Community/Nation/Tribe: Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk), bear clan
Materials/Processes: VR; Video Games; Multimedia installation; Digital illustration
Themes: Decolonization; Land back; Re-historying
Online Resources:
Statements/Bios in Artists’ Words:
Hi! My name is Kahentawaks Tiewishaw, I’m bear clan, and I come from a traditional Kanien’kehaka family in Kanehsatake. My early years were spent attending Kanien’kehá immersion school, growing traditional medicines, and practicing ceremonies. These experiences granted me both a strong sense of cultural identity and responsibility, and they inform much of my artistic practice today.
My professional and academic careers have been broad and varied. I explored my passion for drawing and painting at Dawson College, where I graduated with a DEC in Cinema/Video/Communications in 2013. After graduating I worked as a sculpture designer at Mega Bloks for nearly 4 years.
During my time with the company I created several large brick sculptures that were shown at Comic Con, Pax, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Eventually I left Mega Bloks in order to study Computation Arts at Concordia University. This program facilitated the development of my 3D modeling skills, and I was soon recruited for a Research Assistant position at Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace, and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures.
While working as an RA, I was an instructor in several Skins Workshops. The goal of these workshops was to share digital media production skills with the next generation of Indigenous youth. These skills would allow them to create things like video games and machinima in order to tell the stories that are most important to them, and their communities. Having the opportunity to teach in these workshops was incredibly meaningful for me. This is because I was a participant in the very first Skins Workshop at Kahnawake Survival School back in 2008.
In January of 2019, I was awarded one of Concordia’s Milieux Undergraduate Fellowships. This opportunity allowed me to create my first mobile game entitled Karihonniennitshera. The game went on to be exhibited at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in October of 2019.
In 2020 I graduated from Concordia’s Computation Arts program with distinction. I continued my work with AbTeC & IFF, and was soon promoted to Skins Workshop Associate Director. In addition to instructing in the workshops, I was now in charge of planning and executing them.
While working as the Skins Workshop Associate Director, I also started Revital Software alongside my sister Wennekerakon Tiewishaw, and best friend Frederyk Kowalczyk. We specialize in the creation of Indigenous language learning games, and peripheral resources.
Moving forward I am deeply interested in video games as a vehicle for indigenous culture & experience, as well as their capacity to facilitate the healing of intergenerational trauma.
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