The Indigenous Voices Fund Grants program provides direct financial support to Indigenous artists in the Quinte region with the aim of facilitating a range of arts creation, sharing, and learning opportunities for Indigenous artists, and fostering understanding, exchange, and collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members. The program’s design was guided by the reflections and perspectives of Indigenous artists in the Quinte region, and aims to respond to their needs and aspirations in a way that respects, nurtures, and celebrates Indigenous ways of learning, knowing, sharing, and creating. We extend our sincere thanks to everyone who contributed, including Shyra & Rye Barberstock of Okhawo Equal Source for guiding us through this process.
Through the 2023 application process, it became clear that there are significant needs for career support among Indigenous artists in our community. This first round was significantly oversubscribed, with grant requests totaling over $36,000, nearly four times the amount of funding available this year.
It is with sincere gratitude that we announce that the Indigenous Voices Funds donor made an additional $5000 donation to help us better respond to this demand! Thanks to them, we were able to award $15,000 in grants in 2023 to four talented artists working in a range of artistic disciplines.
Sincere thanks to the panel of Indigenous artists who formed the Peer Assessment Committee, and to all of this year’s applicants.
We are delighted to introduce and congratulate the recipients of our first round of Indigenous Voices Fund grants!
Brandie Maracle is Wolf Clan from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, and a day school survivor. She has been creating custom designed ribbon skirts for over 30 years, and spreads pride in her Mohawk culture by encouraging and helping others to create ribbon skirts that hold meaning for them. Brandie has exhibited with the Canada Border Services Agency as part of their Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women training program, in the Indigenous training room at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, and has two skirts in the A Path Forward exhibit at Macaulay Church Museum in Picton. The IV Fund grant will allow Brandie to welcome 30 participants, at a subsidized rate, to three full-day ribbon skirt creation workshops in Tyendinaga and help her purchase 7 new sewing machines to increase her workshop capacity for this series and beyond. Tara White is a Kanien’kahá:ka and Euro-Canadian author who has published books for a range of audiences and age ranges. Several of her books explore themes of identity and Indigeneity, inspired by her own life experiences growing up on and off reserve. Tara began to pursue her lifelong dream of being a writer in 2002, and recently launched her own publishing company, to publish her own work and eventually publish work by other Indigenous authors whose stories need to be told. Tara is also a Certified Public Accountant currently supporting finance and governance capacity building for First Nations through her employment at the First Nations Financial Management Board. This grant will help Tara publish and implement an extensive promotional campaign for Finding Joy, her new novel about self-discovery, self-acceptance and discovering the little pieces that make us whole. Noelle Maracle is an emerging pop musician with a modern/vintage R&B edge. Raised on Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Noelle grew up in a home that was filled with music of all genres, from the pow wow drum and Native wind flute, to the old classics by Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan. At a young age Noelle became determined to pursue music as a career, began writing songs as a teenager, and signed with her first record label at 17. Her first radio single “Daydreaming” debuted on the Canadian charts in early 2023, and she was nominated for Indigenous Artist of the Year at the 2023 Jim Beam Indie Awards. The IV Fund grant will help Noelle cover the costs of writing, recording, producing, mixing, mastering, and doing a radio release of her next single. Micky Colton is a retired Royal Canadian Air Forces pilot who has turned a life-long passion for horses into a series of children’s books illustrating the amazing connection horses have to people. As a Facilitated Equine Experiential Learning (FEEL) certified facilitator, Micky has introduced many clients and children to the healing and emotional agility powers of her horse herd at her Horse Sense farm in Demorestville. The IV Fund grant will allow Micky to create, translate, publish, and distribute to local libraries and nonprofits two illustrated children’s books with selected words translated into Kanyen’keha (Mohawk). The books will pass on messages Micky’s animals have imparted over the years, introducing children of all backgrounds to these stories while increasing their access to and knowledge of the Kanyen’keha language.
Brandie Maracle
Tara White
Noelle Maracle
Micky Colton
Would you like to donate to the Indigenous Voices Fund? We would sincerely appreciate your support! Please click here to do so and choose the Indigenous Voices Fund in the drop-down menu. Thank you!
The Indigenous Voices Fund is made possible through a generous $30,000 multi-year donation ($10,000 per year for three years) from a local resident committed to advancing our community’s reconciliation efforts and inclusion of Indigenous voices.
We invite Indigenous artists and organizations in the Prince Edward County and Quinte areas to get in touch so we can learn more about your artistic practice and goals, and keep you in the loop about upcoming opportunities. Please send an email to Andrea Dawes, Special Initiatives Manager at andrea@countyarts.ca to learn more.
Guiding Principles
Through our Indigenous Voices Fund work, County Arts aims to:
Our work is also guided by our new 2022-27 Strategic Plan, which is informed by our Inclusivity, Diversity and Equity Policy and our commitment to the support and advancement of Indigenous artists as stated in our Indigenous Land Acknowledgement (links and more info can be found on our Policies Page).
On December 8th, 2022 we launched the Indigenous Voices Fund with with a very special event – In Conversation with Jennifer Podemski and Shelby Lisk: The Arts as a Platform for Indigenous Storytelling and Activism. We were extremely honoured to welcome these two esteemed artists for such a crucial conversation, and look forward to presenting more events in the Indigenous Voices Series in the coming years.
We invite you to listen to the recording of this event on our Youtube page.
Thanks to attendees, over $1300 was raised to benefit Tsi Tyónnheht Onkwawén:na (TTO), a non-profit dedicated to revitalizing Kanyen’kehá:ka/Mohawk language and culture in Tyendinaga.
Jennifer Podemski is an Anishinaabe/Ashkenazi actor, writer, director and producer with a 30+ year career. Her on screen credits include Dance Me Outside, The rez, Degrassi TNG, Blackstone, Empire of Dirt, Departure, and Reservation Dogs. In 2020, Jennifer launched the Shine Network Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to celebrating Indigenous women in film and television through training, mentorship, and professional development.
Shelby Lisk is a multidisciplinary artist, poet and photographer from Kenhtè:ke (Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory). Her writing and artwork have appeared in Red Rising Magazine, Room Magazine, Hart House Review and #NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women, published by Annick Press. Shelby is also the co-host of TVO’s The Art of Sovereignty podcast, which profiles the lives of eight First Nations artists who are changing the way the world thinks about Indigenous art.
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Cover artwork: Excerpt from Copper Reflections (Acrylic & Copper) by Debra Vincent.
