Kishaadigeh Collaborative Research Centre is a collaborative space designed, driven, and governed according to Indigenous methodologies. The center is for transdisciplinary and creative research, allowing for dynamic and engaging space for workshops, intergenerational gatherings, dialogues, and work. This area contains individual workspaces for tablets or laptops, a family space for babies, mothers, parents and children, it can host community events and gatherings from all disciplines.
The future is rooted in collaboration. Art can be a catalyst to radically transform space and create social change. Ir can rupture places and spark difficult dialogues for generations to come. Decolonial tools allows underrepresented communities to make space for new, creative interventions and ways of knowing.
— Dr. Julie Nagam, Director of the aabijijiwan New Media Lab, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts, Collaboration and Digital Media, Associate Professor in Art History at the University of Winnipeg.
Dr. Jaime Cidro
Co-Director of the Kishaadigeh Collaborative Research Centre
Dr. Jamie Cidro is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Director of the Master’s in Development Practice Program at the University of Winnipeg. She is also a CIHR-funded Canada Research Chair in Health and Culture. Dr. Cidro takes a collaborative approach to her research on Indigenous maternal and child health, partnering with many Indigenous organizations and communities on her projects. Currently she is examining how an Indigenous doula program can address poor health, social, and cultural outcomes for First Nations women who travel for birth in partnership with First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba and the Manitoba Indigenous Doulas Initiative. She’s also collaborating with community partners in Colombia to explore maternal and child health in remote Colombian Indigenous communities through a Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Advanced Scholars Award. Her other appointments include University of Winnipeg Indigenous Academic Lead 2018-2019, Associate Director of the UAKN Prairie Region, and UWinnipeg’s Indigenous Research Scholar 2018.
Dr. Julie Nagam
Co-Director of the Kishaadigeh Collaborative Research Centre
Dr. Julie Nagam (Metis/German/Syrian) is a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts, Collaboration and Digital Media and the former Research Chair of Indigenous Arts of North America which was a joint position with the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Dr. Nagam is an Associate Professor in the department of Art History at the University of Winnipeg. She is the inaugural Artistic Director for 2020 and 2022 for Nuit Blanche Toronto, the largest public exhibition in North America. Dr. Nagam's SSHRC research includes digital makerspaces + incubators, mentorship, digital media + design, international collaborations and place-based knowledge. She is a collective member of GLAM, which works on curatorial activism, Indigenous methodologies, public art, digital technologies, and engagement with place. As a scholar and artist, she is interested in revealing the ontology of land, which contains memory, knowledge and living histories. Dr. Nagam’s scholarship, curatorial and artistic practice has been featured nationally and internationally.