Lake Nipissing Beading Project Opens to Public this Friday

North Bay, ON – Nipissing University is pleased to announce the public launch of the Lake Nipissing Beading Project (LNBP), a five-metre community-based reimagining of Lake Nipissing and its tributaries and waterways, combining 444 individually-beaded pieces. The opening event will take place on Friday, September 9, 2022 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the NUSU Student Centre (221 College Drive). The public and media are welcome to join the Nipissing University community and project participants in this celebratory opening.  

The Lake Nipissing Beading Project is a collaborative project bringing together the communities of Nipissing and Dokis as well as other Turtle Island individuals and communities to bead a portion of the lake and its surrounding waterways. Through the project, participants shared stories about the portion of the waterways they beaded, the design they chose, and their personal connection to the lake and the creative practice involved in beading. 

Led by beading artist Carrie Allison, Nêhiyaw/Cree, Métis Treaty 8, MFA, NSCAD 2018, and Dr. Kirsten Greer, Canada Research Chair in Global Environmental Histories and Geographies at Nipissing University, the project was carried out in partnership with Dokis First Nation and Nipissing First Nation. 

“The LNBP community-arts project emerged as a response to the global pandemic and to the extended periods of isolation due to several lockdowns in Ontario,” said Greer. “The project builds on an existing place-based partnership between Nipissing First Nation, Dokis First Nation, Nipissing University and museums in the region. It also reflects the gesture of care and concern for one another as a group, to the project nations, and to the wider community while at the same time honouring Nbisiing Nishinaabeg cultural traditions and histories. Please join us by welcoming the LNBP beaded map home/Bi-Giiwe.”  

The installation will be on display until October 28, after which it will travel with the North Bay Museum’s “Our Guides Were Really Going Places: Nbisiing Guides and the Legacy of Paul Commanda” (nipissingguides.com) across northern Ontario. Funding for the development of the exhibit was provided by the Government of Canada through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 

For more information on the project and the team involved, please visit the exhibit website at www.lakenipissingbeadingproject.com. 

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Contact: 

Carly Johnston 
Communications Officer 
Nipissing University
carlyj@nipissingu.ca