Métis Kitchen Table Talk Gathering with Cathy Mattes

Join Michif curator, writer, and art history professor Cathy Mattes for the Métis Kitchen Table Talk Gathering! This is an opportunity for lively conversations, food, and beading actions. ALL ARE WELCOME!

Cathy offers:  

“Historically, in Métis households the kitchen table was the centre of the home—it is where loved ones were fed, clothing mended, beadwork and embroidery completed, and where political and cultural scheming occurred.  

[During MKTT gatherings], artists or curators are invited to help ignite conversation, by sharing stories about their practices and the impact of their kinship ties, critical thoughts about art and theory, and whatever else they wish to share...There is much laughter, debate, and the occasional discomfort that occurs during MKTT. But there are also quiet, potent moments that contain encouragement, personal reflection, remembering, and activated listening. Sometimes a collective exhale can be felt, and the pulsations of Indigenous knowledge systems are ignited.” 

By co-organizing and hosting Métis Kitchen Table Talks with collective and collaborative bead actions, I attempt to curate care. By looking to those who beaded and strategized around the kitchen table to ensure that we can now live as Indigenous people, I hope to return the generosity I have received from other curators, artists, colleagues, community, and kin.” 

Source:

Mattes, C. “Wahkootowin, Beading and Métis Kitchen Table Talk: Indigenous Knowledge and Strategies for Curating Care” in Radicalizing Care, Feminist and Queer Activism in Curating, edited by Elke Krasny, Sophie Lingg, et al. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2021.