Embodying repetition as a form of discipline and devotion, each stitch marks cycles of regeneration and return: to teachings, ancestral knowledge, and belonging within self and community. Through matriarchal lines, Jaad Kuujus’s art celebrates the threads that bind across generations, while imagining futures still to come.

Jaad Kuujus–Meghann O’Brien is a weaver of Haida, Kwakwaka’wakw, and Irish descent. She is a student of the late Ga’axstalas–Kerri-Lynne Emily Dick (Kwakwaka’wakw/Haida), SGaan Jaad–Sherri Dick (Haida/Kootenay), and master Ts’msyen weaver Tsamiianbaan–William White. Working with hand-spun mountain goat wool, cedar bark, and collaboratively with digital media artists for the last decade, her practice bridges traditional knowledge and technical experimentation. Based in Vancouver, BC, she continues to explore the intersection between natural materials and techniques with contemporary fashion and transmediation of her original works into the digital. She travels globally to lecture and demonstrate, while emphasizing the value of contributing to the living ceremonial practices of Haida and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples.

Guest curators: Jaad Kuujus–Meghann O’Brien, Kate Hennessy (associate professor, Simon Fraser University), Hannah Turner (associate professor, University of British Columbia)