Image: Art Gallery of Sudbury, Greater Sudbury
The exhibition ‘From Turtle Island to Abya Yala’ will be presented from 24 September to 21 November 2026 at 174 Elgin St. It brings together Nadya Kwandibens’s ‘Red Chair Sessions’ and a selection of images from ‘The Jungle’s Reasons’, curated by Ali Rodriguez for Bats’i Lab in Chiapas, Mexico.
The exhibition explores Indigenous resistance, reclamation and resurgence across colonial borders through the work of Indigenous photographers from the Chiapas Highlands in Mexico and the lands now known as Canada.
‘Red Chair Sessions’ is an ongoing open-call portraiture series focused on acknowledging and reclaiming Indigenous lands and revitalizing Indigenous languages. The series disrupts colonial narratives, centres Indigenous Peoples who have been here since time immemorial, and reminds viewers that everyone is a guest on Indigenous land.
Within the series, red represents Indigenous Peoples on the Medicine Wheel and signifies their inherent connection to the land and to ancestral bloodlines.
Both Kwandibens and Rodriguez will be in attendance. The exhibition programme also includes a free screening of ‘Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising’ on 17 October at 1 p.m. at Sudbury Indie Cinema.
