Indigenous Futures Research Centre

09/02/2026

The IFRC’s monthly newsletter comes out every first Thursday of the month! Are you in the loop? This upcoming month is packed with events and activities! Sign up via the link in bio! 💜
We also archive the monthly newsletter on our website! Take a look at ifrc.ca/newsletter 👀

08/20/2026

𝗜𝗙𝗥𝗖 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗗𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗣𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘀, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲-𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟳 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗱𝗮 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘀
Dominick Porras (Coahuiltec/Chicano) is a multi-disciplinary and lens-based artist residing in Northern California. For over a decade, Porras has worked in relation with California Miwok & Maidu Inter-tribal communities as a collaborative artist in new media storytelling. His current project in new media informs Coahuiltecan cultural recovery and vitality through animation and cyclical time. Porras also employs35mm/Digital photographic essays and sculpture works in conjunction with his research-based works.

Dominick Porras, Concordia’s Fulbright Research Chair in Indigenous Knowledges for the 2026-2027 academic year, has developed a research program for his Fall residency at the Indigenous Futures Research Centre (IFRC). Porras’s Project, 𝘈𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢’𝘴 𝘖𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘐𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘈𝘳𝘵 & 𝘗𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘴, examines selected rock paintings which occurred during the Missionization of Texas Indians during the 16th-17th Centuries. Through animation, Porras acknowledges these particular Rock Paintings as classical artworks that inform the social and ecological relations Texas Indians established with the land.
 
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international academic exchange program of the United States. It is a binational, treaty-based, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization with a mandate to identify the best and brightest minds in both countries and engage them in residential academic exchange.

07/20/2026

https://aaanz.info/aaanz-home/conferences/2026-conference-haereka/call-for-papers-2026-conference/

The Art Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ) has a call for papers for their annual conference. There are a few panels that are open to First Nations from other countries, and a couple of Decolonial scholarship panels for allies. Deadline: July 24, 2026.

Conference theme | Haereka
The 2026 AAANZ conference theme is Haereka (pronounced high-reh-kah), meaning journey. The theme honours the journeys of those who have come before us, including many generations of Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, and Ngāi Tahu people who have traversed and first settled the mountain ranges, plains, and coastlines of Te Waipounamu South Island. AAANZ invites proposals that engage with ideas of journeying – through time and place – as it might relate to images, artistic practice, and/or material culture, while encouraging fresh readings of politics, movement, and migration in art.

Who should apply?
The AAANZ conference is held every year, and is the region’s major conference for art historians, artists and researchers.

AAANZ welcomes proposals from historians of art, design & visual culture; curators; artist-researchers; and GLAM sector professionals. Proposals should engage with the panel abstract, reflecting the conference theme. We particularly welcome proposals from First Nations delegates and researchers, early-career researchers, and practice-led researchers.

Questions about specific panels and submission of papers to panels should be directed to the relevant convenor/s.

General enquiries and questions regarding the conference such as registration, please email [email protected]

The call for papers for the 2026 CONFERENCE | HAEREKA are now open. If you would like to speak at the conference, apply to join one of the panels detailed below. To apply, read the instructions, and then submit your proposal form to the relevant panel convenor/s. Call for papers deadline extended to...

07/15/2026

** DEADLINE EXTENDED TO JULY 30 **
Call for Participants: Radically Relational Futures Fellowship✨

Are you an Indigenous young person (18–29) living in Montreal? Join the Radically Relational Futures Fellowship—a creative, arts-based program exploring decolonial futures and imagining worlds of collective wellbeing in times of uncertainty and change.

Over seven facilitated sessions, six fellows will develop short animated podcast stories inspired by Indigenous Futurisms and speculative fiction. Participants will also have the opportunity to share their work through a community exhibition and documentary screening.

Who can apply?
• Indigenous young people aged 18–29
• Living in Montreal
• Interested in storytelling, creativity, and imagining decolonial futures

Honorarium: Each fellow will receive $1,000 in recognition of their participation.

This program is led by PhD student Camila Velez. Interested or know someone who might be? Get in touch!

Reposting to include new deadline in graphic 💜

07/09/2026

Call for Participants: Radically Relational Futures Fellowship✨

Are you an Indigenous young person (18–29) living in Montreal? Join the Radically Relational Futures Fellowship—a creative, arts-based program exploring decolonial futures and imagining worlds of collective wellbeing in times of uncertainty and change.

Over seven facilitated sessions, six fellows will develop short animated podcast stories inspired by Indigenous Futurisms and speculative fiction. Participants will also have the opportunity to share their work through a community exhibition and documentary screening.

Who can apply?
• Indigenous young people aged 18–29
• Living in Montreal
• Interested in storytelling, creativity, and imagining decolonial futures

Honorarium: Each fellow will receive $1,000 in recognition of their participation.

This program is led by PhD student Camila Velez. Interested or know someone who might be? Get in touch!

07/08/2026

07/08/2026

Hey graduate students! Looking for a class for the fall semester? This FPST course may interest you!

AHSC 681-31
Selected Topics: Indigenous Ways of Kowing
Instructor: PRof. Louellyn White

This graduate seminar creates space for students to share research ideas, topics, strategies, methodologies, and experinces as tehy work toward completing their graduate studies. Together, studetns will explore Indigenous methodologies and ways of knowing as embodied within a Western institutional setting.
Students are expected to support each other through lively, respectful discussion and shared engagement with texts related to Indigenous methodologies and theories.

07/02/2026

🎨Artist Skawennati, BFA 92, GrDip 96, has spent decades envisioning futures through fashion collections, quilts, beadwork and films created entirely in virtual environments using game-like software as both camera and set.

✨Créée pour souligner le 70e anniversaire du Conseil des arts de Montréal, sa nouvelle installation en réalité augmentée à la Maison du CAM, en face du parc La Fontaine, transforme les colonnes de l’édifice en une expérience visuelle immersive inspirée des visions du monde autochtone.

🔗Learn more about her project and artistic journey in our profile article: https://tinyurl.com/e2ynkmpk

En français : https://tinyurl.com/5xxmjsau

📸 Photo credits:
Portrait: Ruvan Wijesooriya
Installation: Tarcisio Cataldi, courtesy of AbTeC


Concordia University, Faculty of Fine Arts
Concordia University

06/22/2026

Last week, IFRC member Meg Summers presented some of her research on how digital storytelling in video games can be used as an educational tool to bring awareness to environmental issues.

Meg discussed the casual colonialism promoted in worldbuilding games and proposed an alternative that sees a relationship between Mi’kmaq values of sustainability and modern Maritime fishing practices through interactive game mechanics.

Thanks to Meg for an enlightening conversation, and thanks to everyone who joined our gathering! ✨

06/18/2026

The IFRC sends a heartfelt congratulations to all of the graduates who crossed the stage during this week’s Spring Convocation ceremonies at Concordia! 🎓✨

We are especially proud to celebrate the brilliant current and former research assistants from AbTeC and Abundant Intelligences , as well as the members of the IFRC community who reached this important milestone.

James Agbonhese, MEng, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sierra Barber, MFA, Studio Arts
Tarcisio Cataldi, MDes, Design
Moe Clark, MA, INDI (Social Science)
Rodrigo D’Alcantara, PhD, Art History
Arijit Debnath, MFA, Cinematic Arts
Julia Fortin, MA, Art History
Wan Hua Li, BFA, Computation Arts
Amanda Lickers, MA, INDI (Social Science)
Jennifer Léveillé McFarlane, BFA, Major Art History and Studio Arts
Jobena Petonoquot, MFA, Fibers and Material Practices
Jasmine Sihra, PhD, Art History

Congratulations on this remarkable achievement. We look forward to following your next chapters and seeing the many ways you will continue to transform the future! 💖