Andrea Flowers (1934-2019, Hopedale) was an accomplished craftsperson who enjoyed sewing, knitting, and crocheting, though she is best known as a seamstress of kamek (sealskin boots). Her particular expertise was in creating the labour-intensive and meticulously stitched traditional waterproof “black-bottom” sealskin boots, with skins that she cleaned and prepared herself from seals caught by her sons. She produced custom kamek using the same skills and knowledge that Inuit in Nunatsiavut have been passing on for centuries to create warm, waterproof boots that can weather the harsh Labrador climate. Flowers, fondly known as “Aunt Joy” throughout Nunatsiavut, preferred the skins of seals caught in the spring, because their hide is softer and easier to work with at that time of year. In the last years of her life, she expanded her sewing practice to include work with commercially tanned sealskin. 

Brian Amadi is a multidisciplinary artist, poet, filmmaker, and tattooist based in St. John’s, NL. With over eight years of experience in the province, Brian has built a career that bridges visual art, storytelling, and community engagement. He draws inspiration from his background in political science and sociology to craft work that explores themes of identity, belonging, and cultural narratives. As a member of The Art of Being Black, Brian leads initiatives celebrating and amplifying Black artistry and stories. His projects emphasize connection and inclusion, fostering spaces where underrepresented voices can thrive. His innovative approach to art and storytelling continues to evolve, showing his dedication to honoring culture, fostering belonging, and pushing artistic boundaries. Amadi’s work has been exhibited in St. John’s at The Rooms and Eastern Edge artist run centre. In 2024, he was commissioned to create four portraits for the Canadian Embassy in Portugal. 

Brian speaks on the panel, “Collective Movement: Artmaking in, with, and for Community” as part of Biennale Conversations programming. 

This presentation is realized with support from Curating Change and Fogo Island Arts. 

Clara Clayton Gough was born in Cherry Brook, Halifax County, and grew up in East Preston, where she still resides today. She carries on the ribbed basket weaving tradition of her family, members of whom have made and sold baskets in Halifax markets since the War of 1812. Clayton Gough began weaving baskets at the age of eight years, learning from her mother the late renown artisan Edith Clayton and grandmother, the late Selena Drummond. Though strongly influenced by her mother’s technique of basket weaving and its significant role within Afro-Canadian culture, Clayton-Gough has developed her own unique style, which is evident in the basketry and sculptures she creates. In addition to making baskets, she repairs offering baskets for various churches in the historical Black Communities. In early 2024, Clara and her family sat down with CBC associate producer Diane Campbell to film “Being Black in Canada,” a series of mini documentaries, featuring a talk about the baskets and the importance of it to the family and carrying on the tradition. 

Clara speaks on the panel, “Making by Hand: Contemporary and Customary Craft Practices” as part of Biennale Conversations programming. 

This presentation is realized with support from Curating Change. 

Established in 2014, Dáiddadállu is a Sámi artist network based in Guovdageaidnu, Sápmi (Norway), consisting of 22 artist partners and an administration. Dáiddadállu represents artists working in visual arts, film, dance, theater, choreography, TV production, performing arts, design, authorship, music, and joik. Sámi epistemology is the basis of Dáiddadállu’s work. Dáiddadállu emphasize holistic thinking, openness and solidarity between each other, sustainability for nature, people, animals, Sámi culture and Sámi industries. 

Dáiddadállu will perform Guoddi at the Garrick Theatre on August 16 and 17. 

Performers Ann-Sofie Kallok, Ánna-Katri Helander, and Sebastian Björkman speak on the panel, “Collective Movement: Artmaking in, with, and for Community” as part of Biennale Conversations programming. 

Daniel Rumbolt is a settler artist from the northern peninsula of Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland), currently based in St. John’s, NL. He recently completed his MFA in Fibres and Material Practices at Concordia University in Montreal. His multidisciplinary art practice is informed by his experiences being raised in coastal communities, and uses material manipulation to transform rural narrative and queer tensions into a tangible form. His practice seeks catharsis through earnest contemplation of memory and mourning; works are influenced by home, informed by insecurity, and softened by time and understanding. Rumbolt’s work has been shown at The Rooms, St. John’s, and Union House Arts, Port Union. 

Daniel speaks on the panel, “Making by Hand: Contemporary and Customary Craft Practices” as part of Biennale Conversations programming. 

Daniel’s installation will be visited during the Discovery UNESCO Global Geopark hike on August 30. 

This presentation is realized with support from Curating Change. 

Douglas Penney lives on the Bonavista Peninsula in English Harbour, where he was born and raised. After a chance encounter with a rock collector, he became interested in the stories and shapes that rocks can hold. In the aftermath of hurricane Igor, Penney was inspired by piles of loose rock to start creating his “Garden of Silent Stones,” a sculpture garden of rocks that playfully evoke the forms of animals, cityscapes, and mythical creatures. He also creates sculptures with wood, cast-off objects and other materials found on local beaches. 

Douglas will offer stone garden tours in English Harbour on August 16 and September 6. 

Based primarily out of St. John’s, NL, the women of Eastern Owl (Jenelle Duval, Stacey Howse, Kayla Stride, Danielle Benoit, Natasha Blackwood, Jaime O’Leary, and Rebecca Sharr) hail from all across Ktaqamkuk (the island of Newfoundland). They are an Indigenous-led all nations group who blend the styles of First Nations Drum Music and Contemporary Folk to create their own innovative sound. With deep roots in community, Eastern Owl has committed to deepening their connection with their traditional practices while helping to educate Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences through song. 

Eastern Owl has been captivating audiences across Canada since 2011. They are the recipients of multiple awards, including 2016 ArtsNL CBC Emerging Artist of the year, 2019 Music NL Indigenous Artist of the Year, and 2020 ECMA Indigenous Artist of the Year. They have taken the national stage during Canadian Music Week (ON), Coastal First Nations Dance Festival (BC), and Petapan (NB), and in 2023 travelled to Brazil to showcase at COMAFEST in the capital city of Brasilia. They are active performers in their home base in St. John’s, having participated in such festivals as Lawnya Vawnya, Spirit Song, and Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival. 

Eastern Owl performs in Bonavista on the morning of August 16. 

Eastern Owl members Stacey Howse and Kayla Stride speak on the panel, “Collective Movement: Artmaking in, with, and for Community” as part of Biennale Conversations programming. 

Ethan Murphy is a lens-based visual artist from St. John’s, NL. He holds a BFA in Photography Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University. His work considers the idiosyncrasies of place and highlights the importance of rural environments. Murphy’s practice visualizes the act of return using the camera to probe objects, structures and landscapes that give form to both familial and regional histories. Murphy has exhibited internationally and was most recently the recipient of the International Atlantic Artist Exchange Residency with Artlink in Fort Dunree, Ireland. Murphy has exhibited at several museums and festivals, including the National Gallery of Canada and was awarded the New Generation Photography award in 2019. 

Ethan speaks on the panel, “Big Art in Small Places: Contemporary Art Outside of the City” as part of Biennale Conversations programming. 

Haruna Sugisaki is an artist based in Ōiso, Japan. She graduated from Tokyo Zokei University in 2017 with a degree in painting. After graduation, she shifted her field to the sea and mountains, focusing on the contact point where human activities and nature’s life force intersect. Through experiences rooted in local climates, such as mountain climbing and cooking, she seeks to perceive and express the power of nature and the cycle of life. She is known for a process called “Playing with Soil,” where she collaborates with citizens and students to paint murals using pigments derived from natural materials like soil, plants, and soot collected from the scenes she visits. Her work has been exhibited in Japan at Yokohama Museum of History; Nishiaizu International Art Village, Fukoshima; and Kakegawa Teaennale, Kakegawa City; and internationally at Mingju Museum of Art, Shanghai, China; Gangwon International Triennale 2024 Ecological Art from Beneath, South Korea; and Forest Art Festival 2023, Ladakh, India. 

We are grateful to the National Center for Art Research, Japan, and the Japan Foundation, Toronto, for supporting Haruna’s participation in the Biennale. 

Learn more about Haruna Sugisaki’s Drop-in Open Studio and Workshop that we’re hosting, beginning July 24 at the Public Building, 28 Church St. in Bonavista. 

Inuuteq Storch is a Greenlandic photographer with a deep connection to his homeland. Born, raised, and currently residing in Sisimiut, Greenland, he has expanded his artistic reach through extensive travel for international exhibitions. A graduate of the International Centre of Photography in New York and the Fatamorgana School of Photography in Copenhagen, Storch skilfully explores his Greenlandic identity through a compelling blend of personal and archival photography. Inuuteq Storch has previously exhibited at Danish art institutions such as Nordatlantens Brygge, Gammel Strand Kunsthal, and Fotografisk Center, and in 2025 he will show at Kunsten – Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, and Politikens Forhal. Internationally, he has exhibited at AKG Art Museum Buffalo; The Nordic House, Reykjavik; at the RAY Triennial of Photography in Frankfurt. In 2026, he will exhibit at the Bonnefanten Museum, Limburg, and Hasselblad Center at Göteborg. In 2024 he represented Denmark at the 60th Venice Biennale, bringing Kalaallit Nunaat to the Danish pavilion. 

Inuuteq speaks on the panel, “Big Art in Small Places: Contemporary Art Outside of the City” as part of Biennale Conversations programming. 

We are grateful to the Nordic Institute in Greenland for the supporting Storch’s participation in the 2025 Bonavista Biennale. 

Larry Weyand is a material practices artist whose work challenges the complexities of pre-conceived ideas of domesticity and gender. Fueled by the complex history of food, emotional trauma, autoethnography, queerness, and domestic spaces, Larry investigates how hard-to-swallow narratives can occupy space within the soft, fluffy, frilly dis/comfort of textile-based craft practices. Larry’s work has been presented across Canada, most recently at the Rotary Arts Centre (Corner Brook, 2024), The Grenfell Art Gallery (Corner Brook, 2023), The Rooms (St. John’s, NL, 2019-2020), the Art Gallery of Burlington (Burlington, ON, 2021), and Struts & Faucet Artist Run Center (Sackville, NB, 2019). Having completed their MFA at Concordia University in Fibres & Material Practices, Larry is now a Graduate Program Officer for Grenfell campus’ School of Fine Arts MFA program in Newfoundland & Labrador. 

Larry speaks on the panel, “Making by Hand: Contemporary and Customary Craft Practices” as part of Biennale Conversations programming. 

This presentation is realized with support from Curating Change. 

Lisa Myers is a proud member of Beausoleil First Nation and is based in both Toronto and Port Severn, ON. An artist and curator with a keen interest in interdisciplinary collaboration, her research focuses on the varied values and functions of elements such as medicine plants and language, sound and sense. Through many media and materials including video, audio, printmaking, digital arts and socially engaged art approaches, her practice examines place, underrepresented histories/present/futures, and collective forms of knowledge exchange. As an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, Myers holds a York Research Chair in Indigenous Art and Curatorial Practice, is the coordinator of the Environmental Arts and Justice program. Part of her curatorial practice includes artist advocacy and is passionate about navigating institutional barriers and limitations. 

Lisa speaks on the panel, “Working on and with the Land” as part of Biennale Conversations programming. 

Lisa’s installation will be visited during the Discovery UNESCO Global Geopark hike on August 30. 

Marianne Nicolson is an artist activist of the Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw First Nations, part of the Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwak’wala speaking peoples) of the Pacific Northwest Coast. She is trained in both traditional Kwakwaka’wakw forms and culture and contemporary gallery and museum-based practice. Nicolson works as a Kwakwaka’wakw cultural researcher and historian, as well as an advocate for Indigenous land rights. Her practice is multi-disciplinary encompassing photography, painting, carving, video, installation, monumental public art, writing and speaking. All her work is political in nature and seeks to uphold Kwakwaka’wakw traditional philosophy and worldview through contemporary mediums and technology. Major monumental public artworks are situated in Vancouver International Airport, the Canadian Embassy in Amman, Jordan and the Canadian Embassy in Paris, France. 

Maureen Gruben’s multi-media practice incorporates diverse organic and industrial materials that are often salvaged from her local Arctic environment. She was born and raised in Tuktoyaktuk, NWT, where her parents were traditional Inuvialuit knowledge keepers and founders of E. Gruben’s Transport. Gruben’s work has recently been exhibited at Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2024); Rovaniemi Art Museum Korundi, Rovaniemi (2024); Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo, Brazil. She is participating in the12th SITE SANTA FE International, Santa Fe, NM, opening in June 2025. Her work is held in public and private collections including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Indigenous Art Centre, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. 

Melissa Tremblett is a visual artist of Innu and English heritage from the community of Sheshatshiu, Labrador, currently based in Elmastukwek, Ktaqmkuk territory (Bay of Islands, Western Newfoundland). Tremblett is a conceptually diverse multidisciplinary artist who works within installation, performance, printmaking, and photography, as well as traditional techniques such as doll making and beadwork. Through the lens of her contemporary Indigenous reality, Tremblett marries both her Indigenous and Settler roots uniting histories and legacies. 

Tremblett graduated with a BFA in Visual Arts (2015) from the Grenfell Campus of Memorial University of Newfoundland and a BSc in Behavioural Neuroscience (2011) from Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her work has been exhibited nationally and abroad at venues such as The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, NL; Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, NB; Indigenous Art Centre Gallery, Gatineau, QC; Grenfell Art Gallery, Memorial University, NL; Eastern Edge Gallery, NL; and Gatehouse Arts in Harlow, UK. Tremblett’s photographs are published in Elizabeth Yeoman, Exactly What I Said: Translating Words and Worlds, University of Manitoba Press, 2022; Tracing Ochre: Changing Perspectives on the Beothuk, University of Toronto Press, 2018; and Tshaukuesh Elizabeth Penashue, Nitinikiau Innusi: I Keep the Land Alive, University of Manitoba Press, 2019. 

Melissa speaks on the panel, “Working on and with the Land” as part of Biennale Conversations programming. 

Michael Massie was born in Happy Valley-Goose Bay and currently resides in Kippens, NL. His artwork reflects his mixed Inuit and Scottish heritage, such as his iconic ulu teapot works. He has been working in sculpture, painting and drawing for over 30 years and has achieved artistic acclaim in Canada and internationally. His work sits in collections including: Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Heard Museum, Royal Ontario Museum, National Gallery of Canada, The Rooms, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Montreal Museum of Fine Art, and YVR Vancouver Airport Collection. He has twice short-listed for the Prix Saidye Bronfman, an honorary distinction for a Canadian craftsperson who demonstrates excellence in fine crafts. He was elected a member of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2011 and inducted into the Order of Canada in 2017. 

Michael speaks on the panel, “Big Art in Small Places: Contemporary Art Outside of the City” as part of Biennale Conversations programming. 

Nellie Winters is a master seamstress based in Makkovik, one of the most respected artists in her community, and a matriarch of a four-generation family with many talented artists and craftspeople living throughout Labrador. Winters began embroidering and making Inukuluk (Inukuluit) figures as a child in boarding school. After finishing school, she refined and diversified her skills as an artist, remaining self-taught. Her work has been exhibited in multiple exhibitions and showcases and is collected by museums and private collectors throughout Canada and internationally. While she is an expert in several traditional art forms, in her practice Winters thrives on learning new techniques and produces a range of objects in a variety of materials. These include grasswork, embroidery, moose-hair tufting, sewing, and doll making, among others. 

Sancia Miala Shiba Nash is a filmmaker and artist from Kīhei, Maui with ancestral roots in the Japanese archipelago, currently living and working in Honolulu, Oʻahu. Through time-based media, Sancia Miala works collaboratively to amplify intersectional stories of place. Her practice is guided by oral histories, archives, and acts of translation. Currently she supports the digitization and cataloging of independent documentary team Nā Maka o ka ʻĀina’s (Joan Lander and Puhipau) extensive moving image collection. In 2020, Sancia Miala co-founded with artist Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick, kekahi wahi, a grassroots film initiative dedicated to documenting transformations across Hawaiʻi and Moananui.   Bonavista Biennale partnered with Hawai‘i Triennial 2025 to support the creation of a new work by Sancia Miala, “kuroshio” (2025). The work debuted at Hawai‘i Triennial 2025: ALOHA NŌ, (February 15–May 4, 2025). 

Sancia speaks on the panel, “Working on and with the Land” as part of Biennale Conversations programming.   We are grateful to Canada Council for the Arts for supporting this international co-production. 

Sarah Baikie has been producing beautiful grass basketry all her life. Her work can be found in several collections across North America as well as in many homes throughout Nunatsiavut. Baikie resides in Rigolet, a community renowned both within and outside Nunatsiavut for producing finely made and imaginative grassworks. The artist recalls that her father, John Oliver, offered to teach her one day when her grandmother was too busy to help her, igniting her lifelong commitment to the craft. Baikie has since passed on the skill to her daughters, as her father did to her. 

Sarah speaks on the panel, “Making by Hand: Contemporary and Customary Craft Practices” as part of Biennale Conversations programming. 

The Women’s Institute (WI) is a local, provincial, national and international organization that promotes women, families and communities. The first WI was established on Feb. 19, 1897, in Stoney Creek, Ontario by Adelaide Hoodless. From here the organization spread across Canada and around the world. The Newfoundland & Labrador Women’s Institute began over 80 years ago with the formation of a Service League to help victims of the 1929 Tidal wave disaster. The Port Union-Catalina-Little Catalina branch on the Bonavista Peninsula formed in 1967, and there are currently ~30 active members. In addition to volunteer projects in the community and province, since the 1990s, the branch has run craft shop/visitor information selling pieces made by local WI members, and their families. 

In a special collaboration, members of the WI are making limited edition tote bags for String Games, which will be available for purchase at select Biennale sites. 

WI member Deanne Hiscock speaks on the panel, “Collective Movement: Artmaking in, with, and for Community” as part of Biennale Conversations programming. 

An exhibition talk and tour will be offered at The Women’s Institute on September 14. 

Toby Rabinowitz is a multi-disciplinary artist based in St. John’s, NL. Guided by inspirations of the natural world, she strives to translate ideas of kindness and gentleness into visually realized creatures and their intricate habitats. Earning high levels of interest from the public media, galleries, mental health professionals and other artists over the past three decades, she learns from one creation to the next, incorporating a variety of styles and techniques into her work. Using a combination of media, including colourful acrylics on canvas, various clays and pen and ink on paper, she creates free-flowing, vividly cheerful and impressionistic pieces with the intention to be a positive force, to bring peace and happiness to the universe. Rabinowitz has had solo exhibition at the NL Craft Council and Leyton Gallery in St. John’s, and the Arts and Culture Centre in Gander. Her work is held in the collection of The Rooms, St. John’s. 

Toby speaks on the panel, “Big Art in Small Places: Contemporary Art Outside of the City” as part of Biennale Conversations programming.