Dr. Heather Igloliorte, an Inuk-Newfoundlander and Nunatsiavut beneficiary, is the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Decolonial and Transformational Indigenous Art Practices at the University of Victoria, BC, where she is a Professor in the Visual Arts Department (2023-). Heather formerly held a Tier 1 University Research Chair in Circumpolar Indigenous Arts at Concordia University in Montreal, QC, where she was an Associate Professor in the Department of Art History and co-director of the Indigenous Futures Research Centre with Prof. Jason Edward Lewis. Since 2018 Heather has directed the nation-wide Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq / Pijariuqsarniq Project (2018-2025), a SSHRC-funded partnership grant which supports Inuit postsecondary students to explore professional career paths in all aspects of the arts, including collections management, curatorial practice, arts administration and other areas of the visual and performing arts, in order to address the longstanding absence of Inuit in agential positions within Canadian art history and museum practice.  

Natalie is an interdisciplinary artist and a member of the Driftpile Cree Nation (Treaty 8) through her father, Micheal Ashley. Raised on the prairies, her artistic practice is deeply rooted in the creative traditions of her family—her mother’s work in textiles, her Kokum Avalina’s beading, and her uncle’s carving—each shaping her understanding of art as an intergenerational language. She is nêhiyaw (Cree) on her father’s side and of Irish, Scottish, and English descent on her mother’s.

Natalie studied ceramics at the Alberta College of Art and Design (2001–2003) before exploring electronic engineering. In 2019, she earned a diploma in Indigenous Business Leadership from Camosun College, further deepening her focus on the arts and her commitment to advancing Indigenous presence and leadership in institutional spaces.

She is currently the Lab Coordinator at the Taqsiqtuut Research Creation Lab at the University of Victoria, where she works with Dr. Heather Igloliorte (CERC) and a team of Research Assistants on decolonial research and transformative Indigenous creative practices. Natalie is also mentoring with artist and curator Jaimie Isaac on her debut curatorial exhibition, which centers Indigenous Fashion Arts.

Laura Hodgins is a white-settler arts administrator and curator from Sǫ̀mbak'è on Chief Drygeese Territory in Treaty 8 (Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.) Laura holds an MA in Art History from Concordia University and a BFA in Art History and Visual Studies from the University of Victoria. Her master’s thesis titled “A Concise and Critical Art History of the Northwest Territories” was completed in 2023. As a Northerner, Laura is passionate about fostering and promoting the arts north of the 60th parallel. She is the President of the Yellowknife Artist Run Community Centre, helped organize the 2022 Arctic Arts Summit in Whitehorse, and was a project coordinator of the Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq / Pijariuqsarniq Project from 2021-2025. 

Carey Newman, whose traditional name is Hayalthkin’geme, is a multi-disciplinary artist, carver, filmmaker, author and public speaker. Through his father, he is Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw from the Kukwaḵ̓a̱m, Gix̱sa̱m, and Wawałaba’yi clans of northern Vancouver Island, and Coast Salish from Xwchíyò:m (Cheam) of the Stó:lō S’olh Temexw (traditional territories) along the upper Fraser Valley. On his mother’s side of the family, his ancestors are English, Irish, and Scottish Settlers. In his artistic practice he strives to highlight Indigenous, social, and environmental issues as he examines the impacts of colonialism and capitalism, harnessing the power of material truth to unearth memory and trigger the necessary emotion to drive positive change. He is also interested in engaging with community and incorporating innovative methods derived from traditional teachings and Indigenous worldviews into his process. 

Perhaps his most influential work, The Witness Blanket, made of items collected from residential schools, government buildings and churches across Canada, deals with the subject of Truth and Reconciliation. It is now part of the collection at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. 

Carey was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 2017, was named to the Order of British Columbia in 2018, and is the inaugural Impact Chair in Indigenous Art Practices at the University of Victoria. In June of 2023 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws, honoris causa, by Royal Roads University. 

Léuli Eshrāghi belongs to the Sāmoan clans Seumanutafa and Tautua, and lives and works in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Their practice prioritizes Indigenous, Black and Asian art and design, sensual and spoken languages, and ceremonial-political practices. Eshrāghi has presented major works at Tate Modern, Cinéma Moderne, the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Galerie de l’Université de Montréal, and Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, among others. 

Eshrāghi serves as Curator of Indigenous Practices at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, mentor for the Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership and Northern Indigenous Futures initiatives, member of the national curatorial advisory for the 2026 Toronto Biennial of Art, and member of the Conseil des arts de Montréal’s Indigenous Arts Committee. 

Hōkūlani K. ‘Aikau (Kanaka ‘Ōiwi) is Professor and Director of the School of Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria. She is the author of A Chosen People, A Promised Land: Mormonism and Race in Hawaiʻi (University of Minnesota Press, 2012). With Vernadette V. Gonzalez, she coedited Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawaiʻi (2019) and they edit the Detours Series with Duke University Press. And with Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark and Aimée Craft she is co-editor of Indigenous Resurgence in an Age of Reconciliation (University of Toronto Press, 2023). Dr. Aikau is also the editor for the Pacific Islands Monograph Series (University of Hawaiʻi Press). 

Josh Tengan (Kanaka ʻŌiwi) is a Honolulu-based independent curator, writer, weaver, and community arts organizer from Pauoa, Kona, Oʻahu, where he continues to reside. He currently serves as Associate Director of Hawaiʻi Contemporary, which presents the Hawaiʻi Triennial. 

Previously, he was Associate Director of Puʻuhonua Society (2021–2022), where he work with Native Hawaiian and Hawaiʻi-based artists to produce CONTACT (2014–2019), Hawaiʻi’s largest annual thematic contemporary art exhibition. In 2022, he was named an Independent Curators International Curatorial Research Fellow alongside Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick. Together, they developed ʻAi Pōhaku, Stone Eaters, a multi-site exhibition of Kānaka ʻŌiwi contemporary art co-curated with Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu, presented across the University of Hawaiʻi System on Oʻahu in 2023. In 2024, Tengan co-edited the 808-page publication ʻAi Pōhaku, Stone Eaters: Native Hawaiian Contemporary Art in Hawaiʻi 1973–2023. 

His writings on art, artists, exhibitions, and curatorial practice have appeared in publications such as ArtLink, Australia New Zealand Journal of Art, FLUX, Hawaiʻi Contemporary, Nella Media Group, and TROPIC. He serves on the board of directors for Tropic Editions, a Hawaiʻi-based nonprofit publishing imprint dedicated to artist books. 

In June 2024, the Mayor of Honolulu appointed Tengan to the Commission on Culture and the Arts, which supports the City in promoting the arts and preserving its cultural heritage. He holds an MA in Curatorial Studies with Distinction from Newcastle University (UK). 

Krista Ulujuk Zawadski is an independent curator, researcher, anthropologist, writer, beader and sewist from Igluligaarjuk (Chesterfield Inlet), NU, and Kangiqłiniq, NU. She holds a PhD in Cultural Mediations from Carleton University. 

Miranda Belarde-Lewis (PhD) is an assistant professor, the inaugural Jill and Joe McKinstry Endowed Faculty Fellow of Native North American Indigenous Knowledge at the University of Washington’s Information School. She’s also an independent curator who works with artists and tribal, state, federal and international institutions and organizations to promote Native artists and their work. 

She works to highlight and celebrate Native artists, their processes, and the exquisite pieces they create. She has taught at Northwest Indian College and the University of Washington. She is enrolled at Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico and a member of the Takdeintáan Clan of the Tlingit Nation. She is a basketball mom. 

Nivi Christensen has been the Director of Nuummi Eqqumiitsulianik Saqqummersitsivik // Nuuk Art Museum (Kalaallit Nunaat/Greenland) since 2015. She is an Inuk from Kalaallit Nunaat and holds a Master’s degree in Art History from the University of Copenhagen, where she specialized in art from and about Kalaallit Nunaat. She is a regular writer and commentator on art from Kalaallit Nunaat both locally and internationally. 

Christensen is a member of a number of boards, including the National Theatre of Greenland, the board of the Association of Greenlandic Museums NUKAKA, and ICOM Denmark. She is the curator of numerous exhibitions, an advisor on major art projects both in and outside Kalaallit Nunaat, and a regular guest lecturer at Ilisimatusarfik – University of Greenland. 

Christensen works strategically to create a better framework for Greenlandic art and to strengthen the connections between indigenous people working with culture across the Arctic.