Seeds are for Sharing

Dawn Smoke is the daughter of an Anishinaabe mother (Ojibway) and Mohawk father. A Survivor of the sixties scoop, Dawn was moved between foster homes until she was adopted at three years old. She has been an artist, sculptor, creator of jewelry, and occasional poet for some 50 years. She has worked in and for the Native Community for most of her life. She was the co-founder of the Native Women’s Resource Center in Toronto and she has served on many Native boards and in Native organizations, including the Toronto Warrior Society and Idle No More projects. Dawn is grateful to have spent her life traveling and adventuring across many territories on Turtle Island. More recently, she has finally returned to her home territory in Alderville, where she lives in Seniors Housing. On the land of her Ancestors, Dawn feels renewed by her Ancestors’ strength.  ​Jacqueline “Jackie” Traverse was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is Ojibway from the Lake St. Martin First Nation. Jackie began drawing as a child and was inspired from a field trip to the Wahsa Gallery when she was 13 years old. It wasn’t until she was 32 years old that she decided to submit a portfolio of her works to the University of Manitoba where she studied Fine Arts and graduated with a diploma in May of 2009. Jackie Traverse is widely known in art communities across Canada. Her paintings, drawings, documentaries, and sculptures speak to the realities of being an Indigenous woman. To Jackie, painting is truly where her heart lies.