Co-Creating Alternative Futures: Using Sound and Somatic Design to Presence the Absent Matriarch

Mishelle is the co-curator for the Canada exhibition at the Prague Quadrennial in 2027, with co-curator Lisa C. Ravensbergen.

In building an exhibition to represent Canada on an international scale, it feels urgent and essential to highlight the voices and stories of our nations’ most invisible, silent and essential figures – specifically, Indigenous women and other matriarchs. The curatorial starting point is The Seventh Fire, an immersive, audio performance drawing on oral Anishinaabe stories and societal roles as a way to evoke ceremony in the everyday. Importantly, it presences those who have been historically silenced in Canada. The goal is to create a somatic link to ancestral realms, with sound design as the primary activating force, while also incorporating a highly intentional spatial design and a focus on audience care.