sharai mustatia: Keep Going
sharai mustatia is a Métis/Romanian artist whose work is shaped by their journey of healing through intergenerational trauma. As a mother who was coerced into giving up two children for adoption, their art explores survival, loss, and a search for belonging. Through analogue photography and experimental techniques, sharai’s images are emotional and spiritual reflections, layered with meaning, healing, and processes of reconciliation with past and present.
At the heart of sharai’s work is a desire to connect—not only with themselves but with others who may share struggles through grief and loss. As sharai explores their ancestral roots, their understanding of where they come from informs how the past affects their own life. sharai’s art of visual storytelling becomes a path of potent self-forgiveness and reclaiming pieces of themselves thought lost.
Keep Going is a space of healing, self-discovery, and a reminder that transformation, growth, and belonging are attainable.
sharai mustatia, Taken from our hands, 35mm film on Baryta Silver Rag, 24 x20”, 2023
Nisto
Curated by Melanie Monique Rose
Nisto is the Cree word for “three,” which holds abundant cultural, religious, and spiritual significance throughout Treaty Territories 4 and 6, Abya Yala1, and across the world. The braid, made of three strands, carries teachings of the unity of mind, body, and spirit, and connects us to our ancestors and heritage.
Artists Christian Barreno (Maya K’iche’), Maria Rose Sikyea (Yellowknives Dene), and Emma Noyes (Sinixt) are three Indigenous artists rooted both in their homelands and in diaspora, with deep connections to water, sky, and land. Their families lived here long before the names “Canada,” the medicine line, borders, or walls existed. Indigenous peoples had lifeways, paths, and relationships sustained through trade, celebration, and war. For example, before Canada declared the Sinixt2 “extinct” in 1956 and before the creation of the Canada–US border, they freely harvested and hunted on their ancestral homelands. In 2021, their territorial rights were restored, yet they still face obstacles crossing the border to return to their homelands.
Despite the enduring challenges of colonialism, these three artists affirm their presence and relationality through their work. They honor, celebrate, and assert that they are here, always have been, and always will be.
1Abya Yala: the entire land mass currently known as North & South America
2Sinixt: descendants of the Arrow Lakes people, West Kootenays
Cristian Barreno, Abya Yala (Eagle, Quetzal & Condor), Acrylic on Canvas, 20" x 24", 2025
Wóknaga: Dave Pelletier
Curated by Jennifer McRorie, organized by the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery, touring through OSAC's Arts on the Move program
The exhibition, Wóknaga1, Nakoda for “He Tells His Own Story”2, features paintings by Métis/Nêhiyawak/Nakoda/Anishinaabe/Scottish artist, Dave Pelletier, of môso-tâpiskan3, now known as Moose Jaw. Working within a Woodland School style, Pelletier honours Indigenous intergenerational transfer of knowledge through storytelling within these canvases, while offering his own imagined narratives that play out through the graphic and colourful compositions of animals and figures of Turtle Island. Inspired by the work of Norval Morriseau, Pelletier’s compositions, of stylized, abstracted forms, bold colours and crisp, black outlines and energy lines, offer narratives that speak to the artist’s own search for traditional knowledge and his journey to place himself and connect with his Indigenous cultures.
1 Pronounced WOKE-nah-gah in Nakoda.
2 Translated by Nakoda speaker, Matthew Spencer, May 12, 2024.
3 Pronounced moh-so-TAHP-skun in nêhiyawak (Cree).
Dave Pelletier, Pebbles, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36”, 2023, Collection of Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery
Invisible Winds:
Stories You Can Not See,
Journeys toward wholeness
Curated by Dean Bauche, featuring Iris Hauser, JingLu Zhao, Carol Wylie, Holly Hildebrand, Rebecca Toderian, Dani Bauche, Emily Johnson, Leah Dorion, Mary Anne Baxter and Susan Gordon, Dean Bauche, Bonny Mcnabb, Lyndon Tootoosis, Roger Jerome, Paul Trottier, William Philpott, Jon Philpott.
Invisible Winds is a timely and inspiring exhibition featuring the work of established and emerging artists from across Saskatchewan. It invites us to stop and listen, to see and hear invisible stories carried by so many around us.
“This exhibit matters …. art can be a lifeline—it’s saved me more than once….Telling your story helps you heal, and it lets others know they’re not alone… ….This exhibit permits us to do that. And we need it”. -David A. Robertson
Accompanied by the thoughts of David A. Robertson, author of All the Little Monsters and winner of the Governor General's Literary Award, this exhibition explores issues such as mental health, grief, and the invisibility of trauma in our lives. It highlights the importance of sharing one's story and the necessity of being seen for one's pain to start healing.
Invisible Winds “honors those with Lived Expertise, [it] uses art to speak that experience to others”. -Rebecca Rackow, Assistant Executive Director Canadian Mental Health Association Saskatchewan Division
Dean Bauche, Jamie- Somatic Winds, Oil on canvas, 30”x40”, 2025