Broken Boxes is very excited to launch a new podcast series titled INTERSECTION.

Our first episode of the INTERSECTION series features Gitxaala/British (Tsimshian) artist, writer, curator and media producer Leena Minifie in conversation with Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara/Lakota multidisciplinary artist Cannupa Hanska Luger. Their conversation travels through space and time, weaving together topics such as identity politics, the pan-indigenous conundrum, 'the original poison', IAIA, the center of the universe, call out culture, stereotypes, the Roman empire, romanticism, technology worship, decolonization versus re-indigenizing and responsibility. Broken Boxes is so excited to launch this unfiltered, honest, hilarious, serious, exciting and insightful project on the podcast!

Here is the conversation between Leena Minifie and Cannupa Hanska Luger:

Subscribe to Broken Boxes Podcast on iTunes HERE to stream and download this episode

Music Featured on this podcast: Weaves: Scream ft. Tanya Tagaq

Many thanks to Leena Minifie and Cannupa Hanska Luger for letting Broken Boxes record you talking story over tea and coffee to be shared out into the world. And shout out to fellow podcaster Sterlin Harjo of The Cuts Podcast for having a hand at inspiring this series launch.

MORE ABOUT THE INTERSECTION SERIES:

INTERSECTION series approaches open ended conversation between various visiting artists and multidisciplinary artist Cannupa Hanska Luger. The series is meant to engage our pointS of intersection and provoke critical thought as we process existence. There is no specified format and the conversation is guided simply by what is on the artists minds. The series invites us to examine humanity and the universe through radical, complicated and variant perspectives overlapping in one moment in time.

A conversation among humans...

MORE ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Leena Minifie is a Gitxaala/British (Tsimshian) artist, writer, curator and media producer. Leena grew up in small town on the Douglas Channel near her traditional home territory of the Pacific Northwest coast. The temporal rainforest was her playground; grizzlies, black bears, wolves, whales, and deer were her neighbors. Leena studied media arts at Indigenous Media Arts Group in Vancouver under some of Canada’s influential Native media artists such as Dana Claxton and Archer Pechawis. Leena completed a BFA in New Media and BA in Indigenous Liberal Studies in New Mexico. She now resides in Minneapolis, MN where she works for boutique communications firm Seiche. Her art making and curatorial work is situated at the intersection of art, culture, land and politics. She creates video, media, and interactive works. She produced three short films that have screened at film festivals internationally and premiered at the ImagineNative film festival in Toronto. Most recently the film, ?E?anx/The Cave, played at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in 2011 and her graduating piece “Sense of Home” picked up the 2012 Best New Media prize at ImagineNative Media Arts + Film Festival and was exhibited in the TIFF Bell Theatre Gallery. Her curated group exhibition “When Raven Became Spider” is touring across North America until 2020.

Leena holds a BA in Indigenous Studies and BFA in New Media from the Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico. She has worked as journalist for agencies such as Ricochet Media, CBC Radio One, CTV First Story, Native American Calling (US), APTN National News and acted as a freelance producer. Leena’s experience includes over a decade of work as a facilitator, reporter, videographer, webinar & tv producer & production manager on media projects including documentaries, radio broadcast, language retention projects and news sites. She is currently the only First Nations woman to participate in the Aspen Institute and the U.S. Embassy’s Edward R. Murrow Journalism Program in Washington, DC. Leena leads with visual and pattern thinking and a multi-disciplinary approach to problem-solving and communication. She believes that creative communications is all about creativity and passion with a healthy dose of sincerity, transparency, reciprocity and out-of-the-box thinking.

Born in North Dakota on the Standing Rock Reservation, artist Cannupa Hanska Luger comes from Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota, Austrian, and Norwegian descent. Luger's unique, ceramic-centric, but ultimately multidisciplinary work tells provocative stories of complex Indigenous identities coming up against 21st Century imperatives, mediation, and destructivity. Luger creates socially conscious work that hybridizes his identity as an American Indian in tandem with global issues. Using his art as a catalyst, he invites the public to challenge expectations and misinterpretations imposed upon Indigenous peoples by historical and contemporary colonial social structures.

Cannupa Hanska Luger is the recipient of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation National Artist Fellowship Award among other notable acclaims and has participated in artist residencies and lectures throughout the Nation. Luger currently holds a studio practice in New Mexico, maintaining a clear trajectory of gallery and museum exhibitions worldwide.

Cannupa Hanska Luger's work has been noted as "a modern look at ideas of colonization, adaptability and survival as major components to the development of culture” by Western Art Collector Magazine and The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation noted that "Luger could well rise to be one of those artists whose caliber is unmatched and whose work will be studied by students to come, thus furthering the path for many more contemporary Native artists."

Cannupa Hanska Luger graduated with honors from The Institute of American Indian Arts in 2011 with a BFA focusing in studio ceramics. He has been exhibited at Radiator Gallery New York NY; L.A. Art Show Los Angeles CA; La Bienalle di Venezia Verona, Italy; Art Mur Montreal, Quebec; Museum of Northern Arizona Flagstaff AZ; Rochester Art Center Rochester MN; Navy Pier Chicago, IL; University of Alaska Fairbanks, AK; National Center for Civil and Human Rights Atlanta GA; Blue Rain Gallery Santa Fe, NM, among others. Luger is also in the permanent collections of The North America Native Museum Zürich, Switzerland; The Denver Art Museum Denver, CO; The Museum of Contemporary Native Arts Santa Fe, NM; and The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art Norman, OK.