C Magazine and the Indigenous Curatorial Collective are thrilled to congratulate Lois Taylor Biggs on winning the inaugural Indigenous Art Writing Award. Her appears in C Magazine issue 151 “Grief” (Spring 2022).

We’d also like to celebrate the work of our two runners-up: Kelsey Borgford and Cheryl L’Hirondelle.

Jurors included Jac Renée Bruneau, Camille Georgeson-Usher, and Adrienne Huard.

Sign up to our newsletter to stay abreast to future calls for submission.

Lois Taylor Biggs is an emerging writer, curator, and art historian of Oklahoma Cherokee, White Earth Ojibwe, and white settler descent. She resides on Council of Three Fires homelands in Chicago, IL. Lois is currently the Terra Foundation Curatorial Research Fellow at Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art, where she is part of a curatorial team developing an exhibition focused on the Indigenous art history of Chicago. She holds a BA in Comparative Literary Studies and Art History from Northwestern University, where she served as a student leader within the Northwestern University Native American and Indigenous Alliance, and a Fulbright-funded MA in Social History of Art from the University of Leeds, where she wrote a dissertation on Anishinaabe art history as expressed within Robert Houle’s 2010 installation Paris/Ojibwa. Her research interests include archival studies, Indigenous curatorial practice, and Indigenous art historical methodology. She has published writing on the visual and literary culture of the Alcatraz Occupation in the Columbia University Journal of Politics and Society and presented archival artwork as part of the 2021 Leeds Creative Labs cohort.

Kelsey Borgford is a young Nbisiing Nishnaabekwe author and artist. At 21 years old, Kelsey has already been able to create a considerable body of work, and make an impact with her art. Kelsey’s artistic pursuits are based in cultural revitalization. Each piece she creates is inspired entirely by her culture—predominantly centred in the practices of beading, digital art, and writing. Kelsey believes wholeheartedly that her culture has been the foremost important force in her success, and for that she is eternally grateful.

Cheryl L’Hirondelle (Cree/Halfbreed; German/Polish) is an interdisciplinary artist, singer/songwriter, and critical thinker whose family roots are from Papaschase First Nation / amiskwaciy wâskahikan (Edmonton) and Kikino Metis Settlement, AB. Her work investigates and articulates a dynamism of nêhiyawin (Cree worldview) in contemporary time-place, incorporating Indigenous language(s), music, audio, video, VR, sewn objects, the olfactory, and audience/user participation to create immersive environments towards ‘radical inclusion’ and decolonisation. As a songwriter, L’Hirondelle’s focus is on sharing nêhiyawêwin (Cree language), Indigenous, and contemporary song-forms and personal narrative songwriting as methodologies toward survivance. Cheryl has exhibited and performed nationally and internationally. She is the recipient of the 2021 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Art. In addition, she was awarded two imagineNATIVE New Media Awards (2005 & 2006), and two Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards (2006 & 2007) and has been nominated for or received honorable mention by various other arts and music awards. L’Hirondelle holds a Master of Design from OCAD University’s Inclusive Design program (2015) and is a long-standing member of the university’s Indigenous Education Council. She is currently a PhD candidate with SMARTlab at University College, Dublin, in Ireland.

Adrienne Huard (they/them), who is a Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer Anishinaabe curator, writer, scholar, and performer. They are a citizen of Couchiching First Nation, Ontario, and born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They are a former Editor-at-Large at national arts publication, Canadian Art magazine and are a co-founder of gijiit curatorial collective alongside their collaborator, Jas M. Morgan. In September 2020, they began the PhD-level program in Indigenous studies at University of Manitoba.