhouse Labs at UWaterloo. He is an artist, curator, writer, educator and activist who focuses on queer, disability and Indigenous perspectives. He is of European and Mi’kmaq ancestry, who identifies with both his Indigenous and settler roots. Born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, his Mi’kmaq ancestry is connected to Elmastukwek, Ktaqamkuk. His artwork has exhibited across North America, notably with exhibitions at L.A.C.E. (Los Angeles) John Connelly Presents (New York), Ace Art Inc. (Winnipeg), The Rooms (St. John's), and Articule (Montréal). His work has been published in C Magainze, Un Magazing, Canadian Art and more. In 2019, Professor MacDonald was longlisted for the Sobey Art Award and was honoured with a six-month residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin.  He is a graduate from Concordia University with a BFA in Interdisciplinary Studies and an MFA in Studio Arts from York University.

More about Professor MacDonald’s work

Rowland Keshena Robinson

Rowland Robinson

Rowland Keshena Robinson (he/him/his) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science. A member of the Menominee Nation of Wisconsin, since 2005 he has lived and worked on the lands of the Menominee’s close kin the Anishinaabeg, as well as the Rotinonshón:ni, in what is now known as southern Ontario. Within the disciplines Dr. Robinson has been trained and worked in (anthropology, sociology, political science, and Indigenous studies) his interests are diverse and range from political theory and political philosophy to theories of ideology, autoethnographic methodologies, the logics of settler colonialism and dispossession, semiotics and national mythmaking, the metaphysics of sovereignty, as well as decolonial and indigenous critical theories.

More about Dr. Robinson’s research and teaching

Longhouse Labs

Longhouse Labs (LLabs) builds capacity amongst Indigenous students and artists through education and professionalization, dismantling barriers faced by Indigenous artists, and introducing Indigenous knowledge and practices to the wider campus community. The project responds to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to integrate Indigenous knowledge, perspectives, traditions and leadership broadly within education. Professor Logan MacDonald is the founding director of LLabs, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Art.

Located in East Campus Hall on Philip Street, LLabs includes a studio and gallery space, an archive, and soon, a garden for land-based learning. The Longhouse Fellows visiting artist program is a key aspect of the project.

Learn more about Longhouse Labs and Making space for Indigenous artists to lead

Longhouse Labs reimagines what collaboration and community intersections can look like within an institutional setting. The project is about empowering and creating dedicated space for Indigenous-led experiences and learning.

Logan MacDonald
A gallery space featuring a beaded map on deer hide and other Indigenous art work

Bead the Tract was the first exhibition held at Longhouse Labs.

Scholarship, creation and research

  • Raising awareness on gender-based violence

    Annual Bridge installation honours more than 5,000 lives of missing and murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirit People

  • Th’owxiya: A performance of firsts

    Theatre and Performance program’s first-ever Indigenous children’s play a hit with local students

  • Making space for Indigenous artists to lead

    Canada Research Chair dedicates project to redressing educational and leadership inequities

  • A call to consciousness

    Integrating Indigenous ways of thinking and making, Jay Havens offers audiences and students opportunities to learn

  • Beading the Tract

    Unique map of Haldimand Tract sparks conversations about culture, history, and the Grand River watershed

  • Reimagining our history with Indigenous futurisms

    Chelsea Vowel shares Indigenous perspectives on reflecting on the past to create better future at Indigenous Speakers Series

  • The role of Indigenous women in the preservation and transmission of traditional knowledge

    Waterloo historian and anthropologist explains how the importance of women in the community is inextricably tied to the land

  • Being Indigenous and having “reconciliation” in your job description

    Savanah Seaton helps employers create workplaces where Indigenous employees feel a sense of belonging and fully contribute

  • Wampum ceremony affirms shared principles

    Professor Jay Havens presents a handcrafted Wampum Belt to the Department of Communication Arts as a living contract

  • Reclaiming Indigenous histories

    Waterloo historian and anthropologist answers questions about the recovery and regeneration of Indigenous artifacts

  • Digital storytelling for truth and reconciliation

    Student documentary series shares the story and work of graduate student Heather George

  • Class project builds awareness of endangered species on Grand River watershed

    Students in Introduction to Critical Design Thinking shared their work to raise awareness about social and environmental action

Meet some of our alumni

Brad Regehr (BA '93)

Brad Regehr in a black suit with an orange tie and orange pin

An environmental lawyer focused on Indigenous issues, Regehr was the first Indigenous president of the Canadian Bar Association and worked to implement the Truth and Reconclliaion Calls to Action in the legal profession. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate at Waterloo in 2024.

Robin Jones-Stadelbauer (BA ’12, BA ’22)

Robin Jones

Robin Jones-Stadelbauer (BA ’12, BA ’22) has not only earned two degrees at Waterloo, her experience as an Indigenous student inspired her current leadership role in Waterloo’s Office of Indigenous Relations.

Jesse Thistle (MA'15)

Jesse Thistle along side the cover of his book, which chosed a young boy running through a field of wheat beneath a blue sky

His memoir, From the Ashes, spent months topping best seller lists but he is also known for his work on  Indigenous Homeless in Canada. Returning to Waterloo for the Indigenous Speakers Series, he discussed his more recent work documenting the everyday stories of Indigenous people in Canada.

Resources

Office of Indigenous Relations

The Office of Indigenous Relations works collaboratively on and off campus to advance the goals of the TRC Calls to Action, creating a long-term vision for the University, grounded in decolonization.

Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre

Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre - Shatitsirótha' - is a warm, welcoming, and all-inclusive space that provides Indigenous-led programming, services and events centered in supporting the University of Waterloo Indigenous community.

Selected learning and research resources

Past initiatives and events

Truth and reconciliation response projects, 2016

Past Indigenous events in Arts