Our Team
Jason Baerg - Creative Lead
Jason Baerg is a visual artist / media producer who specializes in drawing, painting, film and new media. Jason Baerg is a registered member of the Métis Nation of Ontario. His Kookum Lorette Lanigan was born in Moon Hills in Treaty Six
Susan Blight - Collaborator
Susan Blight (Anishinaabe, Couchiching First Nation) is an interdisciplinary artist working with public art, site-specific intervention, photography, film and social practice. Her solo and collaborative work engages questions of personal and cultural identity and its relationship to space. Susan is Delaney Chair in Indigenous Visual Culture at OCAD University and an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Arts & Science.
Dr. Brian Martin - Collaborator
Professor Brian Martin is the director of Wominjeka Djeembana Indigenous Research Lab. Brian is a descendant of Bundjalung, Muruwari and Kamilaroi peoples.
In 2022, Brian was awarded a three-year appointment to the Australian Research Council’s College of Experts where he’ll play a key role in identifying research excellence, assessing funding applications and providing strategic advice to the ARC.
Brian is represented by William Mora Galleries. He has been a practising artist for thirty years and has exhibited both nationally and internationally specifically in the media of painting and drawing.
James Oliver - Collaborator
James is a transdisciplinary academic with more than 20-yrs of research, teaching and engagement practice (including in the public sector). This has nurtured his research and creative practices, intersecting with community and cultural enquiry, in a shift towards a ‘practice as research’ methodology. Another important aspect of James' work is in the area of Indigenous Practice Research, in international context and collaboration.
This has developed from his work as a Hebridean Gàidheal within his native community and culture—the language, place-based belonging and social practices of the Scottish Hebrides—and in collaborations with artists and educators across Australia and Canada. James is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Department of Design at Monash University and a founding member of the Wominjeka Djeembana Indigenous Research Lab.
Ryan Kelln - A.I. Consultant/Trainer
Ryan Kelln is a software-based artist with over 20 years of experience in a wide variety of software including games, interactive installations, websites, and machine learning.
His work focuses on themes of community and art making and includes two ongoing community-based projects that have been running over 10 years.
He is one of the first artists in Canada to tackle issues of artificial intelligence and the future of work, as presented in multiple concerts incorporating AI in collaboration with Toronto-based music groups. He has a deep and practical knowledge of machine learning based art and has collaborated with many artists to help them learn and integrate these tools into their own practice.
Method Collective
Method Collective is a team of strategists and creatives that explore the way humans behave and interact with systems, environments, technology, and each other. They work with organizations across sectors. The team is led by Ziyan Hossain, Fran Quintero Rawlings and Calla Lee.
Ziyan Hossain
Ziyan Hossain is a systems and foresight practitioner with a track record of delivering unique and innovative solutions across private, public and not-for-profit sectors. He is exceptionally skilled at exploring intersections and outliers between arenas and combines human-centred design and behavioral economics with systems-level inquiry.
Calla Lee
Calla Lee is a strategic foresight practitioner with experience in change management and operational strategies. She prides herself on being methodical and thorough. By understanding how systems relate, interact, and overlap with each other she is able to help her clients engage and experience business transformations that create innovative solutions, meeting business objectives and consumer needs.
Fran Quintero Rawlings
Fran Quintero Rawlings is a deeply curious strategist, passionate about working on projects that improve both the human and design experience. As a strategist, she understands the complex relationship that exists between consumers, organizations and government. She helps organizations uncover deeper insights with a focus on tangible outcomes.
Rhéanne Chartrand - Collaborator
Rhéanne Chartrand (MMSt, Hons. BA) is a Métis curator and creative producer based in Toronto, Ontario. She has spent the past six years creating interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary exhibitions, showcases, and festivals for organizations such as Harbourfront Centre, OCAD University, the Art Gallery of Mississauga, the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance, the Aboriginal Pavilion at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games, Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, and the National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC).
Currently, Chartrand serves as the Curator of Indigenous Art at McMaster Museum of Art located in Hamilton, Ontario.
Desiree Hernandez Ibinarriaga
Desiree Hernandez Ibinarriaga, a Mexican woman with Chamula (Mayan), Nahua (Aztec) and Euskaldunak (Basque) heritage. She is a collaborative and social design maker and thinker, Lecturer at MADA, part of the Wominjeka Djeembana Research Lab cohort and Unit Coordinator for Indigenous Higher Degrees by Research.
She has over 14 years of experience in the design field, across diverse disciplines, such as sustainability, social, furniture, interior, and Indigenous design. Desiree’s work focuses on better ways of partnership and communication between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people through design, by recognising the relationality between people and Place while privileging Indigenous knowledges.
Liz Barron - Project Manager
One of the original founders of Urban Shaman Gallery, a contemporary Indigenous artist run centre based in Winnipeg, Liz Barron has been working within the arts sector for over 20 years. Her skills in managing large scale projects with various Indigenous cultural practices has developed through two major historic initiatives. Barron was the Director for the Métis 10, a Vancouver
Olympic project featuring ten Metis artists and a permanent installation and was the program manager for Close Encounters: The next 500 years, an exhibition featuring more than 30 Indigenous artists from around the world and working with four curators. Barron is a registered member of the Manitoba Métis Federation
Kristy Boyce - Research Assistant, Multimedia, & Documentation
Kristy Boyce is a photographer, educator, and interdisciplinary artist.
She received an MFA in Digital Futures at OCAD University where she specialized in immersive video, pedagogical making, and multimedia experiences. Boyce also has a B.F.A in photography from Ryerson University and is currently interested in collaborative processes involving decolonization within the arts. She has a commercial portrait photography and fine art practice and is an instructor at OCAD University.