Onaman Collective was founded in2014 by Christi Belcourt, Isaac Murdoch, and Erin Konsmo, a group of Indigenous artists and environmentalists who engage in art-based activism. With a focus on environmental causes as they relate to First Nation communities across Canada, Onaman Collective promotes the power of grassroots organizing and raises the voices of communities engaged in water and land protection actions.
Christi Belcourt is a Michif artist whose cross-disciplinary works in painting, beadwork, and video explore and celebrate the natural world. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; and the Thunder Bay Art Gallery. She is a past recipient of the GovernorGeneral’s Innovation Awards and the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.In 2014 she was named Aboriginal Arts Laureate by the Ontario Arts Council.
Isaac Murdoch is an artist, illustrator, author, and a respected storyteller and holder of traditional knowledge. He is from the fish clan and Serpent River First Nation. Much of his work involves the preservation of Anishinaabe cultural practices and he leads workshops around transferring traditional Indigenous knowledge and histories to younger generations. He, along with Christi Belcourt, wrote The Trail of Nenaboozhoo and Other CreationStories, a compendium of legends of the Ojibway creator spirit and other creation stories.