Inakàg Sìbìng / Towards the River

Towards the River offers a glimpse into the expansive practice of the Three Sisters Art Collective, which includes public art rooted in Anishinàbe aesthetics, oral traditions and multifaceted, relational worldviews within this territory, Anishinàbe Akì. In this work, the Ottawa-based artists from Kitigàn Zìbì Anishinabeg First Nation blend Algonquin imagery and urban art, illustrating animals travelling between the waters, land and sky. 

The Collective’s practice is characterized by an animated process of re-storying, where oral traditions continue in the present and are circulated, held, re-encountered and reshaped. These traditions emerge through living archives stewarded by ancestors who studied animal relations and the intricacies of belonging within these systems (not apart from them) and who learned how to live alongside the natural forces that shape this territory. These movements are cyclical, but never repetitive. They gather differences as they return. 

Organic forms of animal relatives unfold and coil, their contours refusing to settle. Sinuous lines move with gentle tenacity, aesthetically asserting a fluidity inherent with Anishinàbe understandings of land, water and the beings who animate them. These forms create a softened threshold, inviting us into the ethereal, where ties with the more-than-human materialize into embodied experience, becoming theory enacted through sensory and relational engagement. 

In Anishinàbe epistemologies, animals are not didactic symbols to be decoded, but educators with jurisdictions and domains of knowledge of their own. Animals navigate realms that remain mostly inaccessible to humans, yet can be approached attentively, so that we may learn from their carefully attuned systems of dwelling. Their modes of existence indicate a connected ecological ethic, where responsibilities reach forward, carried through generations, not as obligation alone but as sustaining practice. Something to be lived, adapted and returned to.  

These concepts are further activated through the artists’ application of colour. The bright, somewhat surreal palette deviates from a figurative depiction of these entities, placing them into a new (sacred) realm of being beyond the ordinary. The hyper-vibrant colours shift the register of the observer, inviting us to encounter them not as passive figures but as life forms with presence, intellect-beings who also study, inhabit and shape this land alongside us. 

Floating within the entranceway of Nideyinàn, these drawings, which were originally part of an artwork commissioned for the Byward Market in 2024, animate the heart of our campus in an almost celestial manner, as if opening a window into other worlds, asking us to consider other realms beyond our walls. 

Inakàg Sìbìng kidayàn pangì wàbandaman eshkam mazinibìhigewin Niswe Misenzag Mazinibìhigan, weshtowàdjin ondji màdjiseg Anishinàbeg wìndamàge àdisòkàn ashidj nìbina inakàg iyo tanakìwin, Anishinàbe Akì. Awaso mazinibìhigewin, igeg ikwewag abiwadj Odàwàng ashidj ondjibawadj Kitigàn Zìbìng obìdònàwà Algonquin Anishinàbe mazinichigan ashidj òdenaw mazinibìhigewin, inòwadj awesìnzag taniziwadj nibìng, akìng gaye kìjigong.

Iya Màmawi Mazinibìhigewin ogì wàbandàn enko àdisòkàwin, àndì ànimitàgozi àdisòkàn keyàbadj tagon nòngom ashidj tidibàskàg ashidj àndjiseg. Awasonon wìndamàgewinan kì ondji màdjisen inakàg ànike-mishòmisag kà kikenimàwadj awesìnzan kedaji taniziwadj ondaje pagwadàkamig ashidj kì kikenindamowadj ànìn pemàdiziwadj opimehì wendjidà-dajewin kidji ejinàgwag awaso tanakìwin. Onòn mamàdjìwin pagamisen, anishà dash kà’n wìkàd nàsàb. Igeg màwandònan pikinòng apìch kìwewadj.

Wendjidà-dajewin igeg awesìnz inawendiwin ondjidjise, kidji ega wìkàd wàge abiwadj. Wawaskamo peshàbìgizin mamàzikàn ega ànimiziwadj, kwenàdjiwan inakàg Anishinàbe nisidotamiwin ondji akì, nibì ashidj minwàdjitòmagak. Onòn kà ojichigàdeg odayàn kà nòkàg ishkwandem kidji pìndigen indaje, kegoshish tagon awashamenj eshka pemàdizimagak ondji keget inakàg kikenindamowin. 

Inakàg Anishinàbe kikenindjigewinan, awesìnzag kà’n ijinagozinon kidji pìgobidòn, wìnawa mega ogìkikenindànàwà otibàkonigewin ashidj ogikenindàgoziwin. Awesìnzag namatok ega kìnawind kidji kikenindameng àndì tajitowadj. Wìnawa tibinawe eji pimàdiziwadj ogikenindanawa kedije nangadawάbandang endaniziwadj, pinawìgo kàbì àbadak ashidj keyàbadj. Kego kidji kikenindagwag, àbadjichigàdeg ashidj kìwewadj. 

Onòn kijenindamowin kinawe àbadidon inakàg mazinibìhigekweg enàndeg inanokìwin. Iye wàseyàk, kegàd mayaginàgwad enàndeg ondjibide eji wàbandaman mazinibìhigan, endaji ateg oshki apìtenindagwad kego wìkàd wàbandjigàdeg. Inen poz enànden àndjise kidji wàbandàn anish pimàdizimagag ogo owa ogikenindamowadj, tanakìdjig ashidj àndjitowadj iyo akì màmawi kìnawind. 

Agwindjin pìndagamig Nideyinàn, onon mazinibìhigewinan, ondjida nitam kà ojichigàdeg ondji Byward Adàwe 2024 pibòng, pimàdizimagag ondaje kichi kikinàmàdinàning kedjishk kìjigong ijinagok, kodish kodj shenaman onzàbiwàgan inakàg kodagan akìn, kwagwedjimindj nìnawind kidji tibewagenindang kodag pikàn akìn wagidjehì onon wàkàyàkoniganan. 

Text by Dani Printup
Translated into Anishinàbemowin, Kitigan Zibi dialect, by Robert Cooko

Ojibìhigewin wìn Dani Printup
Robert Cooko, Ondji Anishinàbemowin Anikanotamagewin 

Credits
Commissioned with the leadership and support of Shenella Charles, Chair of the Indigenous Faculty at Carleton University, whose advocacy helped bring this artwork to Nideyinàn. Towards the River is presented by the Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG) and the Indigenous Faculty at Carleton. 

Ka-anòkìmodj màmawi nìgànizidj ashidj wìdòkàzowin Shenella Charles, Meyàwosedj Anishinàbe Inakàg Kichi Kikinàmàdinàn Carleton, awiya kà pìndagadodj mazinibìhigan Nideyinàn. Inakàg Sìbìng mìgiwàniwan Kichi Kikinàmàdinàn Carleton Mazinibìhige Ogamig (CUAG) ashidj Anishinàbe Ondamitàdjig Carleton.