Kinship Through Art

Kinship Through Art 

Friday, November 21, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Virtual via YouTube

Join us for a compelling panel conversation where invited panelists, Aylan Couchie, Meera Margaret Singh, Mallory Lowe Mkopa and Kai (Karyn) Recollet delve into how familial histories, intergenerational memory, and kinship inform and inspire their creative practices. The panelists will share how personal and public archives come alive. Together, they reflect on how these layered, self-directed approaches to storytelling expand our understanding of identity, belonging, and collective memory. Moderated by Susan Jama.

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About the panelists

Aylan Couchie (she/her) is a Nishnaabekwe interdisciplinary artist, curator, and writer hailing from Nipissing First Nation. She is a NSCAD University alumna and received her M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Art, Media and Design at OCAD University where she focused her thesis on reconciliation and its relationship to monument and public art. She’s completing her Ph.D at Queen’s University in the Cultural Studies program where she’s a Ph.D Candidate researching areas of land, language, and Indigenous placemaking through mapping, naming, digital public art, and gaming. She previously taught at OCAD University in the School of Graduate Studies and the Indigenous Visual Culture (INVC) program. She splits her time living and working between her Nbisiing home community in Northern Ontario and Tkarón:to where she’s employed as Assistant Professor of Indigenous Digital Art, Culture and Media at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

Kai (Karyn) Recollet is an Associate Professor at the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto whose research focuses on Indigenous futurity, diaspora and belonging. She is a Sixties Scoop survivor originally from Sturgeon Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan. 

Mallory Lowe Mpoka is a Cameroonian-Belgian artist based in Montreal whose expanded photographic practice explores themes of place, memory, and identity. Informed by the legacies of colonization, she merges photography with weaving, ceramics, and sculpture to reanimate personal archives. Her work reflects a nomadic sensibility, bridging temporal and spatial boundaries across Africa, Europe, and North America. Mpoka was nominated for the Malick Sidibé Prize (2022) and the New Generation Photography Award (2024). She has exhibited internationally and released her first artist book in 2024. Her debut solo show opens at Fonderie Darling during Momenta Biennale in fall 2025.

Meera Margaret Singh is a visual artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada. She holds a BA in Anthropology, a BFA in Photography from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, and an MFA from Concordia University, Montreal. Singh has been the recipient of numerous residencies and awards, most notably Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council grants. She has exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions throughout Canada and internationally. She is currently an Associate Professor in Photography and the current Chair of Photography, Printmaking & Publications at OCAD University. 

About the moderator

Susan Jama is an art worker with over 7 years of experience leading community engagement and public arts programming with strong grassroots experience. She is the Programs and Community Coordinator at Onsite Gallery, OCAD University. Susan has worked with various institutions that approach heritage in a community-minded manner including Toronto Ward Museum (TWM) and Black Artists’ Networks in Dialogue Gallery & Cultural Centre (BAND). She graduated with a Masters of Museum Studies from University of Toronto and completed her Bachelor in Psychology & History at York University. She currently serves on the Museum Education Roundtable board in a leadership role as co-treasurer.