Collin Alexander

Collin Alexander, Birch bark crafts, quilling, quillwork, carving, Indigenous Artist, First Nations, Indigenous Arts Collective of Canada, Pass The Feather

Collin Alexander

Collin Alexander

Natoaganeg First Nation

Kwe’/ hello, I am a member of the Natoaganeg First Nation (Mi’kmaq) my name is Collin Alexander. I am currently living between Toronto and New Brunswick studying history, anthropology and visual studies at the University of Toronto full-time.

Collin Alexander, Birch bark crafts, quilling, quillwork, carving, Indigenous Artist, First Nations, Indigenous Arts Collective of Canada, Pass The Feather

My work is rooted in the rediscovery and reinvigoration of knowledge and crafts driven underground by colonialism. We are living in a prophetic era and there is a real Indigenous comeback happening around us. As Riel says, “my people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back.” I want to believe I can play a part, even a small one, in bringing spirit back to our lives through my art.

Often utilizing foraged or found materials my work is an act of unearthing, and one that practices sustainable harvesting techniques. Digging down to evoke a spirit connection towards each of my works is important. Calling back to ancestral ways, and looking to the land to guide our artistic moves forward. In this sense, artists are like scouts that observe landscapes of art, relational being, and resilience ahead to mark the safest passages for those to come.

As a two-spirit I know this is my job, to scout ahead landscapes of the unknown, of non-normative ways of being, to rediscover our place within the circle. I think of the medicine and health that is tied to art, how it can reveal poison, or heal wounds. These are things I know my spirit needs and I want to share with others.

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