giizhgaandag زعفران
Maral Aguilera-Moradipour and Shauna Kechego-Nichols
Artist Statement: Their submission is part of an ongoing, multifaceted collaboration that is growing from their discussions on indigeneity, displacement, migration, refugee experiences, spirituality, kinship, community, and healing through art. The poem emerged through the process of designing the applique piece. As the collaboration continued, Shauna and Maral felt the applique belonged on a jingle dress. One of the images is of Shauna, who is a jingle dress dancer, wearing the dress which the two of them are working to complete. The applique design incorporates symbolism from each of their respective cultures and cosmologies.
from red blood and earth, she spun three threads,
that can soothe the lungs and calm the mind.
light and potent are her medicines,
concealed in mountains, clutched through oceans.
veins carry displaced bloodlines,
lineages trail land and sea.
uprooted lungs gasp for air,
jingle cones whisper in pray’r.
warm cedar waves wash the breath,
plant medicine gifts between sisters.
releasing death to the soil,
life’s fragility blooms through florals.
Maral Aguilera-Moradipour is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Arts, Culture, and Media at the University of Toronto Scarborough where her areas of interest include critical refugee studies, anticolonial and Indigenous thought, and digital humanities. Maral received her PhD from Western University (2020), has taught at King’s University College, and is the 2022 recipient of the F. E. L. Priestley Prize for her article, “Celestial and Terrestrial Constellations: Relationality and Migration in Rebecca Belmore’s Biinjiya’iing Onji (From Inside).” She fled Iran as a refugee and has lived in the Great Lakes area since childhood.
Shauna Kechego-Nichols is Anishinaabekwe from Oneida and Chippewas of the Thames First Nation. She is a social worker specializing in intergenerational trauma and resiliency. Shauna is a community developer, instructor at the First Nations Technical Institute, and a curriculum developer for Old Sun Community College. She has a BA in Sociocultural Anthropology (2018) from Western University and a Master of Social Work (2021) from the University of Toronto. Her past work has included governance and public policy. She has also provided capacity building and leadership training to Indigenous-led grassroots groups in Northern remote communities. Additionally, Shauna has contributed to a provincial strategy to have a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) curriculum embedded within schools and government institutions.