Annual Babson Lecture
Annual Babson Lecture
Bound by Wampum: Beadwork, Land, and Nationhood
Join multidisciplinary artist Nadia Myre and historian Alan Ojiig Corbiere for a conversation exploring Myre's work in relation to beading practices, Native land, and sovereignty in the Northeast and Great Lakes region.
Presented in conjunction with Nadia Myre: Analog/ues, the Annual Julia Norton Babson Lecture brings exhibiting artist Nadia Myre (Algonquin, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation) and catalogue contributor Alan Ojiig Corbiere (M’Chigeeng First Nation) together to discuss her work and its connections to wampum beadwork, treaties, and nationhood. Explore the role of wampum in agreements between nations, its influence on Myre’s body of work, and the responsibilities that wampum belts and their keepers carry. In this 250th anniversary year of the United States, Myre's monumental beadworks illuminate the foundations of settler and Indigenous nations that transcend borders and continue to shape our relationships today.
About the Speakers
Nadia Myre
Nadia Myre (Algonquin, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation, b. 1974) is a visual artist based in Montreal, Canada. She is a graduate of Camosun College, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and Concordia University, where she currently serves as the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts Practice and directs her studio, Kinawind Lab.
In her acclaimed career spanning two decades, Myre's work has been exhibited extensively in North America, Europe, and beyond and has earned her numerous accolades, including the Eiteljorg Fellowship (2003), Sobey Art Award (2014), Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec (2019), and the Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas (2025).
Alan Ojiig Corbiere
Alan Ojiig Corbiere is an Anishinaabe historian and scholar from M’Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island. An Assistant Professor of History at York University, his research focuses on Anishinaabe history, language revitalization, treaty relationships, and material culture. A co-founder of the Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts and Cultures (GRASAC), Corbiere has worked extensively with museums and Indigenous communities to research and preserve Anishinaabe language, knowledge, and cultural heritage.
The Babson Memorial Lecture is funded, in part, by a generous perpetual gift from the Julia Babson Memorial Fund.
Free for MAM Members and Students