University College, Innis College, and the Cinema Studies Institute present a special screening of Aki (2025) on April 26. This visual art documentary follows the seasons in Director Darlene Naponse’s home community in Northern Ontario. The film captures soundscapes, the natural world, and the generations of inhabitants and all types of creatures calling this territory home.
A panel discussion will follow with Darlene Naponse and 2025-26 Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor Wanda Nanibush. Akinoomoshin Inc. Founder and Executive Director Julia Pegahmegabow will moderate.
Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave
Darlene Naponse is an Anishinaabe Kwe from Atikameksheng Anishnawbek, Northern Ontario. She is a writer, film director, and video artist. Naponse completed a Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts and was the 2017 Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize Finalist. Her features include Cradlesong (2003), Every Emotion Costs (2010), Falls Around Her (2018) and Stellar (2022). Aki (2025) is her latest film.
Wanda Nanibush is the 2025-26 Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor at University College. She is an Anishinaabe-kwe image and word warrior, curator and community organizer from Beausoleil First Nation. She recently won the Toronto Book Award for her co-authored book Moving the Museum, and is the Helen Frankenthaler Visiting Professor in Curating in the PhD Program in Art History at CUNY in 2025 in the Graduate Department of Art History. Nanibush is part of the curatorial team for Counterpublic 2026, St.Louis’ Triennial, and in 2024, was awarded The Hnatyshyn Foundation Mid-Career Award for Curatorial Excellence. She is also the founder of aabaakwad, an international yearly gathering of over 80 Indigenous curators, writers and artists.
Julia Pegahmegabow zhinkaazoo, adik doodeman, wasauksing onjibaa, adikamegshiing debaadendaagwid.
Julia is the founding eniigaanizid (executive director) of Akinoomoshin Inc. an anishinaabe aadiziwin (being) education organization situated in the community of adikamegshiing (Atikameksheng Anishnawbek). The work of Akinoomoshin Inc. is dedicated to transforming the learning experience for anishinaabek through Anishinaabemowin (language) immersion, anishinaabe kendasowin (knowing), and aki kendaman (earth learning) in a teaching lodge learning environment called akinoomoshin wiigwam .
Julia lives with her family in adikamegshiing. She is doodoom (mother) to four children, a nokomis (grandmother) to one little one, and she walks with her wiidigemaagan (husband) for 31 years now. She enjoys making wearable anishinaabe art and clothing, traveling, visiting and learning to speak anishinaabemowin.
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