09/16/2026
Our first benefit honoree is Skawennati, a trailblazing artist, cyberpunk avatar, and Indigenous futurist who examines how virtual environments can sustain Indigenous history, knowledge and resistance within futurist frameworks. In her practice, Skawennati asks: “what concepts, memories and things from the past can we discard, and what do we want to bring with us into the future?”
Image: Skawennati at the first CyberPowWow event at Galerie Orboro, 1999. Courtesy of Skawennati.
Skawennati’s avatar xox, who often sports pigtails, a black floral shirt, a tutu and combat boots, appears in many of her works. She considers her avatar to be in the lineage of dolls she cherished growing up: the corn husk doll, the Barbie—“all playthings that allow us to imagine ourselves in other bodies, with other abilities and limitations. What my ancestors played with; what I played with; and what my descendants will play with.”
Excerpt from “My Life As An Avatar”, Skawennati & xox, 2016.
Excerpt from “The Peacemaker Returns,” 2017.
In 1994, when opportunities for Indigenous artists were scarce, she formed the Indigenous art collective Nation to Nation with Ryan Rice and Eric Robertson, whose events, guerilla exhibitions, and workshops included “CyberPowWow,” (1997-2004) “an Aboriginally determined territory in cyberspace,” that presented works by Indigenous artists in one of the first major online exhibitions.
Image: CPW2K artists and curator Candice Hopkins (candice hopkins) at the CyberPowWow 2K Banff residency: Sheila Urbanoski (), Archer Pechawis (archerpechawis), r e a, Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew (sitting down at the computer), Michelle Nahanee, Trevor Van Weeren (Trevor Van Weeren), Travis Neel (Travis Neel). Photographer unremembered. Courtesy of Skawennati.
Image: Installation view, “Rhizome Presents: CyberPowWow” at the New Museum, New York City, 2022. Courtesy of Cameron Kelly McLeod and Rhizome.
For Skawennati, the theme of Indigenous approaches to technology has carried into the many facets of her practice: notably in her work as co-founder and director of Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC), a studio that supports online Indigenous creative exp
