NCAM Thursday Speaker Series – James Monkman – Using Light as Spirit: A Glimpse Into Indigenous Futurism

James Monkman is an interdisciplinary Cree director and immersive artist. A member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba), he lives and works in Dish With One Spoon Territory (Toronto, Canada). His work spans multiple different mediums from Film, TV, Experience Design, and Virtual Reality. Creating for these different mediums requires a unique ability to interplay between artistic vision and technical understanding to push the limitations of what’s possible.

James‘ passion for creating comes out of the need to tell indigenous stories using cutting edge technologies to dispel stereotypes of indigenous people being a people of the past and showing Indigenous ways of knowing and cosmology are actually ideas for the future. In his work he explores concepts in traditional Indigenous thought, language, and cosmology in his pursuit of an aesthetic pushing the boundaries of Indigenous futurism. The goal of this unique perspective illustrates how imperative the Indigenous perspective is in our rapidly evolving North American culture.

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