Skawennati

Skawennati is a multi-media artist who makes work from her perspective as an urban Kanien’keháka (Mohawk) woman and as a cyberpunk avatar. Her virtually produced movies and still images, together with physical textiles and fashion art, herald possible peaceful futures in which all beings thrive. Her art has been presented internationally and acquired by the National Gallery of Canada, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the Thoma Foundation, among others.

Considered a forerunner of Indigenous Futurism, Skawennati has received several honors, including a Meritorious Service Medal in 2025 for founding Montreal’s first Indigenous artist-run center, daphne; a 2022 Hewlett 50 Arts Commission; an Honorary Doctorate from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design; and a 2011 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship. Skawennati co-founded and co-directs Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC), a research-creation studio-lab at Concordia University, which is also where she earned her BFA.