Gikinoo’amaatowin – This Is All Learning
CURATOR: TD Associate Curator, Albany Sutherland
Grounded in the understanding that learning is a relational process, Gikinoo’amaatowin* – This Is All Learning explores the many ways knowledge is carried through the artistic practices of Anishinaabe artists Jean Marshall and Nicole Richmond.
Coming from Northwestern Ontario, Marshall from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (Big Trout Lake) in Treaty 9, and Richmond from Biiigtigong Nishnaabeg (Pic River) in Robinson-Superior Treaty territory, both artists root their practices in the relationships between land, memory and intergenerational knowledge. Exhibiting beadwork and jingle dresses, Gikinoo’amaatowin invites viewers to consider how community teaches us through sharing, movement, and making.
Taking its title from a reflection by Jean Marshall when speaking of her work, “this is all learning,”1 this exhibition reminds us that knowledge is not confined to classrooms or institutions. Learning happens while harvesting, sewing, beading, and dancing, through ancestral practices, and while being in relation with the land and each other.
Gikinoo’amaatowin – This Is All Learning explores methods of storytelling, healing and resistance found within Indigenous women’s artistry. The pieces in the exhibition present a continuation of cultural teachings that are grounded in place and community.
Nicole Richmond’s colourful jingle dresses came to her as a vision of a group of women dancing together in synchronicity. The origin of the jingle dress is one of healing and prayer.2 In Anishinaabe culture, water is sacred and has healing qualities. When the dress is danced in and the jingles become animated, they resemble the sound of raindrops, bringing about healing to the community. Richmond’s work speaks to the deep connection she feels between Indigenous women and the healing power of the jingle dress dance.
Each dancer, moving in unison, becomes part of a larger rhythm embodying care, strength, and spiritual grounding. For Richmond, the rainbow hues symbolize diversity, and the spectrum of experiences held together through collective movement. She describes her work to be inspired by “mystical and supernatural connections, including to the star people”3 and draws from the Anishinaabe woodland tradition.
Beadwork designs are unique, reflecting the artist’s distinct community style, teachings and personal taste. Marshall’s body of work titled Gitigan, meaning garden in Anishinaabemowin*, speaks to her relationship with food and kin. Her circular felt pieces, which mirror her beadwork style, play with colour and feature native plants which reflect the importance of Indigenous food sovereignty.4 Marshall’s “Don’t Forget To Love Yourself” emphasise self-care, a theme found throughout her beadwork and deeply embedded within her beading practice.5
Gikinoo’amaatowin – This Is All Learning locates inherent knowledge accessed via memory and relationality. Through beadwork and regalia, Marshall and Richmond honour practices passed down to them while shaping new pathways for future artists. These artists remind us that learning is a practice rooted in care and process that never ends.
Definitions
* Gikinoo’amaatowin: To learn from someone
*Jingle Dress: A sacred Anishinaabe women’s dance and dress with jingles made of metal cones.6
* Anishinaabemowin: Anishinaabe Language
*Regalia: The traditional and often sacred clothing, accessories and artifacts worn or carried during various ceremonies.7
Sources
1. Twance, M. (2024). Futurities in Anishinaabe arts practices: beading as decolonial praxis (Doctoral dissertation).
3. Richmond, N. (2025, July 25). Nicole Richmond Artist Statement.
4. Racette, S. F., LaVallee, M., & Mattes, C. (2024). Eat. Sleep. Bead. Repeat. In Radical Stitch (pp. 19–33). Essay, National Gallery of Canada and the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
5. Twance, M. (2024). Futurities in Anishinaabe arts practices: beading as decolonial praxis (Doctoral dissertation).
Meet the artists
Jean Marshall
Jean Marshall is of Ahnishnaabe & English descent, born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario. She is a band member of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, Big Trout Lake, Treaty 9. She currently lives along the shore of Lake Superior. Jean Marshall has been practicing professionally as a visual artist for 20+ years. She is known for her work with beads & quills.
As a child, she was surrounded by beadwork. The value of craftsmanship, quality and the importance of using her hands was instilled at a young age. Unknowingly, she absorbed skill, colour, design, pattern and techniques to be used later in life. This lasting admiration grew into her practice as a maker, becoming a beadworker. She does this full time for herself & community. Experiential learnings from the land and relations are important to her.
Jean attended the Dene Nahjo Urban Hide Tanning Residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Fall of 2018. She was mentored by the Dene Nahjo Collective members, Mandee McDonald, Melaw Nakehk’o and Tania Larsson. She observed and learned from master hide tanners Lucy Ann Yakalela & the late Judy Lafferty. After this life changing experience, she returned home to practice working on her own hides. She now is dedicated to leading, organizing, and supporting hide tanning projects in her community. She is still a learner and aspiring hide tanner with goals of becoming a master hide tanner someday.
Nicole Richmond
Nicole Richmond is a lawyer and wellness consultant from Biigtigong Nishnaabeg. In her practice, she works with Anishinabek clients across Ontario to bring their programs, governments, and holistic practises to life through thoughtful, practical and careful, advice and strategic processes. Nicole’s guiding principle is love. Her personal strategic mandate is to be a thoroughly and authentically herself, to make it easier for the young women who come after her to do the same.
As an artist, Nicole has been beading since she was 11. She has a distinctive style, informed by the Anishinaabe woodland tradition, but also infused with mystical and supernatural connections, including to the star people.
Nicole started sewing at age 27, the same year she became a lawyer, and these cultural contributions are connected. She infuses strength and love into everything she does. Nicole empowers dancers, communities and nations to connect to who they are and to bring their best self forward.
Hiring for the TD Associate Curator position is supported by TD Ready Commitment. The Art Gallery of Burlington is supported by the City of Burlington, Ontario Arts Council, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. The AGB’s learning programming has been sponsored by the Joyce Family Foundation, the Burlington Foundation, and the incite Foundation for the Arts. The 50th Anniversary Exhibitions have been sponsored by the J.P. Bickell Foundation.
Gallery
