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Tsēma Igharas, formerly known as Tamara Skubovius, is an interdisciplinary artist and member of the Tāłtān First Nation based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Igharas uses Potlatch methodology in making art, to assert the relationships between bodies and the world, and to challenge colonial systems of value and measurement of land and resources. Igharas has performed and exhibited across Canada, and internationally.

Early life and education
Igharas was raised in Smithers, BC, on Tāłtān territory. Igharas earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2011, and went on to receive an Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media, and Design from OCAD University in 2016, receiving the OCADU President’s Scholarship. For her graduate thesis, Igharas presented LAND | MINE, a materials library which linked bodies and mining sites to the land. In 2005 to 2006, Igharas also attended the Kitinmaax School for Northwest Coast Indian Art at ‘Ksan in Hazelton, BC, which influenced her current Potlatch methodology.

Art
Igharas’ practice can be understood through the methodology of Potlatch, a ceremony rooted in reciprocity and nation building. For Igharas, artmaking becomes a “ceremony that affirms and solidifies relationships to every thing and body”. Her conceptual artwork primarily tackles colonial systems of valuing land and resources, and Western measurements of wealth, and examines the way these systems historically and continue to impact Indigenous lands and cultural practices. Igharas' practice is influenced by Indigenous resistance strategies, familial and embodied knowledge, and acts of decolonization, in order to understand the Canadian imaginary and the impacts of its industrialization; Igharas also aligns with Indigenous Futurisms as a way of understanding our relationship with time and the land.

In the exhibition future generations at Artspace, Toronto, Igharas examined Indigenous futurity as a means of survival and survivance. Through working with her understandings of Tāłtān traditions, and objects and materials rooted in Western settler culture, Igharas presented strategies and gestures of resistance against neo-colonization, and imagined futures of Indigenous peoples.

The series and workshop Riot Rock Rattles at the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, continues Igharas’ examination of the material relationships between the body and the land. In the workshop, participants build and engage with Igharas’ “riot rocks” - rocks imbued with materials of cultural, industrial, and resistive significance - in order to communally practice Indigenous methodologies and gain an awareness of the connections between body and land.

Selected exhibitions
Igharas has been exhibited across Canada and internationally, in places such as Chiapas, Mexico; Asheville, USA; and Santiago, Chile. Notable exhibitions include Interweavings, which featured emerging First Nations artists who had won the YVR Art Foundation scholarship; the Contemporary Native Art Biennial: Culture Shift in Montreal; and the Luminato Festival in Toronto. Igharas is also a member and representative of ReMatriate Collective.

Solo Exhibitions:

2008. Originated, Aboriginal Student Exhibit, Concourse Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver BC

2009. Internal | External, Aboriginal Student Exhibition, Concourse Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver BC

2010. Bloodlines, Aboriginal Student Exhibition, Curator, Concourse Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC

2010. In order to contemplate the making for the live biennale, Performance, White Chapel Gallery, Vancouver BC

2011. Grand Entry, Aboriginal Student Exhibition, Concourse Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver BC

2011. Please Do Not Touch, Ceramic Exhibition, Concourse Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC

2011. Petroglyphs, Performance, Satellite Gallery, Vancouver BC

2015. Where are you (really) from?, Nuit Blanche, Toronto ON

2016. Post-Performance / Discussion-Action by Maria Hupfield, “Typist” (Performance Assistant), MONOMYTHS Progress Festival and FADO

2016. Hearings. Researching Historical Sites initiative, Todmordon Mills, Toronto ON

2016. LAND|MINE, MFA Thesis Exhibition, OCADu Student Gallery, Toronto, ON

2016. Ore Body, ImagiNative Film and Media Festival, Gallery 44, Toronto ON, Canada

2017. Your Indigenous Tour Guide, FUSE Performance; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC, Canada

2017. Tree Temporality, Open Space Gallery & OCAD University. Toronto ON, Canada

2017. Feminist Art Museum, Leslie Spit, Evergreen Brickworks and The Gardner Museum, Toronto ON, Canada

2019. future generations, Artspace Peterbourough, ON, Canada

2019. La Biennale d'art Contemporain autochtone (BACA) The Contemporary Native Art Biennial- 4th editio níchiwamiskwém | nimidet | ma sœur |

my sister, Art Mur, Montreal, QU, Canada

Group Exhibitions:

2009. Art Hamlet, The Old Church Venue, Smithers BC

2014. Interweavings, Richmond Art Gallery (RAG), Richmond, BC

2015. Coming to the Fire, Roundhouse, Vancouver, BC

2015. Make Re|make Un|make: Repetition and the Artistic Process Group Exhibit, Seymour Art Gallery, North Vancouver, BC

2015. México es una Fosa Común (Mexico is a Mass Grave), Public Group Performance directed by Jesusa Rodríguez as part of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics course, “Art, Migration and Human Rights” San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico

2015. Envelopments: Paths Taken and Not Taken, Robert Kananaj Gallery, Toronto, ON

2016. OMEGA: I Am Woman, Windsor Gallery, Vancouver, BC

2016. Reflections, OCADu Student Gallery, Toronto, ON

2016. Reverb: Sound Seeds, Performance collaboration with Julie Nagam as part of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics Encuentro, “eXcéntrico: dissidence, sovereignties, performance,” Santiago, Chile

2016. Doomsday; A Survival Guide, Luminato Festival, Toronto ON.

2016. Future 33, YTB Gallery, Toronto ON.

2017. There is Bread and Salt Between Us, Open Space Gallery, Toronto ON, Canada

2017. What is Left? / What is Right?, Forrest City Gallery, London, ON, Canada

2017. Woodland School, Drawing a Line from January to December, SBC Gallery for Contemporary Art Montreal, QU, Canada

2018. INSURGENCE/RESURGENCE, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, MB Canada

2018. Crafted Strangers, Center for Craft, Creativity and Design, Asheville, NC USA

Awards
2006, '08. YVR Art Foundation Scholarship / YVR Art Foundation Scholarship Emily Carr University Collaboration Scholarship

2010. Alberta Centennial Award

2013. First Peoples Cultural Counsel Individual Artist Award

2014. President’s Scholarship, Entrance scholarship to OCAD University

2015. OCAD President’s Scholarship

2016. Banff Centre For the Arts Financial Assistance

2016. OCAD University Ontario Graduate Scholarship

2016. OAC Exhibition Assistance. Ore Body, Gallery 44, Toronto ON, Canada

2017. YVR Art Foundation Masterpeice Study Grant

2018. Emily Award