Huron County, Ontario – The County of Huron welcomes Indigenous artist/activist Crystal Semaganis to the Huron County Museum on Saturday, Nov. 18 for an acrylic painting workshop and a public talk advocating for Residential School Survivors and pressing environmental issues.
All are welcome to the, Explore Your Creativity With Acrylics! Workshop, with Semaganis, regardless of painting ability. The workshop will run from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Huron County Museum, located at 110 North St., in Goderich. The workshop costs $15+ HST ($10 & HST for museum members). Registration is required and can be done in person at the Huron County Museum or on Eventbrite at https://CrystalSemaganisHuron.eventbrite.ca.
Following the workshop, Semaganis will lead a public talk titled Reflections on Indigenous Displacement: Truth Telling from the Sixties Scoop. She will speak about her family’s history and highlight some of her activism work. The presentation will be held in the theatre at the Museum starting at 4:30 p.m. The talk is free, and registration is not required, but seating is limited.
In addition to these programs, artwork and beadwork created by Semaganis will be available for purchase at the Museum throughout the day.
Semaganis is a Plains Cree/Chippewa Cree from the Little Pine First Nation, Treaty No. 6 in Saskatchewan. A third-generation descendant of Poundmaker, Crystal is an activist, writer and artist whose areas of interest include the Sixties Scoop, intergenerational trauma, families and survivors of the residential schools, the creative arts including the Pow Wow and Regalia Making, combatting Indigenous identity fraud and community building. Today, she makes her home in Northern Ontario.
Semaganis has written for CBC, New Lines Magazine, and is best known by her colonial name, Christine Cameron, and for the 2018 CBC podcast Finding Cleo, which focuses on her family’s search for her oldest sister, Cleo Semaganis Nicotine. The podcast also explores the Sixties Scoop, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and intergenerational trauma. She was recently longlisted for the 2023 CBC non-fiction prize for kisâkihitin, an essay exploring language, belonging and family.
Through its work, the County of Huron is committed to creating opportunities such as this to combat continuing systems of injustice, and build knowledge and understanding impacting Indigenous individuals, families, and groups. These events are brought to you by Huron County Cultural Services, the Huron County Local Immigration Partnership, and Huron Arts & Heritage Network.
This event is funded, in part, by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.