Sounds Like Land

💫 In this new cycle we invite you to join us on our Episode 6, time travelling through virtual lands and sovereign Indigenous futures!

👋 Meet Solomon Enos, one of our brilliant guest speakers for Episode 6.

🫀 Solomon Robert Nui Enos is a Native Hawaiian artist, illustrator, and visionary. Born and raised in Makaha Valley (O‘ahu, Hawai‘i), Solomon hails from the well-known Enos ‘ohana. Solomon has been making art for more than 30 years and he is adept at artistic expression in a wide variety of media including oil paintings, book illustrations, murals, and game design. A self-described “Possibilist” Solomon’s art expresses an informed aspirational vision of the world at its best via contemporary and traditional art that leans towards Sci-Fi and Fantasy. His work touches on themes like collective-consciousness, ancestry and identity, our relationship with our planet, and all through the lens of his experience as a person indigenous to Hawai’i.

🎧 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆’𝒔 𝒂 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝑰’𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 is out now and you can listen to it on any of our platforms!

Image Credit: Solomon portrait by LVRG Group. Na akua ma loko o ka mikini, 2025; Nā pua o Kalihi - The flowers of Kalihi; Enos, Polyfantastica, Seedships, 2020. All images by Solomon Enos, courtesy of the artist.

💫 Within her work, Skawennati reflects on the Kanien’keha word for the Three Sisters plants: “Tionhnhéhkwen”, which translates in English as “they sustain us” or “the sustainers.”

🌽 Skawennati, makes art that questions our relationships with technology and highlights Indigenous people in the future. Her multimedia works have been presented and collected internationally. A Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) of Kahnawà:ke residing in Montreal, she co-directs Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace.

🎧 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆’𝒔 𝒂 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝑰’𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 is out now and you can listen to it on any of our platforms!

Image Credit: Skawennati, Welcome to the Garden, 2024, 3-channel 4K machinima music video for “They Sustain Us”. Skawennati, Three Sisters: Reclaiming Abundance, 2024. Images courtesy of the artist.

🪐 Episode 6, 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆’𝒔 𝒂 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝑰’𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 is out!

💫 Meet Skawennati, our episode host, an urban Kanien’kehá:ka woman and a visual artist. Skawennati’s machinimas and machinimagraphs (movies and still images made in virtual environments), textiles and sculpture have been presented internationally and collected by the National Gallery of Canada, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal and the Thoma Foundation, among others. Recipient of a 2022 Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions Grant and an Honorary Doctorate from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, she is also a founding board member of daphne, Montreal’s first Indigenous artist-run center. She co-directs Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC), a research-creation network at Concordia University. Originally from Kahnawà:ke, Skawennati resides in Montreal. 🌽

🌿In this episode, Skawennati takes us on a trek across virtual spaces, digital theories, and avatar imaginings. She speaks with Solomon Enos, Jason Lewis and Scott Benesiinaabandan on building language and Indigenous virtual spaces from their creative practices.

🎙️ Listen to our latest episode on any of our platforms.

Links in bio! 🔗

📷: Skawennati, Jingle Dancers Assembled from TimeTraveller™ series, 2011; Celestial Tree: She Falls for Ages, 2017; Celestial Tree with Blossoms that Light the World, 2025. Images courtesy the artist.

🌌 We are thrilled to introduce you to our last episode of the year, 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆’𝒔 𝒂 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝑰’𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉.

💫This episode’s host is the brilliant Skawennati, a visual artist who investigates history, futurisms, and virtual realms from her perspective as an urban Kanien’kehá:ka woman and as a cyberpunk avatar. Produced in Montreal, Winnipeg and across virtual lands, Skawennati takes us to conversations with Native Hawaiian artist Solomon Enos, digital media theorist, poet, and software designer Jason Lewis, and Anishinaabe artist Scott Benesiinaabandan to discuss their artistic practices and the ways in which they build language in cyber space.

🎙️ Follow us on this journey and listen to our latest episode on any of our platforms.

Links in bio! 🔗

So much of this episode circles back to water. 🌊

Water that feeds us, carries medicines, shapes languages, and holds histories. 🐟

Gikinoo’amaagoowin asks us to remember that learning doesn’t always happen in classrooms — it happens with our feet on the lake, our ears tuned to stories, our hands working with what the land offers. 🌾

Join Lisa, Jeff, Leanna, and Renee for a journey shaped by intergenerational memory and a deep sense of responsibility towards collective continuance.

🎙️ Listen to 𝑮𝒊𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒐’𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏 wherever you get your podcasts.

Links in bio! 🔗

In 𝑮𝒊𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒐'𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏, our guest speaker Renée “Wassan” Dillard reflects on the relationships between language learning and plant knowledge. She shares:

“I call bulrushes and cattails our first water protectors, that’s what their job is.
They filter and clean the water. I go to them and inquire through them what is the condition of a lake. And they tell me.” Renee “Wassan” Dillard

🎙️ Listen to Renée “Wassan” Dillard in Episode 5, wherever you get your podcasts.

🔗 https://tinyurl.com/gikinooamaagoowin

💦 Meet 𝑮𝒊𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒐'𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏 guest speaker: Renée “Wassan” Dillard. Renée is an Anishinaabe Knowledge Holder, teacher, and master weaver with a lifetime of knowledge in her hands. Lisa visits Renée in Michigan, USA, where she braids stories that speak of the knowledge carried by plants, from traditional law, to land stewardship, medicine, and hospitality.

🧶 Renée is a natural fiber artist and teacher, raised in Anishinaabe communities of Michigan. She has performed countless presentations in universities, museums and community organizations, teaching countless workshops and classes to Elders and families in Anishinaabe communities. In 2010, Renée was the recipient of the Michigan Heritage Award for her lifetime achievement in Natural Fiber Arts. From her earliest exposure of creating functional art in finger weaving, through more than 45 years of various fiber work and instructing others, Renée is a master artist of Anishinaabe natural fiber skills and knowledge. 🌱

🎙️ Listen to Renée “Wassan” Dillard in Episode 5, wherever you get your podcasts.

🔗 Apple Podcasts: https://ow.ly/GL3B50XJWyJ

� In this episode, Leanna Marshall reflects on her relationship with Anishinaabemowin, and with learning about reciprocity from medicine plants:

“In a medicine camp hosted by Kathy Bird in Peguis First Nation (MB), Kathy taught us to ‘introduce yourself to your relative.’ She would say: ‘Don't just go up and take, you have to develop relationships with all the medicines.’ It's about that reciprocity, there has to be an exchange.”

� Listen to Lisa and Leanna’s conversation in 𝑮𝒊𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒐'𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏 on any of our platforms.

� Listen to the episode on our website or wherever you get your podcasts! https://soundslikeland.ca/gikinoo'amaagoowin

🌾 𝑮𝒊𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒐’𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏 features a conversation between Lisa Myers and Anishinaabe artist Leanna Marshall, rooted in the power of language to shape relationships, collective continuance, and reciprocity.

🌊 Born and based in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Leanna is a band member of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug and is the mother of two vibrant daughters. Leanna is a visual artist who tells stories of her ancestors and of the land. By keeping close to this intersection, she seeks to understand the essence of her relationship with both. Leanna works with textiles, performance and poetry.
She is an an independent Indigenous counsellor and social worker with over 20 years of experience. Leanna is the founder and owner of "Heart Earth Counselling", a practice of transformative and holistic care based in Anishinaabe teachings, offering counselling for individuals, groups, and communities who have been impacted by trauma and colonialism.

Learn more about Leanna's work at https://www.heartearthcounselling.ca/

🎙️ Listen to Lisa and Leanna’s conversation in 𝑮𝒊𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒐’𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏 on any of our platforms.

Links in bio! 🔗
📷 Image credits: Leanna Marshall, 1)“She Swims With Fishes”. 2016 Synthetic Silk, sequins, fringe, lace, & jingles; & 4)“Listen to The Trees”, 2016. Photo by Laura Paxton. 2) Leanna Marshall headshot; courtesy of the artist. 3) Image of Lake Superior by Lisa Myers.

🌊 The name of this episode comes from Lisa’s conversation with Jeff Monague, where he offers:

“We say 𝑮𝒊𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒐’𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏, “our teachings”, everything that we learn are Gikinoo’amaagoowin. This word comes from aki, the land, Gikinoo’amaagoowin are our teachings from the land. That’s where our understanding of the world comes from. That’s how connected we are.”

🎙️ Listen to the full conversation between Lisa and Jeff in soundslikeland.ca or wherever you get your podcasts.

Links in bio! 🔗

𝑮𝒊𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒐’𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏 begins on G’Chimnissing with Elder and Knowledge Holder Jeff Monague.🍃

Jeff Monage is an avid musician, writer, and Anishinaabemowin Speaker and teacher. He is a former Chief of the Beausoleil First Nation on Christian Island, was the Director of Treaty Research with the Anishnabek (Union of Ontario Indians), and a Canadian Forces Veteran. He is an Elder and a Knowledge Keeper in his community.

🎙️ Listen to Lisa and Jeff’s conversation in 𝑮𝒊𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒐’𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏 on any of our platforms.

Links in bio! 🔗

Our next episode, 𝑮𝒊𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒐’𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏 — Learning from the Land, is dropping tomorrow. 💧

In episode 5, Lisa Myers takes us to places shaped by water, fish, plants, and language. From her home community of G’Chimnissing to Thunder Bay, and across the medicine line to the shores of Michigan, she sits with three brilliant Anishinaabe Knowledge Holders: Jeff Monague, Leanna Marshall, and Renee “Wassan” Dillard.

Each conversation carries different stories, but they all hold something steady: teachings that rise from being attentive to the land and the waters that sustain us. 🌊

🎙️ Listen to 𝑮𝒊𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒐’𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏 on any of our platforms.

Links in bio! 🔗