Indspire Donation and Art

With Canada engaged in a years-long dialogue about reconciliation with Indigenous people and nations, we decided to create a holiday gift that highlighted Indigenous artists and designers.

The central gift was a $5,000 donation to Indspire, a non-profit that helps to support the education of First Nations, Inuit and Métis students, with the proceeds of our donation going toward students in art and design programs.

We also wanted to give our clients something to mark the donation, and to raise awareness of Indspire’s mandate. So we sought out three emerging Indigenous artists whose artwork we felt spoke to the pasts, presents and futures that we all share in what is now called Canada: Mariah Meawasige, Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley and Born in the North, a design duo comprising brothers Gregory and Christopher Mitchell.

We commissioned a set of limited-edition prints on archival paper, and we designed a custom envelope to package the prints safely. For the artists’ statements, we worked with wintranslation to translate them into the artists’ respective First Nations languages: Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) for Meawasige and Pawis-Steckley and Mi’kmaq for Born in the North.

The result was a set of artwork that would be enjoyed and provide an opportunity for reflection.